Ask the Pilot
Don't blame outsourcing for JetBlue's mishap.
By Patrick Smith
Oct. 7, 2005 | It was only a matter of time, maybe, before somebody linked the fate of JetBlue flight 292 with the growing scourge of airline-maintenance outsourcing. In ever increasing numbers, carriers large and small are consigning work to low-cost off-property contractors. Whether it's a simple part swap or a major D-check overhaul, procedures that once took place in an airline's hangar, under watch of senior mechanics, are now consigned to so-called fixed-based operators (FBOs) both in the United States and abroad, some of them in developing countries where the bulk of personnel needn't meet FAA certification standards. How safe is this practice, and what did it have to do with JetBlue's widely publicized emergency landing two weeks ago?
My own answers are "it depends," and "probably nothing." Others, however, are considerably less restrained: "JetBlue's near-catastrophe was no fluke," exclaims a piece by editor at large Harold Meyerson in the American Prospect, also published as an opinion piece in the Washington Post. "It's what you get when you send maintenance jobs overseas." Meyerson points out that JetBlue's A320s are flown to Canada and, can we stomach it, El Salvador, for repairs and upkeep.
That's a bold indictment. But is it accurate?
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