Pilots Continue To Report Serious Maintenance Issues

Top management at AMR Corp, the parent company of American Airlines, has apparently threatened legal action against the Allied Pilots Association (APA) while agreeing to return to the bargaining table in their ongoing labor dispute.

In an internal APA communication forwarded to ANN, APA leadership said that literally within minutes of announcing that they were ready to continue negotiations, the National Officers and Board of Directors received a letter from American Airlines Senior Vice President-People Denise Lynn which the union characterizes as aggressively threatening legal action to address the company’s current operational issues, "rather than be accountable for what has become a disaster of senior management’s own making."

"Instead of addressing these problems, management at first attempted to tarnish our reputation by alleging a pilot sickout, a claim we quickly and successfully refuted," APA leadership said in the document. "And when a sickout was rumored to be set for last Friday, APA proactively defused it. Now management alleges that pilots are using their professional discretion to take actions such as “delaying departures for unnecessary checks, increased and late-filed maintenance write-ups, increased block times due to slow taxiing, and circuitous routings.” To reiterate, APA has not authorized any concerted job action."

The APA Board of Directors had convened a meeting to discuss guidance going forward in the negotiations, but adjourned it early after receiving the letter from Ms. Lynn. "We will not be bullied," the union said. They do plan to re-convene Tuesday to discuss their next steps in the process.

As to the maintenance issues, the union issued the following response regarding recent management allegations that pilots continue to disrupt flight schedules with insignificant maintenance requests.

“Federal aviation regulations and American Airlines’ policies and procedures require that all known mechanical discrepancies be entered into the aircraft’s maintenance logbook for corrective action,” said APA President Keith Wilson. “Failure to place a mechanical discrepancy in the maintenance logbook can result in a revocation of a pilot’s license by the Federal Aviation Administration, not to mention the fact that it could result in a serious safety risk.”

American Airlines pilots continue to encounter a large number of serious maintenance-related issues that must be documented, as required by law. Below is a small sampling of issues that were documented pre-flight in the past several days:

• Pilot oxygen mask broken
• Main landing gear hydraulic leak
• Aircraft avionics overheat warning
• Fuel tank seepage on the ramp
• Premature fuel burn indications

When proper preventative maintenance on the ground is not performed, it can lead to in-flight incidents such as the following, which were recently reported by our pilots:

• A B-737 had a wheel well fire indication in flight and was forced to declare an emergency and returned to the departure airport.
• A B-737 declared an emergency and was diverted to Amarillo due to a smoke and electrical smell in the cockpit while en route from Dallas/Ft. Worth to Denver.
• There were bearing failures in the main landing gear on a B-767 requiring replacement of two wheels.
• A B-767 experienced multiple landing gear indication malfunctions after takeoff and was forced to declare an emergency and land overweight at the departure airport.
• There was a premature fuel burn from the left main wing tank causing a serious weight and balance issue.

Due to recent FAA fines and American’s ongoing financial struggles, the FAA has stepped up its scrutiny of the carrier’s maintenance procedures.
“American currently operates the oldest fleet of aircraft in the industry, requiring much more frequent maintenance than other carriers that operate newer fleets,” Wilson said.

According to the APA statement, the FAA Certificate Management Office that monitors American Airlines sent a message last week to APA regarding its “specialized Operational Risk surveillance” on the airline. The message included the following statement directed to pilots: “If you feel you have been coerced to refrain from reporting maintenance discrepancies, we advise you to report any instance of such to the AMR CMO for investigation. We also encourage you to use the Aviation Safety Action Program to report such instances.”

Wilson said pilots are no doubt taking a prudent and cautious approach in their operational decision-making process … especially in light of the fact that management canceled the AA-APA collective bargaining agreement and the protections it provided.

“Our pilots should never be pressured or bullied into not reporting any maintenance issues that could endanger the traveling public,” Wilson said.

A third document forwarded to ANN dated Friday from the Strike Preparedness Committee encourages pilots to be sure they keep detailed records as the situation unfolds. "Now that management has put APA on notice of their intent to pursue court relief if they do not see an increase in "operational reliability," pilots must be even more vigilant to document every single example where management is inaccurately blaming pilots for delays and cancellations.

"Assume you are always being watched and recorded from the time you show up to the airport until the time you get in your car or on your commuter flight at the end of your sequence.

"If AMR does seek a court restraining order, your detailed Observer Reports will be critical in defending APA against management's false allegations to cover up for their own operational failures."

FMI: www.alliedpilots.org