Can't agree with you there. Not since the Alaska Air jet went in off Los Angeles because a suit denied the request to replace the elevator's jack screw because it was still 1/64th of a millimeter within spec despite the mechanic's request.
Was not even within specifications of the manufacture. The jackscrew was to be inspected every 400 flight hours as said by the manufacturer. Alaska Airline raised this inspection to 2000 hours as just one of the many things they cut back on in their maintenance department in order to cut down costs. It is of course illegal to ignore manufacture inspection specifications with public transportation parts, they falsified maintenance records in order to comply with this.
Out of a fleet of the 30 aircraft that was that same model, the NTSB found 6 of them to be in the same condition as the jackscrew found in the Jet that crashed off the coast of LA. The jackscrew was found to have no grease what so ever, the grinding of metal on metal with the jackscrew stripped it smooth. The safety bolt at the bottom of the jackscrew broke under huge pressure and the entire system failed once the jackscrew came out of the grove it was sitting in.
Alaska Airlines suspended their chief mechanic without pay for blowing the whistle on their malpractices in the maintenance department, the FBI seized maintenance records and forwarded all of their evidence to the NTSB. The NTSB actually found this out 6 months before the crash happened, but since the investigation was not yet complete they made no recommendations to the FAA...thus no parts were replaced or overhauled.
I agree, Alaska Airlines is my least favorite airline, when you sacrifice safety for profit in such a way you kill people...you lost my business...
