Poor Qantas repairs spark grounding call
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Poor Qantas repairs spark grounding call
Steve Creedy, Aviation writer | July 18, 2007
THE discovery of crudely stapled wires on a Qantas jumbo jet has sparked calls by the airline's engineers for an end to its offshore maintenance program and the grounding of all planes recently worked on overseas.
The problem was uncovered last week in the emergency floor-lighting system of a Qantas Boeing 747-400 that underwent a heavy maintenance check at Singapore Airlines Engineering Company (SIAEC) last year.
The plane was also the subject of a damning Qantas audit, as revealed in The Australian in March, that raised doubts about the standard of maintenance carried out on the airline's planes overseas.
The audit found problems in areas such as flight control cables and floor panels and with inspection documentation, but apparently missed the stapled wiring in two locations on the jet.
Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association federal secretary Steve Purvinas said the latest discovery came when engineers doing a routine check found some of the emergency lighting was no longer working.
"They found the problem was a couple staples had been put through that were were no longer doing their job," Mr Purvinas said. "They thought, 'What the hell is going on here?', and they went down the track and found some more. Eventually (they) had to check the whole plane."
Mr Purvinas said the union had hundreds of photographs of the staples and estimated they had been used at least 30 times on the aircraft.
He said any problem with wiring was a worry because of the potential fire hazard and all wiring fixes done overseas should be reviewed before aircraft were allowed to continue flying. "Certainly, any Qantas aircraft that has been up in Asia should have, particularly, that emergency lighting wiring checked."
Qantas head of engineering David Cox said the use of staples was unacceptable. Qantas staff had picked up on the practice as it was happening in October and had told Singapore to eliminate it.
"But clearly there were two instances on the aeroplane that were not corrected," he said.
"Now we've discovered those, they have been corrected. And we will certainly be revisiting the issue with Singapore vigorously, as we would with any quality pick-up we had with those providers."
Mr Cox urged Qantas workers who found safety problems on its aircraft to report them immediately. He said SIAEC was a first-rate provider and that all organisations, in Australia or not, had issues from time to time.
"The key thing is we're remorseless in dealing with those issues and we'll continue to be remorseless," he said.
Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman Peter Gibson said there were no plans to ground Qantas aircraft and that CASA was satisfied with maintenance standards in Singapore.
He said CASA had conducted an SIAEC audit in March.
Thanks Darth ....
THE discovery of crudely stapled wires on a Qantas jumbo jet has sparked calls by the airline's engineers for an end to its offshore maintenance program and the grounding of all planes recently worked on overseas.
The problem was uncovered last week in the emergency floor-lighting system of a Qantas Boeing 747-400 that underwent a heavy maintenance check at Singapore Airlines Engineering Company (SIAEC) last year.
The plane was also the subject of a damning Qantas audit, as revealed in The Australian in March, that raised doubts about the standard of maintenance carried out on the airline's planes overseas.
The audit found problems in areas such as flight control cables and floor panels and with inspection documentation, but apparently missed the stapled wiring in two locations on the jet.
Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association federal secretary Steve Purvinas said the latest discovery came when engineers doing a routine check found some of the emergency lighting was no longer working.
"They found the problem was a couple staples had been put through that were were no longer doing their job," Mr Purvinas said. "They thought, 'What the hell is going on here?', and they went down the track and found some more. Eventually (they) had to check the whole plane."
Mr Purvinas said the union had hundreds of photographs of the staples and estimated they had been used at least 30 times on the aircraft.
He said any problem with wiring was a worry because of the potential fire hazard and all wiring fixes done overseas should be reviewed before aircraft were allowed to continue flying. "Certainly, any Qantas aircraft that has been up in Asia should have, particularly, that emergency lighting wiring checked."
Qantas head of engineering David Cox said the use of staples was unacceptable. Qantas staff had picked up on the practice as it was happening in October and had told Singapore to eliminate it.
"But clearly there were two instances on the aeroplane that were not corrected," he said.
"Now we've discovered those, they have been corrected. And we will certainly be revisiting the issue with Singapore vigorously, as we would with any quality pick-up we had with those providers."
Mr Cox urged Qantas workers who found safety problems on its aircraft to report them immediately. He said SIAEC was a first-rate provider and that all organisations, in Australia or not, had issues from time to time.
"The key thing is we're remorseless in dealing with those issues and we'll continue to be remorseless," he said.
Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman Peter Gibson said there were no plans to ground Qantas aircraft and that CASA was satisfied with maintenance standards in Singapore.
He said CASA had conducted an SIAEC audit in March.
Thanks Darth ....
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I am no heavy jet LAME, and while I am an engineer, even as an emergency repair in an industrial automation application, we would never ever even come up with the idea of staples.
How on earth is this even conceived
.
I am horrified to say the least. Do we have flight controls repaired with fencing wire, or someones boot laces? how about fuel lines clamped with a twist tie off your sandwich bag. Ohhh yeah thats bloody funny Jabawocky nobody would dream of doing that..........but we have staples in emergency lighting tracks.
Of course these were staples, Insulation Dislacement staples, perfectly safe under STC ######.
And lowerelobe, do you like the last two lines..........
CASA need a major reaming up the exhaust pipe for this. I know a bloke who privately flew (and signed the MR) mistakenly a few days after an AD required his rudder pedals to be inspected, the job was done a few days later, no problem, but for the sake of an oversight of a day or two, they tried fining him $15K and the threat of a holiday at a Government run Hotel!
I thought BB was going to sort out this kind of BS
J
How on earth is this even conceived
.I am horrified to say the least. Do we have flight controls repaired with fencing wire, or someones boot laces?
how about fuel lines clamped with a twist tie off your sandwich bag. Ohhh yeah thats bloody funny Jabawocky nobody would dream of doing that..........but we have staples in emergency lighting tracks.Of course these were staples, Insulation Dislacement staples, perfectly safe under STC ######.
And lowerelobe, do you like the last two lines..........
Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman Peter Gibson said there were no plans to ground Qantas aircraft and that CASA was satisfied with maintenance standards in Singapore.
He said CASA had conducted an SIAEC audit in March.
He said CASA had conducted an SIAEC audit in March.
I thought BB was going to sort out this kind of BS
J
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I don't believe CASA is capable of auditing Qantas. There is this phenomenon called "regulatory capture", and senior CASA staff would be on first name terms with their opposite numbers at Qantas.
I would also imagine that if anyone at Qantas blew the whistle to either CASA or the ATSB, Qantas management would know about it within microseconds.
I would also imagine that if anyone at Qantas blew the whistle to either CASA or the ATSB, Qantas management would know about it within microseconds.
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Jabawocky...I am not an engineer but this strikes me a strange.I imagine that Boeing has a set of procedures that cover the various maintenance programs for it's aircraft.
IF the use of staples is not in those procedures and is not suitable then what else are the guys in Singapore doing that is not kosher.
If we are going to have engineers check everything that the Singaporeans do then we might as well do the maintenance here.
IF the use of staples is not in those procedures and is not suitable then what else are the guys in Singapore doing that is not kosher.
If we are going to have engineers check everything that the Singaporeans do then we might as well do the maintenance here.
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senior CASA staff would be on first name terms with their opposite numbers at Qantas.
Evertonian
From the Age report...
Gee...might want to think about your answers next time mate!
But Qantas' head of engineering David Cox said the airline had adequate checking mechanisms in place to deal with such issues.
"We're still running an investigation on this so I guess I need to make sure I don't get ahead of ourselves here," he told Southern Cross Broadcasting.
"But near as I can understand this, the system functioned with that repair and that's why it was missed.
"Last night, I was on the phone to the Singapore engineering company people to talk through 'OK, how did you miss that?'. We'll run that one to ground."
"We're still running an investigation on this so I guess I need to make sure I don't get ahead of ourselves here," he told Southern Cross Broadcasting.
"But near as I can understand this, the system functioned with that repair and that's why it was missed.
"Last night, I was on the phone to the Singapore engineering company people to talk through 'OK, how did you miss that?'. We'll run that one to ground."
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Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman Peter Gibson said there were no plans to ground Qantas aircraft and that CASA was satisfied with maintenance standards in Singapore.
He said CASA had conducted an SIAEC audit in March.
He said CASA had conducted an SIAEC audit in March.
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The key thing is we're remorseless in dealing with those issues and we'll continue to be remorseless," he said.
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Hotdog...
Actually from the Mascot dictionary..
Darth pprn:Remorseless,without compassion or compunction,pitiless,relentless,unabating.
Actually from the Mascot dictionary..
Darth pprn:Remorseless,without compassion or compunction,pitiless,relentless,unabating.
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Quote:
The key thing is we're remorseless in dealing with those issues and we'll continue to be remorseless," he said.
Does this mean they don't care or did he mean to say they were relentless?
The key thing is we're remorseless in dealing with those issues and we'll continue to be remorseless," he said.
Does this mean they don't care or did he mean to say they were relentless?
David Cox could care less. His ideal situation would be all heavy maint. off shored, all ports with LAMEless tarmacs and minimum supervision at all bases where maintainence is carried out. All with CASAs blessing.
His opinion of licenced aircraft engineers is unprintable, and he hates the fact that he needs experienced highly trained people to certify maintenance at all. He would much rather run the joint like an Ultra Tune.
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fair suc guys, in the tv interview cox said they told the off shore guys to pull their socks up and, they did. guess that means its all ok????????? darrrrr not! cheers gigs
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Looks like somebody is trying to save some face.......................
Singapore rejects Qantas claims
Don't drag us into a domestic union squabble,
says SIAEC writes aviation writer Steve Creedy | July 20, 2007
UNION claims of problems with the overseas maintenance of Qantas aircraft has outraged Singaporean officials, who say they have been caught in the crossfire of a Qantas union campaign.
Union officials and executives from the island state joined forces yesterday to condemn and reject claims by Qantas engineers that work done at the Singapore Airlines Engineering Company (SIAEC) was substandard.
The latest allegation concerned emergency lighting wiring crudely stapled together on a plane that had undergone a heavy maintenance check at SIAEC in August-October last year.
But SIAEC said yesterday a thorough review of its maintenance records showed it had carried out no such repairs in the aircraft locations identified by Qantas.
It said stapling electrical wiring was not an approved practice at its facility.
"Really, I want to express the feeling of outrage," SIAEC chief executive William Tan told The Australian yesterday.
"These allegations are not new. We've gone through them before, except for the staples, and every single allegation has been proven false not by us but by (the Civil Aviation Safety Authority).
"And really bringing us down, dragging us into the fight between the Qantas unions and Qantas is really despicable. I am really very upset with the developments."
Mr Tan said he was speaking out in the hope he could get some sense "into the whole ridiculous episode".
He said an original Qantas internal audit report on SIAEC's practices was proven incorrect byCASA.
He said recent publicity about the report had smeared the company's reputation.
It was a global maintenance and repair organisation with more than 40 airlines from throughout the world bringing aircraft to its facility.
It was audited by 27 aviation authorities, including Europe's EASA and the US Federal Aviation Administration, and underwent 107 audits a year.
"What really makes me feel unhappy and sad about the entire situation is that this false accusations really affected the public's confidence in aircraft safety and it is totally irresponsible," he said.
Mr Tan said he was confident SIAEC's standards were so high as to be able to withstand any scrutiny, and it would survive being caught in the crossfire of the Qantas disagreement on outsourcing.
He was critical of Qantas's handling of the staples issue and the fact that management appeared to confirm that SIAEC was to blame.
"The staples were found 10 months after the aircraft left the facility," he said.
"We can go through the records again with CASA, which I think is a very professional body ... and the records will again confirm that no work was undertaken in the areas that were highlighted by that report."
Mr Tan was also unhappy with inferences that there was a cultural difference involved in maintenance issues.
He said recent TV reports highlighted that impression.
"Some of the allegations talk about our engineers and technicians not being able to speak and write English properly," he said. "I think that is outrageous." Mr Tan's criticism was echoed in a letter to Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association federal secretary Steve Purvinas from the SIAEC Engineers and Executives Union.
In the letter, general secretary Chua Swee Lee said the union was outraged "by the frivolous and false false allegations" against its members.
The union said allegations that work in Singapore was inferior was totally baseless and offensive. "These allegations have seriously harmed our reputation and questioned our integrity and professionalism," the letter said.
Mr Purvinas said last night that the union was not saying that Singaporean licensed engineers were inferior to their Australian counterparts but was questioning whether some companies operating outside of Australia had the correct ratio of licensed to unlicensed technicians.
"The Singapore engineers are trained to pretty much the exact same level as the Australian guys and they are just as good as we are," he said.
"What we are questioning here is not the quality of the licensed engineers in Singapore ... (but) the Qantas maintenance system that has allowed this to happen."
Singapore rejects Qantas claims
Don't drag us into a domestic union squabble,
says SIAEC writes aviation writer Steve Creedy | July 20, 2007
UNION claims of problems with the overseas maintenance of Qantas aircraft has outraged Singaporean officials, who say they have been caught in the crossfire of a Qantas union campaign.
Union officials and executives from the island state joined forces yesterday to condemn and reject claims by Qantas engineers that work done at the Singapore Airlines Engineering Company (SIAEC) was substandard.
The latest allegation concerned emergency lighting wiring crudely stapled together on a plane that had undergone a heavy maintenance check at SIAEC in August-October last year.
But SIAEC said yesterday a thorough review of its maintenance records showed it had carried out no such repairs in the aircraft locations identified by Qantas.
It said stapling electrical wiring was not an approved practice at its facility.
"Really, I want to express the feeling of outrage," SIAEC chief executive William Tan told The Australian yesterday.
"These allegations are not new. We've gone through them before, except for the staples, and every single allegation has been proven false not by us but by (the Civil Aviation Safety Authority).
"And really bringing us down, dragging us into the fight between the Qantas unions and Qantas is really despicable. I am really very upset with the developments."
Mr Tan said he was speaking out in the hope he could get some sense "into the whole ridiculous episode".
He said an original Qantas internal audit report on SIAEC's practices was proven incorrect byCASA.
He said recent publicity about the report had smeared the company's reputation.
It was a global maintenance and repair organisation with more than 40 airlines from throughout the world bringing aircraft to its facility.
It was audited by 27 aviation authorities, including Europe's EASA and the US Federal Aviation Administration, and underwent 107 audits a year.
"What really makes me feel unhappy and sad about the entire situation is that this false accusations really affected the public's confidence in aircraft safety and it is totally irresponsible," he said.
Mr Tan said he was confident SIAEC's standards were so high as to be able to withstand any scrutiny, and it would survive being caught in the crossfire of the Qantas disagreement on outsourcing.
He was critical of Qantas's handling of the staples issue and the fact that management appeared to confirm that SIAEC was to blame.
"The staples were found 10 months after the aircraft left the facility," he said.
"We can go through the records again with CASA, which I think is a very professional body ... and the records will again confirm that no work was undertaken in the areas that were highlighted by that report."
Mr Tan was also unhappy with inferences that there was a cultural difference involved in maintenance issues.
He said recent TV reports highlighted that impression.
"Some of the allegations talk about our engineers and technicians not being able to speak and write English properly," he said. "I think that is outrageous." Mr Tan's criticism was echoed in a letter to Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association federal secretary Steve Purvinas from the SIAEC Engineers and Executives Union.
In the letter, general secretary Chua Swee Lee said the union was outraged "by the frivolous and false false allegations" against its members.
The union said allegations that work in Singapore was inferior was totally baseless and offensive. "These allegations have seriously harmed our reputation and questioned our integrity and professionalism," the letter said.
Mr Purvinas said last night that the union was not saying that Singaporean licensed engineers were inferior to their Australian counterparts but was questioning whether some companies operating outside of Australia had the correct ratio of licensed to unlicensed technicians.
"The Singapore engineers are trained to pretty much the exact same level as the Australian guys and they are just as good as we are," he said.
"What we are questioning here is not the quality of the licensed engineers in Singapore ... (but) the Qantas maintenance system that has allowed this to happen."
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You know, we always new well in advance that CASA was doing
an audit of heavy maintenance and it was the time you saw
management the most.
How many form 500's do you need to submit before
CASA gets off its big fat government ass
an audit of heavy maintenance and it was the time you saw
management the most.
How many form 500's do you need to submit before
CASA gets off its big fat government ass
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............stapling electrical wiring was not an approved practice at its facility.
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Thanks Apophis, but forgive me if I don't believe this. 
What is it really? No one, but no one, but no one, would attach wires using a stapler. Would they?
What is it really? No one, but no one, but no one, would attach wires using a stapler. Would they?