Supports FAA Efforts To Clamp Down, Fighting ARSA Petition

The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) tells ANN the organization filed a friend-of-the-court (amicus curiae) brief supporting the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ruling that employees of outsourced aircraft repair shops must undergo periodic drug and alcohol testing. The Aeronautical Repair Station Association (ARSA), the lobbyist group representing outsourced repair shops, petitioned the court to overturn the FAA ruling and exempt outsourced facilities from mandated drug and alcohol testing.

A hearing on ARSA's petition will be held on March 28, in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

For more than a decade, the FAA testing program has been mandatory for aircraft technicians directly employed by US airlines. The January 2006 FAA ruling clarified the existing rule that each person who performs aircraft maintenance or preventive maintenance, regardless of their employer or location, is subject to mandatory drug and alcohol testing.

According to AMFA, the petition admits ARSA wants their members exempted from testing because of its added expense, which makes outsourced repairs less price-competitive with maintenance performed by airline employees.

"By trying to evade FAA-mandated drug and alcohol testing, ARSA is placing the selfish financial interests of its members ahead of the safety and security of the American flying public," said AMFA Assistant National Director Steve MacFarlane. "In the post-9/11 era, this is nothing short of irresponsible behavior."

Outsourcing has grown rapidly, and AMFA says that raises serious safety and security concerns. As Aero-News reported, Consumer Reports documented these concerns in its March 2007 investigative article, "An accident waiting to happen? Outsourcing Raises Air-Safety Concerns."

The article stated "much [outsourced] work is being done by unlicensed mechanics," and "arrests at some [outsourced] repair shops have snared terrorism suspects and undocumented workers [i.e., illegal aliens], who were subsequently deported."

Consumer Reports noted that outsourced aircraft repair shops "are less subject to oversight than in-house [the airlines' own] shops, with fewer screening programs and fewer inspections, and that a US Department of Transportation report found that "the FAA never inspected approximately 1,400 noncertificated repair facilities, including 104 foreign facilities."

ARSA harshly rebukes what it calls a "biased, inaccurate article", claiming the story conveyed the impression contract maintenance workers have lax oversight.

FMI: www.amfanatl.org, www.arsa.org