Oct. 04--GREENSBORO -- American Airlines said seats on its flights may have popped loose because clamps were installed incorrectly during maintenance by the airline and Greensboro's Timco Aviation Services.
The union representing American's maintenance workers is crying foul, however, saying that American is downplaying the influence of such outside contractors as Timco on the airline's safety.
In the past week, rows of seats have come loose on three separate flights, two of which made emergency landings.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating all aspects of the problem, including American's in-house maintenance and Timco's work on its Boeing 757s in Greensboro.
A Timco spokesperson declined to comment beyond saying that the company is cooperating with the investigation.
American said its crews in Tulsa, Okla., and Timco's crews in Greensboro worked on the seats, but American workers did the final inspections.
The Transport Workers Union said Wednesday that American is shifting the blame to its workers when the real blame falls on its practice of cutting costs by hiring outside contractors.
"For American airlines to leave out of the discussion that much of the work on seats was done by Timco is a sin of omission," said Jamie Horwitz, a union spokesman.
"We are not trying to hold anyone either responsible or blameless, but we've launched our own investigation and clearly part of this has to be raising questions about work that's been done by third-party vendors."
The planes in the Saturday and Monday incidents were serviced in the past two months, and seats had been removed and reinstalled, American said.
American said some of its 757s have a different fastening system. Instead of four bolts that are wrench-tightened, they are held in place by two bolts in back that are tightened with wrenches and two in front that are hand-tightened. The seats must be positioned precisely so that they lock into place.
"It's a very temperamental job," said David L. Campbell, the airline's vice president of safety.
Using outside contractors introduces a host of safety issues, the union said in a January report directed at American. Illegal immigrants could have access to planes, for example, and FAA inspections are not as thorough, it said in the report.
The FAA said Wednesday that its maintenance standards are uniform throughout the industry, regardless of the company doing the job.
Timco, which is based at Piedmont Triad International Airport, is one of the Triad's top employers, with 1,800 workers.
Seven years ago, Timco cooperated with a federal investigation of illegal immigrants at its shops that resulted in the arrest of 27 people on illegal-immigration charges.
The Transport Workers Union said such incidents at Timco and other major aircraft maintenance contractors show the workforce is more secure at in-house airline shops.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Contact Richard M. Barron at 373-7371 or richard. [email protected]
Copyright 2012 - News & Record, Greensboro, N.C.
