Workers facing charges after shoddy airplane repairs

[tawadi]

Source: CBS NEWS

Workers facing charges after shoddy airplane repairs

8:18 AM, Sep 30, 2011

LINCOLN (CBS13) - Federal investigators have filed charges against six workers from a defunct local business for allegedly performing fraudulent repair on a wide range of aircraft, including an incident where a paperclip was used to complete maintenance on an airplane.

United States Attorney Benjamin Wagner announced Thursday that36 counts of conspiracy and fraud were filed against former executives and supervisors at WECO Aerospace Systems Inc., an FAA-certified air repair station that was bought out by another company in 2007.

The alleged incidents took place before the business was sold and the current owners have cooperated fully in the investigation, authorities said.

Read more: http://www.wtsp.com/news/article/213261/81/Workers-facing-charges-after-shoddy-airplane-repairs

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"None of the shoddy repairs led to an aircraft accident.."

Yet.

[dtexdem]

1. And what about the former owners of the business?

They either induced their workers' practices, ignored those practices, or were negligently unaware of what was going on in their business. And aircraft repair is not a business where even negligent ignorance can be forgiven.

[leveymg]

2. A paperclip might work fine instead of thin wire. I'd have to know more than that.

If everything held together, I fail to see real evidence of "shoddy repairs."

[RC]

5. If you are on the ground and stop because of shoddy repairs, you stop going and can call for help.

If you are in the air and you stop going, you are going to fall out of said air and make a hole in the ground.
That is why aviation maintenance is much stricter than what you get at your local mechanic.

[leveymg]

6. You know what really scares me? Counterfeit fasteners. Experienced mechanics know what

will hold up in a given application, but a grade 3 bolt marked as grade 8 scares the piss out of me. They can't do anything but assume it's stronger than it really is.

Systematic problems with fraud -- airlines cutting costs and corners by buying cheaper parts from low-cost offshore sources -- are far more dangerous than some line mechanic using a paperclip instead of bailing wire.

[Ikonoklast]

11. Purchase some supposedly cad-plated Grade 8 bolts from China.

1. They corrode immediately.
2. They aren't even Grade 3.
3. American manufacturers are buying and using them without randomly testing them.

[leveymg]

12. When a 13mm bolt snaps with hand pressure, you know there's something wrong.

In recent years, I don't tighten as much as I used to. Just in case.

When the head of the bolt snaps off, and the metal inside is shiny, you know there's no carbon in that steel.

[Scruffy1]

13. I started to have problems with that back in the nineties.

But their is a certification process that is available for fasteners, so its pretty easy for a business not top get ripped off. Tough for retail customers at big box stores. But I think if you go to the fastener supplier and ask for certification you will be ok. But then its been a few years since I have had anything to do with the supply chain.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

15. Which is why FAA certified mechanics working in general aviation often make less than car mechs

One of the oddities of life...

[haele]

7. Any repair that would involve something similar in function to a paper-clip

would be, in the case of a high-stress environment like aircraft,of a significantly higher tempered metal than one would find in a paper-clip. This isn't like linking a few heavy duty paper-clips together to hold your muffler in place - and even then, would you trust a "jimmy-rig" like that to take you any farther than a repair shop?
Things like cotter pins, 14 gage aircraft wire (standard paper-clip sized wire), clip rings, or even missing panel screws or latching needs to hold up to much more stress than a paper-clip can.
This was supposedly an authorized, certified by the FAA, professional aircraft repair shop. For them to use jimmy-rigs on an airplane and use an excuse like "hey, it held up" like a backyard mechanic working on his own car would do is irresponsible, shoddy and inexcusable.
If it didn't hold up, a pilot can't just "push it over to the side of the road" when his airplane breaks down at 10K - 20K feet.

Pull their certification - they have no business providing a critical service like that for pay.

Haele

[IamK]

8. I bet you have a lot of duct tape around your house.....

[leveymg]

10. Actually, the most useful tool in the box is a large hammer.

Only kidding, a bit. I put myself through college as a foreign car and race mechanic working on these and similar. Never actually had anything fall off that I bolted on:



You want to talk about high-stress, high heat applications and close tolerances? Try reassembling one of those in a dirt paddock without a full supply of parts. You'll learn how to improvise and what can and can't be reused.

True, I wouldn't want to fly on a plane that gets repaired in a hurry lying on your back in a mud puddle between practice and the start of the race - but, you know, it can be done.

And, yes, I have been inside a hangar and envy the relative order and cleanliness of that environment.

[TheMadMonk]

14. yeah like the staples used to rejoin a broken ribbon on a QANTAS plane.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvlPBr3j2qs

I shudder to think of the places a paperclip might be used to "adequately" repair a plane until it suddenly fell out of the sky: replacing a split pin, a fuse; tying a bundle of cables (slowly wearing through the insulation).

Mild steel bolts might successfully take the place of high tensile for a considerable amount of time. But over time and maintenance cycles they will stretch and be retorqued (tightened) until one day in midair one snaps.

Bathroom silicone might not appreciate -20 - -40 C temperatures.

Scavenged parts might be good, but if the test reports are forged or non-existent the only way of finding out they're sub-standard is forensic examination of the wreck.

There's a reason for aircraft maintenance regulations. Crush lock nuts - yes, Nylon gasket lock nuts - not a fucking chance. All wires white and labled according to strict codes at specific intervals. All wires bundled and tied with twine at specified intervals, with specified knots - NO plastic zip ties. All bolts x-rayed. And on and on and on.

And guess what? Thanks to all these pesky regulations it takes some real cowboys to cause a plane to fall out of the sky.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

16. Some of the things you cite are not requirements nor even preferred practice

[TheMadMonk]

17. May have changed (or be different in the US) but were requirements...

...for an old boss's home built toy here is Australia.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

19. I'd buy that

US rules about LSAs etc certainly have not propagated via ICAO.

[Hoosier Daddy]

3. Amen!

Most airplane crashes are at least party due to bad maintainence.

[TreasonousBastard]

4. I spent two years as a small player in the general aviation parts business...

but after seeing what these repair shops do I can't imagine what could possibly prompt anyone in the business to skirt the rules. Sure, it's a lot of work to do it right, but more work to cover your tracks when doing it wrong-- and you WILL get caught.

Did run into a guy cheap enough to work on his own plane and didn't understand why the bolts holding his prop on cost a hundred bucks each, so picked up some cheaper ones at a hardware store. When the prop fell off on the runway he found out why. And the FAA took no time at all lifting his ticket and damn near taking his house in fines.

[IamK]

9. if you see an airline's mechanics in Office Depot buying parts, don't fly that airline...

[No Elephants]

18. All My Sons, by Arthur Miller., was based on a true story his mother in law

had read in the paper and passed on to him. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_My_Sons

In "All My Sons," a man's faulty plane parts end up killing many, including his own son.