FAA Mayday

Next time you fly on a US airline, you should think about those 9 U.S. airlines that outsource most of their aircraft maintenance. You'd think you wouldn't have to worry about it because we all trust on that national resource, the FAA. The FAA is primarily responsible for the advancement, safety and regulation of civil aviation, as well as overseeing the development of the air traffic control system and commercial space travel.

But it's time to supervise the supervisors. A government report on the FAA has turned up some unhappy details.
The FAA is behind on their supervision.

25% of that outsourced maintenance is farmed out to overseas contractors.The Federal Aviation Administration is supposed to track who and where maintenance is outsourced to. The responsibility for maintenance falls to hundreds of repair companies all over the world.

Currently the government is investigating the outsourcing practices of AirTran Airways, Alaska Airlines, America West Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue Airways, Northwest Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines.

However, unlike the aforementioned airlines,American Airlines handles most of its maintenance in-house.

Repair facilities are subject to yearly government inspection at least once a year. One of the problems is that inspections are not up to standard, and not conducted by qualified inspectors; and the inspections have been as much as five years apart.