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.