CRASH PUTS SPOTLIGHT ON CONTRACTS

MAINTENANCE LINK FOR FLIGHT 5481 SCRUTINIZED
Sunday, March 16, 2003

TED REED, AMES ALEXANDER and CHARLES LUNAN, STAFF WRITERS, STAFF WRITER ADAM BELL CONTRIBUTED TO THIS ARTICLE.
 

Loaded by one company, flown by another and maintained by a third that hired from a fourth, US Airways Express Flight 5481 was a testament to the increasingly common practice of jobbing out work in the airline industry. But its Jan. 8 crash at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, which killed 21 people, has raised new questions about whether third-party maintenance is always a reliable method for assuring airline safety.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash, will "most certainly" look at the uncommon arrangement under which Flight 5481 was maintained, said a source familiar with the investigation. Air Midwest flew the plane for US Airways and, under federal regulations, was responsible for maintenance. But, it's unclear how closely Air Midwest was able to monitor maintenance work done on the plane by other companies.

A key question is whether the sequence of events that preceded the crash would have happened at a more traditional airline maintenance hangar, where the airline's permanent mechanics have their work overseen by a safety inspector with fewer additional responsibilities.

The NTSB has said the flight control cables on the Beech 1900 were improperly adjusted two days before the crash, which happened 37 seconds after takeoff.

The Charlotte flight marked the first time the plane was fully loaded following the adjustment, sources said. A full load would have meant that~ the pilots required more response from the flight control system.

The work was performed in a small hangar at Tri-State Airport in Huntington, W.Va., where Air Midwest contracted with Raytheon Aerospace LLC to maintain its planes, and where Raytheon used an Edgewater, Fla., employment contractor called Structural, Modification and Repair Technicians Inc., or SMART, to provide staff. The shop had been open for six months and employed about a dozen people.

The management structure is unusual because the Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees airline safety, allowed the hangar to operate under Air Midwest's certificate, but other companies provided all but one of the workers.

Air Midwest declined to comment on issues related to the NTSB investigation. Spokesmen for Raytheon and SMART have repeatedly declined to comment.

The mechanic who adjusted the flight-control cables on the Beech 1900 turboprop was doing the job on that type of airplane for the first time, sources said. He expected an inspection by his supervisor, who - like the mechanic - was hired through SMART, a source said. Whether the inspection ever occurred is part of the investigation.

"(The mechanic) was told to do the job," the source said. "The inspector/supervisor told him some steps to follow and said he would watch him. But that guy was busy, inspecting and managing (and) trying to hold the operation together."

At bigger maintenance bases, including some third-party shops, there is typically more support for a mechanic, including inspectors, more supervisors and experienced co-workers.

"If I was working on something that was new for me, they always put me with someone who had done it before," said Joe Turner, a longtime US Airways mechanic who worked in Charlotte and retired in 1999.

At the least, the FAA should require that airlines retain the role of inspector when they contract out for maintenance, said Jim Burnett, chairman of the NTSB from 1982 to 1988.

"The FAA should say it's the responsibility of the airline, and not allow them to delegate that to anyone," Burnett said. "That's one thing that would prevent them from being a virtual airline."

The FAA visited the Huntington site several times before the crash, said spokesman Les Dorr. The site meets FAA standards, he said. Air Midwest is responsible for the work that goes on there because the repair station operates under its certificate, he said.

Typically, the FAA relies on the airlines to oversee employees at their maintenance shops, to make sure proper training is provided, adequate support is in place for employees doing a job for the first time and airline maintenance procedures are followed.

But the standards don't specifically address the situation at Huntington. Rules that were written to apply to airlines performing maintenance at their own maintenance bases, possibly with some mechanics provided by temporary agencies, are being applied at a hangar where the airline's presence is extremely limited.

"There's nothing in the rule book that deals with this growing situation of contract workers," said Bart Crotty, an aviation maintenance and safety consultant in Springfield, Va. "There's no regulation that speaks to that word 'contract worker.' He's considered as part of the main organization, and the organization is (assumed) to know about their own employees."

Crotty said it's unusual for an airline to operate a maintenance base under its own certificate with the vast majority of workers provided by a contract agency, but there are no statistics that show how rare it is.

When the NTSB reviews the contractual arrangements in Huntington, it won't be the first time jobbing out emerged as an issue in a fatal airplane crash. The 1996 crash of a ValuJet plane in the Everglades, which killed 110 people, was blamed primarily on mechanics, supplied by a contractor, who improperly loaded oxygen canisters onto the plane. The canisters later exploded.

ValuJet came to be referred to as a "virtual airline" because it had jobbed out work traditionally done by airlines.

In response, the FAA developed a strategy for better managing virtual airlines by providing increased oversight of maintenance contractors.

Still, ValuJet sold tickets, loaded baggage at some airports, flew under its own name and used its own mechanics for line maintenance. Air Midwest, the operator of Flight 5481, filled none of those roles, partially because its contract with US Airways prevented it from selling tickets or loading bags. The relentless cost pressures of the airline industry have forced it and many other carriers to seek more efficient models for doing business.

At least four companies were responsible for operating, maintaining and loading Flight 5481. One was Air Midwest. Two other companies were involved in maintenance. A fourth company, US Airways, sold the tickets for the flight, which operated as US Airways Express. Piedmont Aviation, a US Airways sister company, loaded the plane.

Third-party maintenance companies now do about half of all maintenance work for U.S. airlines. In 2001, major carriers spent $2.9 billion for outsourced aircraft maintenance - $1.3 billion more than they spent five years earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation inspector general.

Located worldwide, these repair stations range from three-person shops that fix radios to stations with thousands of workers who rebuild entire airframes.

Contracting out can enable airlines to sidestep costly union contracts. Critics say mechanics at small third-party shops tend to have less training, less experience and less oversight from the FAA than mechanics employed directly by airlines.

Still, the U.S. aviation community continues to maintain one of the world's safest transportation systems. Crash rates have declined since the 1980s, along with the percentage of accidents related to maintenance problems. Modern commercial planes come with multiple safety backups, and are more reliable than ever. Airlines that farm out maintenance say they ensure the work is done to their high standards.

Whether the industry's financial crisis has affected the quality of maintenance is unclear. Two major airlines, United and US Airways, are operating under bankruptcy court protection while American, the largest airline, is considering a bankruptcy filing.

Industry officials insist they can't afford to skimp on safety. But some FAA inspectors and experts worry that financial pressures are eroding the safety cushion. They point to studies showing a correlation between the profitability and safety of airlines.

And some experts say it has become tougher for airlines to ensure maintenance work is done to their standards when the mechanics are contractually so far removed.

"The more removed you get from the maintenance, the more training it takes," says Sarah MacLeod, executive director of the Aeronautical Repair Station Association, a group that represents repair shops. "The more tiers, the closer you'd better be looking."

The DOT inspector general's office is now examining the FAA's oversight of third party repair stations. In testimony before Congress last month, DOT Inspector General Ken Mead warned that the FAA must pay attention to the shift in maintenance practices.

"In the current financially strapped aviation environment, FAA must remain vigilant in its oversight," he said. "A word of caution: FAA needs to pay close attention to the level of oversight it provides for repair stations."

Linda Goodrich, a maintenance inspector who now helps run a union that represents FAA inspectors, said third party relationships are still low on the agency's priority list. "If 10 percent of our time is devoted to these third party facilities, that would be saying something," she said.

Who's Flying the Plane?

The U.S. Department of Transportation requires that airlines make it clear what company flies planes that operate under the airline's name. US Airways, for instance, must inform passengers what company is flying US Airways Express flights. It does so in several places, including:

SOURCE: US Airways

Companies Involved in Flight 5481

Air Midwest was responsible for flying and maintaining US Airways Express Flight 5481. Air Midwest provided the plane and the Huntington, W.Va., hangar, where maintenance work was done two days before the plane crashed Jan. 8 in Charlotte.

Air Midwest, which had one employee working at the Huntington hangar, is based in Wichita, Kan., and is a subsidiary of Phoenix-based Mesa Air Group. It operates a fleet of 40 Beech 1900 turboprops, most of which feed US Airways flights.

Air Midwest has faced problems because passengers prefer to fly on jets rather than planes as small as its 19-seat Beech aircraft. The planes are viable only in markets with little traffic. As a result, the carrier has been downsizing, returning about 15 planes to Raytheon over the past two years.

In September, Air Midwest cut back its operations in Kansas City, where it provided local connecting service for US Airways flights, and discharged 50 union mechanics, said Brian Gillman, general counsel for Air Midwest.

Air Midwest turned to Raytheon Aerospace LLC, which was already doing its heavy maintenance, to take over routine line maintenance of its fleet.

US Airways sold tickets for Flight 5481 and a sister company, Piedmont Aviation, loaded the plane.

Flight 5481 operated as a US Airways Express flight, under contract to US Airways.

US Airways, the seventh-largest U.S. airline, is set to emerge from bankruptcy protection March 31 after eight months in court. The airline has its largest hub in Charlotte. Of US Airways' 3,346 daily flights, 2,067 operate as US Airways Express.

Although it doesn't break out express flights by operator, US Airways said 45 percent of the planes operating in the Express fleet are owned by its sister companies, while 55 percent are flown by other companies.

Air Midwest hired Raytheon Aerospace LLC to provide maintenance work.

Maintaining commercial aircraft accounts for just 4 percent of the $500 million in revenue that Raytheon Aerospace LLC reported in 2001. The primary business of the Madison, Miss.-based company is maintaining and managing parts for airplanes and other vehicles operated by the U.S. military and federal agencies, whose fleets include an unspecified number of Beech 1900s.

Raytheon Aerospace was created in June 2001, when it was spun off by Wichita, Kan.-based Raytheon Aircraft Co., manufacturer of the Beech 1900. The new majority owners, Veritas Capital Management LLC, started trying to sell the company a year later. Connecticut-based Veritas, which owns 70 percent of Raytheon Aerospace, specializes in buying midsize defense and aerospace firms, building their profits and selling them to the public.

In July, 2002, Veritas filed documents with the federal Securities & Exchange Commission for an initial public offering. The status of the IPO could not be determined. Veritas and Raytheon have repeatedly declined to comment.

Most of the employees working in Huntington at the time of the crash were employees of an aviation labor contractor from Edgewater, Fla., called Structural, Modification and Repair Technicians Inc., or SMART.

Such contract workers are commonly used by repair stations that experience lulls between major projects, but are rarely employed by shops doing routine maintenance, industry sources say.

Air Midwest set up the repair station in July 2002 at Huntington's Tri-State Airport to maintain Beech 1900s for US Airways. The airport is between US Airways' hubs in Charlotte and Pittsburgh.