A disturbing trend?
Are a couple of recent incidents that occurred at major airlines pointing to a disturbing trend?
Southwest Airlines recently settling a “whistleblower” lawsuit in which a mechanic discovered cracks in the fuselage of a Boeing 737-700 during a maintenance check. According to an article in Forbes, Southwest airlines agreed to “remove the disciplinary action from the mechanic’s file and to pay him $35,000 in legal fees.”
Court documents show that On July 2, 2014, the mechanic was assigned to perform a Maintenance Visit 1 (MV-1). Part of the MV-1 task card requires the mechanic to walk around the aircraft to visually inspect the fuselage. During his inspection, the mechanic discovered two cracks on the aircraft’s fuselage and documented them. Discovery of these cracks resulted in the aircraft being removed from service.
On July 5, 2014, the mechanic was directed to attend a meeting to discuss “the issue of working outside of his assigned task,” and was issued a “letter of instruction” advising that he acted outside of the work scope of the maintenance check that was assigned to him and that “further violations ... may result in further disciplinary action.”
On July 22, 2014, the mechanic filed a formal complaint with OSHA, alleging that Southwest Airlines discriminated against him in violation of the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act (AIR 21). The act includes a whistleblower protection provision.
The U.S. Department of Labor ruled on Jan. 8, 2015, to deny Southwest Airlines’ motion for summary judgment, and instead granted the mechanic’s cross-motion for summary decision. Southwest offered to settle the case and the judge approved the settlement and dismissed the case.
Just as that case wrapped up, another incident came to light with another airline (as reported by Forbes in an article written by columnist John Goglia). The Transport Workers Union has filed suit against American Airlines, claiming that its mechanics are being pressured to “commit maintenance fraud, disregard maintenance discrepancies, deviate from federally-mandated maintenance procedures, abstain from required lightning strike and bird strike inspections, and otherwise violate federal aviation standards.”
According to the article, the complaint seeks an injunction and other relief against American Airlines. There have been no findings to date, but the FAA is investigating the allegations and the suit is ongoing.
Factoring in that there are pressures on both the management side to keep their aircraft flying and producing revenue — and also pressure on the mechanic to produce no errors while completing his or her tasks on time and in compliance with the regulations — it is disturbing that mechanics who discover defects on aircraft that are carrying hundreds of people per flight would be questioned in any manner relative to airworthiness. In fact, why aren’t maintenance personnel REWARDED for finding defects, perhaps issued bonuses or other type of rewards?
I’m certain that the flying public would support an airline being overly cautious and canceling any flight where the airworthiness of the aircraft that they are about to board is in question.
The lawsuit with American Airlines still needs to be worked through before any opinions can be drawn, but I’m disturbed at the settlement relative to the Southwest Airlines case. Really? A lawyer gets $35K and the mechanic is “allowed” to continue to work without a disciplinary action on file? What about compensation for the mechanic for what I’m sure was a great deal of stress during this process? What about some sort of change in procedure relative to how defects are handled at Southwest Airlines? Otherwise, what’s to assure that this won’t happen again?
What are your thoughts? Have you ever been “threatened” or “rewarded” for discovering a defect on an aircraft?
Please write to us and let us know.
Thanks for reading.