This Instills Confidence in Flying … Airplane Mechanics Who can’t or Speak English

Reading, Writing and Airplane Mechanics …

Flying the Friendly Sky’s, even if the mechanics cannot read English, Huh? Don’t you think that it would be a prerequisite to fixing a plane to at least be able to read the very repair manual that goes with said plane? How could the FAA allow such incompetence? The FAA tries to protect us from terrorism, makes us take our shoes off and search us before boarding a plane, yet the very mechanics who work on the planes may not even be able to speak or read English and the repair manual. GOOD GRIEF!

The following bit of news should probably come as a surprise to many and make one question the safety of airplane travel. A recent report from WFAA has revealed that numerous mechanics who work on airplanes cannot read.

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.

Exactly how is it possible that a mechanic who would need to read repair manuals cannot read? Well, it would appear that they can’t read English, because they can’t speak it either. Just another case of our government looking out for us.

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.