By An Old Friend
Sun, Mar 29, 2020 1:01 a.m.We're from the government, and we're committed to screwing things up, even for ourselves
Here's a 2016 article ...
... about how the FAA is lax in monitoring airlines' safety deficiencies, the particular examples being maintenance sloppiness at Allegiant Air and its contractors. I suppose it's an example of "regulatory capture."
In 2015, a fully-loaded Allegiant DC-9 narrowly avoided disaster when an elevator control came loose during the takeoff roll at Las Vegas. The pilots were able to abort the takeoff, and nobody got hurt. The culprit was the maintenance contractor's worker who'd forgotten to install a cotter pin when he finished servicing the control mechanism. The plane had flown 261 times in this dangerous state before the associated nut finally worked itself loose from the control rod.
So that's the first-round story. But government workers applied another round of incompetence, this one being in their attempt to cover up their first-round, generic/systemic incompetence. I've highlighted the point at the end of the following brief article:
Report: Allegiant plane flew for weeks with serious mechanical issue
PEORIA -- A Peoria-bound Allegiant Air flight that was the subject of an aborted takeoff in 2015 in Las Vegas had a major problem, according to a report. And it could have caused a disaster well before that incident.
The Allegiant plane flew for weeks with a mechanical issue that could have killed its crew and passengers, the Tampa Bay Times of St. Petersburg, Florida, reported last week. The company in charge of maintaining the plane cut corners, recorded its work improperly and mismanaged safety reviews, according to a Federal Aviation Administration inspector.
The FAA didn't fine AAR Aircraft Services, although the inspector suggested it receive the maximum penalty. The FAA issued the firm a letter and signed off on checks and balances it already implemented, according to the Times. The case then was closed.
On Aug. 17, 2015, Allegiant Flight 436 was leaving McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, bound for Peoria. As the plane reached almost 140 mph on the runway, its nose started to rise, despite the pilots' attempts to prevent that. The pilots slammed on the brakes and aborted the takeoff.
Had the plane ascended, the pilots would have lost control in mid-air.
A nut had slipped off a rod that helps control flaps on the plane's tail. A pin was supposed to hold the nut in place, but apparently it had not been installed when the plane went in for maintenance three months earlier, the Times reported. Apparently, the plane had made several hundred flights in this condition.
"It is simply fortuitous to the airline passengers and the crew aboard the 216 subsequent Allegiant Air revenue flights that the nut did not fall off the rod end in flight," an FAA report about the incident stated.
It's unclear how many of those flights were to or from Peoria.
The Times also has reported extensively about various in-flight mechanical problems that involve Allegiant. The low-fare airline flies from Peoria to six destinations, mostly vacation spots in Florida. Allegiant also serves the Florida market with flights from Springfield's Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport.
AAR provides maintenance services for other airlines, including Delta.
The Times had requested the FAA report during its previous reporting about Allegiant. What the FAA provided was redacted heavily.
After the Times appealed, the FAA declined to release most of the redacted information. But in responding to the Times, the FAA apparently sent the newspaper the entire, unredacted report by mistake.
1 comment:
"The plane had flown 261 times in this dangerous state before the associated nut finally worked itself loose from the control rod."
Pilots and crew and passengers very lucky. Very robust airplane too flying so long without the necessary safety device removed.
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