The National Transportation Safety Board conducted a public forum to examine air carrier and Federal Aviation Administration oversight of contract repair stations that provide aviation maintenance. The one-day hearing was chaired by Vice Chairman Robert Francis.

Agenda
Opening Statement
Participants
Transcript Text

Background Information:

Since the investigation of the ValuJet accident in the Everglades near Miami, Florida (1996), the Safety Board has been increasingly concerned with air carrier and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) oversight of contract maintenance repair stations. The public forum will examine the oversight practices used by both the FAA and the air carriers to ensure the quality of inspection and maintenance work performed by contract repair stations.

Several industry factors are affecting airline maintenance operations in general and contract maintenance practices in particular. First, many airplanes are being kept in service beyond their original design life and therefore have increased maintenance requirements. Second, route structures associated with hub and spoke operations have increased the number of takeoffs and landings cycles, which in turn, increases the maintenance requirements. Third, as a result of competitive market pressures in the airline business, large, well-established airlines, as well as small, start-up airlines have found it necessary to outsource more maintenance to Part 145 repair stations. It is now estimated that nearly half of all aviation maintenance is preformed by contract repair stations.

Safety Issues:

The public forum addressed: (1) air carrier maintenance operating procedures for quality control and oversight of outsourced maintenance services; (2) assessment processes used by Part 145 repair stations to ensure the quality of maintenance work; (3) FAA inspection and oversight of contract maintenance work, including procedures for inspections, reporting, deficiency tracking, and general oversight of repair operations; (4) and, the status of FAA's implementation of its new inspection program, Air Transportation Oversight System (ATOS), and the information tools associated with that program, such as the On-Line Aviation Safety Inspection System (OASIS).

Persons or organizations interested in submitting comments for the public record may send them to:
Ms. Deborah Bruce (RE-10)
National Transportation Safety Board
490 L'Enfant Plaza SW
Washington, D.C. 20594

or by e-mail to: bruced@ntsb.gov