Flying Cheaper (full documentary) | FRONTLINE

foreign a year ago we investigated a commuter crash that shed light on a sea change in the airline industry the Buffalo crash of Continental 3407 the deadliest U.S air accident in eight years major carriers were Outsourcing more and more flights to Independent regionals major transformation in the airline industry raising serious questions about safety after the broadcast we heard from hundreds of pilots and Airline mechanics too as an aircraft maintenance technician with United Airlines I'd like you to follow up on this story with an investigation on aircraft maintenance the flying public has no idea what Shenanigans go on behind the curve much of this heavy maintenance is being done by the lowest bidder as a former airline pilot with 25 years in the industry this scares me the most wanted we also talked to the co-pilot who helped safely land flight 1549 into the Hudson River he's worried about Airline maintenance too ten years ago maintenance was virtually all done in in-house by the airline that's flying the airplane now uh heavy maintenance is mostly done by people who are unrelated to the airline is flying that's flying you as a passenger and then sometimes not even in this country so we decided to examine the airline maintenance industry and started at its annual convention here in Phoenix they call themselves mros for maintenance repair and overhaul it's a highly competitive business mros from all corners of the globe were here trying to drum up business with U.S airlines so what's the advantage why would why would a U.S airline fly an airplane all the way to Turkey to get maintenance done what's the advantage to going to Turkey in your company the first thing the quality is really all right right the second is the price the pricing is very reasonable for the uh labor is cheaper yes labor is cheaper than most major airlines now Outsource the majority of their heavy maintenance some as much as 70 percent or more it's all to keep the airlines competitive and efficient says mro spokesperson Sarah McLeod maintenance providers what I would look at is what business am I in am I in the business of flying passengers or cargo or am I in the business of maintaining my fleet the core business is to ensure a safe trip though isn't it absolutely I mean but that's a given I mean I'm not going to stay in business very long if I'm going to be crashing aircraft it's a part of your business is obviously to keep airworthy aircraft but if I can have you do it more efficiently it's kind of foolish for me not to one carrier that led the way into this new era is United Airlines it used to do virtually all its major maintenance in-house but facing bankruptcy and competitive pressure from industry upstarts like Southwest United began Outsourcing more of its repair work now about 60 percent of its maintenance is contracted out to independent mros maintenance traditionally has been sacrosanct it was one area where the industry collectively said no that's not something we can cut in in recent years we've seen a change and I don't think that we've yet seen all the manifestations of that change United first and foremost we had to get our own house in order at the mro conference United's then President John Tague spoke about the economic challenges facing the airline industry probably about as hard and I asked him about this Outsourcing trend what can you say to the public about that Trend and whether that ultimately could erode the possibility of continued safety in the airline business you know I think it's wholly unrelated I would ask them to take a journey with me to amigo in Beijing we have to get past this View that any work that's done in the U.S has de facto done better it's just not true I'd like to take you up on that offer would you take us to amiko sure absolutely we thought that was a great idea Amico is one of Asia's largest mro's doing maintenance on United wide-body Jets since 2005. yeah we arranged a visit with Amico in China we got visas and tickets then just days before our trip amiko suddenly canceled but we knew about another place here in the U.S where United has moved its maintenance and I flew to Mobile Alabama to take a look this is one of the larger independent repair facilities in the U.S it's owned by a company called St Aerospace according to statistics I've seen St is the largest of all of the mro's the outsourced facilities worldwide this is a Singapore based company that has open maintenance facilities in the United States since 2002 St has been doing a lot of Maintenance here in Mobile for major airlines like United Delta and U.S Airways carriers that used to do almost all their maintenance in-house St would not allow us to visit or Grant an interview but we talked to many St workers from line mechanics to supervisors here at Papa Buddhas a bar in Mobile we heard a lot about long hours hard-working conditions and the pressure mechanics were under to move the planes a few agreed to talk but only if we would protect their identities to be honest if you have one inspector and you have one we'll call him John worked at a major airline for many years before joining St anything that's being done what were your marching orders when you were inside St it was typically push I mean you you know you were given x amount of time to accomplish a task and they wanted to keep moving forward faster and faster you know whatever it takes to get it done get it done OST wouldn't let us in secretly we did get footage from inside the facility it's a place where another veteran mechanic told us about a shortcut he'd seen used called pencil whipping if I was pencil whipping a job that means I'm just going to sign it off without doing the maintenance and why about what I did so that we don't lose time you know fixing it you whip the problem with the pencil that's right not a wrench beat it right on down that's pencil whipping we showed what the mechanics at St had told us to veteran FAA inspector Linda Goodrich it's just devastating to hear things like that because it's just you know it happens it's you know and it's and just for the exact reasons that he said but you can't take shortcuts you can this is an industry you can't take shortcuts it will come back to bite you this kind of shortcut was discovered at St last spring according to an internal company document obtained by Frontline U.S Airways found fuel leaks in three of its planes that have been serviced at St mobile an investigation found that mechanics had signed off the work as completed when in fact the work was not failures that could have resulted in serious aircraft mishaps serious because if there would for something else then they're willing to do it on just about any level I mean this is a tip of an iceberg type of a situation and not a good one for sure other company documents show multiple maintenance failures at St last year a misrounded flight control cable the failure to install the navigation box landing gear with a broken hydraulic line one of the biggest issues with the quality of work at independent mros is the quality of the workforce at the largest major airlines the vast majority of mechanics are licensed by the FAA but not at independent mros like here at St where about two-thirds of the nearly 1200 mechanics are unlicensed that's because the FAA regulations don't require that all Airline mechanics hold a license or certificate why isn't everybody who is working on an airplane licensed to work on airplanes because the system has demonstrated that in fact people can perform the functions that are part of repairing an airplane that don't rise to the level of needing that certificate but wouldn't it be better if they were all licensed they're certainly able to be licensed we don't require that um because again we've the system has demonstrated that we can meet the safety standards because our inspectors go in and establish that the individuals are competent to do the work they're doing this FAA licensing policy has implications for the workforce at St where the company has brought in less experienced and less expensive workers mechanics start at about 14 an hour they've also gone Global bringing in foreign labor to work on airplanes in Mobile there issued work visas and they're brought in from the Philippines South America the Ukraine Africa they're brought in from everywhere and anywhere Tom has worked at St for more than 10 years a lot of these guys can't speak read or write English you know I'll see these guys practicing their ABCs so the practice in their ABCs and they're supposed to be able to read a uh you know Boeing 757 manual exactly yeah mechanics use a lot of the same things that we use in the cockpit they use they have to follow checklist procedures they have to follow maintenance manuals if you've got somebody who doesn't speak English they can't be following the checklist to make the repair they've got to essentially be winging it in a written response to Frontline St said that foreign Nationals make up less than 10 percent of their Workforce and all are assessed for language skills and before hiring all mechanics they conduct a thorough review of their work history and a verification of their background but John says that's not what happened when he was hired I applied online with a Contracting Company I sent to my resume and within a couple of days they called me up and asked me when I could be there so what did that tell you well I thought I I was pretty apprehensive of that I I expected an interview at least when I got there but I was just told show up you've got the job I didn't even have to present any of the documents of any of my training I mean it was they took me on my word multiple FAA reports cite repeated concerns about the quality of the workforce at St a shortage of qualified maintenance personnel concerns about English fluency a lack of proper training and repeated questions about Management's commitment to safety according to FAA records the agency has levied 15 enforcement actions against St mobile since 2003 only one resulted in a fine of eleven thousand dollars if you've got 15 enforcement actions one eleven thousand dollar fine and the same write-ups over and over again happens again and again that's a problem isn't it it's the responsibility of the inspectors as they do their write-ups they are getting corrective action they are recommending enforcement actions those enforcement actions are pursued if we have the evidence based on their expertise I'm satisfied that they are satisfied that this is a company that's meeting our standards it's not working and you do this enough and we're a joke inspectors become a joke we come in there and they're going yeah yeah sure sure whatever we'll just continue with doing what we're doing because there hasn't been a consequence big enough to change our attitude on this one of the most troubling things I heard at St involved a major FAA inspection here last April tell me about this particular inspection how much warning did everybody have probably a little more than two weeks that we knew this was going to happen two weeks of warning and did the FAA indicate what it was looking for we had meetings and we were informed on the things that we needed to go ahead and prepare for several workers told us that in preparation for the FAA inspection there was a massive cleanup it was amazing all the stuff that was thrown out we had dumpsters full of stuff carried out of there constantly what kind of stuff were you thrown away aircraft parts were unmarked the trackability on there if the trackability of an aircraft part is invalid then that part is no good and it's supposed to be destroyed and got rid of so wait a minute so these were parts that are illegal that would be the easy way to say it an illegal part according to FAA reports one of the most pervasive problems at St has been its handling of airplane parts since 2004 St has been cited repeatedly for failing to properly tag document and track Parts through its maintenance system several workers told us that prior to the FAA inspection untagged illegal parts were moved to this rented Warehouse not far from St so this is the place which supposedly is just loaded up with parts that are undocumented illegal right in the trash here are some papers that are linked to United Airlines for a controlled part of some kind so clearly this is a spot that St is using for something several workers told us that after the inspection some of the illegal parts were taken back to St So eventually what is happening is parts that don't have the paperwork parts that are illegal end up on airplanes that fly passengers in this country correct I think that would shock a lot of people well that would yeah that would shock me and it did Shock Me in response St wrote front line that it does not have untagged or undocumented parts that all parts used on aircraft are properly documented and that its records are regularly audited by the FAA and Airlines based on what we've showed you with documentation interviews how would you characterize St mobile as an operation I I think I would be deeply concerned over their viability to be any kind of consistent organization with the stuff I've seen here to the point where pending investigations they should be suspended something seriously wrong here and this is we need to investigate this our investigation of St focused on just one facility in the vast 29 billion dollar Global mro industry but many insiders say the trend lines with maintenance are clear what we hear time and again from people who are in the field in the trenches as it were is that you know over the years with this wonderful system we've created we created this huge margin for safety and then what is happening because of all the pressures here um in the airline industry in general and specifically in maintenance is we're kind of eating away at that margin we're borrowing from the margin what do you say to that well I would say over the last 10 or 12 years we've actually reduced the risk in aviation by over 80 percent for fatal accidents so if anything we've expanded the safety margins we haven't eaten away but the idea that that we might affect the safety margins is a very high concern for the FAA it is what we focus on is the industry borrowing from its safety margin I think there's no question it's it's simply not good enough to say well you know let's look at the safety record and let's look at the statistics as a way of not addressing what could be problems that are formatting now the FAA says that everything is fine I think they're an awful lot of experts in the industry that I've spoken to that question that how much evidence is there if at all that safety is being compromised by this system of repair and maintenance it's going to be at the expense of a smoking hole at the end of the runway I mean I hate to see it come to that point you know it's gonna be more reactive than proactive and the downside is is there's going to be people that are going to die and I hate to see that happen of course no one can predict a crash but industry insiders are increasingly sounding the alarm about the high cost of flying cheaper [Music] foreign for more on this and other Frontline programs visit our website at pbs.org front lines are we safer is available on DVD to order visit shop pbs.org or call 1-800 play PBS thank you [Music]

Channel: FRONTLINE PBS | Official

Views: 226,200

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Id: sw0b020OFj4

Length: 19min 21sec (1161 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 01 2023