House weighs safety of overseas aircraft repairs

[May 21, 2009]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House is considering a bill that would require more inspections at aircraft repair stations overseas despite objections from the European Union.

The bill, which is being taken up Thursday, also authorizes $70 billion through Sept. 30, 2012, for Federal Aviation Administration programs, including $13.4 billion to accelerate the agency's transition from the current radar-based air traffic control system to one based on Global Positioning System technology.

The foreign repair station provision would require the FAA to increase its overseas inspections from once a year to twice a year and to require foreign workers to submit to the same drug and alcohol testing required of U.S. workers. The provision has the backing of labor unions, who complain that safety enforcement isn't as rigorous overseas.

A report last year by Transportation Department Inspector General Calvin Scovel said nine major U.S. airlines are farming out aircraft maintenance at twice the rate of four years earlier and now hire outside contractors for more than 70 percent of major work. Most of the outsourced work is still done in the U.S. -- although often at nonunion repair shops -- but more than a quarter of the repairs are done overseas.

"The inspection regime that applies overseas is wholly inadequate," said Ed Wytkind, president of the AFL-CIO transportation trades department. "The inspector work force is too small to adequately cover the globe, where you have over 700 facilities."

The European Commission has threatened to pull out of a pending aviation safety agreement unless the provision is changed. A key part of that agreement stipulates that the U.S. and European Union aviation safety bodies have comparable safety requirements and inspection regimes.

"We have yet to see any data to suggest there is a real safety problem with foreign repair stations," said William Voss, president of the Flight Safety Foundation in Alexandria, Va., an international aviation safety think tank.

The provision is perceived as an effort by the U.S. to impose its standards on other nations, who also inspect the repair stations, Voss said.

Other provisions of the bill would:

• Require the FAA to hire more safety inspectors.

• Create an independent office within the FAA to investigate whistleblower complaints.

• Increase funds available to subsidize air service to rural communities from $127 million to $200 million annually.

• Direct the National Academy of Sciences to study pilot fatigue.

• Require airlines and airports to develop contingency plans for how they will handle the passengers whose flights have been delayed for hours on tarmacs. The plans are to be submitted to the transportation secretary for approval.

[Associated Press; By JOAN LOWY]

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