Maintenance Standards
Although a maintenance issue, I have reproduced this article from this months C.H.I.R.P. (chirp.co.uk) as I believe it should be brought to the attention all involved in the aviation industry.
Standards
My account of events are not only one occurrence, it is about the continual eroding of standards to the extent that I believe may be becoming potentially hazardous. The continual pressure from our middle management has increased sharply this year and it is this pressure which is being forced by verbal abuse, cajolery and belittlement - I know these are strong words but to a varying extent all our engineers believe this to be true.
I have concerns about flight safety implications with my company over undue pressure being placed on engineers to effectively dumb down their standards of servicing. I work for a carrier who over the last year has substantially increased its flying hours and at the same time reduced its manpower. Aircraft are now landing 1, 2 or even 3 in the morning usually with substantial defects leaving very little time to rectify. For example: I had an aircraft land at 0230 hrs in the morning; by the time the passengers had disembarked and the daily servicing had been carried out it was 0400. At this time I found a major defect which, upon informing the senior duty engineer, all hell broke lose with him showing extreme agitation that the aircraft would not be ready by 0600hrs. Although he did not tell me to ignore the fault, his attitude was obvious that he wanted me to ignore the fault.
Of late, the number of running defects has increased notably where engineers, to use a phrase, are penning off regularly defects; although not dangerous, they are well outside the MEL/MM limits. The number of re-occurring defects have increased but are not being rectified correctly simply because the company does not want the aircraft to be grounded for correct diagnosis and rectification. The aircraft deferred defects register is going through the roof with far too many defects being carried with no down time to rectify. Many defects are being carried by the aircrew with no traceability, being verbally communicated to the next crew. As you may guess the morale of the engineers and mechanics is rock bottom, the lowest I have ever seen. Being under pressure every day for the full 12 hours does wear people down especially when you don't have experienced engineers or spares and when you do not have support from your management. I have great concerns that a major accident/mistake will occur in the future.
To conclude: I cannot believe that the CAA have their heads in the sand, they must be aware of what's going on, but by not saying anything they can deny any responsibility. As for my company it is perceived that the management do not care about the well-being of their employees and they certainly do not care about the safety of their customers. In fact the attitude from the management is profit at all costs. To me it is the management who with their continual aggressive policy will influence a lesser engineer than me to make a serious error, but of course it will be the engineer who will take the rap when something does go wrong.