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Who is afraid of flyng?


SouthernJet

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I am now!!!!!!!!!!!

News 8 Investigates

News 8 Investigates: Airline mechanics who can't read English

10:03 AM CDT on Saturday, May 16, 2009

By BYRON HARRIS / WFAA-TV

News 8 has recently revealed serious flaws in the way the FAA licenses mechanics who fix planes.

There is evidence of years of problems in testing these mechanics. There is also evidence that hundreds of mechanics with questionable licenses are working on aircraft in Texas.

Now there is evidence of repair facilities hiring low-wage mechanics who can't read English.

Twenty-one people were killed when U.S. Airways Express Flight 5481 crashed in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2003. The plane went wildly out of control on takeoff.

One reason for the crash, investigators found, was that mechanics incorrectly connected the cables to some of the plane's control surfaces in the repair shop. The FAA was cited for improper oversight of the repair process.

Repairing airplanes is a complicated business. Airplanes have many manuals. Typically, when mechanics repair a part, they open the manual, consult the book, and make the repair step-by-step, as if it were a recipe book.

They make a list of every action they take, so the next person to fix the plane (as well as the people who fly it) will know exactly what has been done.

If mechanics don't speak English, the international language of aviation, they can't read the manual and they can't record their activities.

There are more than 236 FAA-certified aircraft repair stations in Texas, according to the FAA's Web site. News 8 has learned that hundreds of the mechanics working in those shops do not speak English and are unable to read repair manuals for today's sophisticated aircraft.

Former FAA inspector Bill McNease told News 8 he regularly encountered applicants for pilots

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There is really nothing to be afraid of. As long as your tray table is in its upright and locked position and your seat back is not reclined - not even a quarter of a fu#king inch, nothing bad can happen. :rolleyes:

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Thanks, SJ! I'm in Texas and I want to read THAT!

Plus, I have to fly from Austin to Orlando next week. Bad enough there will be strong thunderstorms in both cities on the days I fly but now I have to worry about plane maintenance. :eek:

Oops, just read this in the article:

Texas' two biggest airlines, American and Southwest, both require mechanics and the technicians who work under them to speak, read and write English.

Flying Southwest next week -- :cheergal:

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I hate flying, always have and always will.

I had a flight a few months back coming from Bulgaria where the plane had to pull out of landing at the last second. I knew somethig was seriously wrong because the plane was like a ****ing see-saw going in. Scary ****.

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I'll never forget my very first and only flight by myself. I flew to Cleveland in 2006 and on the way there the plane got struck by lightning and the wing that I was sitting right next to it, was hit and part of it turned black. I was scared ****less. We were over Cleveland and landed in 5 minutes, thankfully.

Good times.

But I'm still not scared of flying as long as I don't see Osama Yakskir Asafat boarding my plane. Its stereotyping, but I believe most people think that way and always will, at least those alive who can remember 9/11.

I however cannot drive over tall bridges. I mean, I do it, but it scares me to death. I cannot do anything but look foward.

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But I'm still not scared of flying as long as I don't see Osama Yakskir Asafat boarding my plane. Its stereotyping, but I believe most people think that way and always will, at least those alive who can remember 9/11.

.

I hear ya. When JGBs was in Law School in Ann Arbor, everytime he flew there half the plane was full of Arabs due to Detroits huge Arab population. It scred the shiit out of me putting him on those flights. Plus it was 2001 thru 2004 timeframe :(

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