From UAL's employee web site.
March 22, 2002

United Strongly Disagrees with Forbes Article that Questions the Company's Maintenance Practices

United Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Andy Studdert responded today to a lengthy article in the April issue of Forbes magazine, which calls into question the industry's maintenance practices and cites several incidents at United to support its argument.

"This article is so misleading," says Studdert, "that it borders on defaming our more than 12,000 dedicated, highly skilled, aircraft maintenance technicians. Although the reporter himself notes that statistics demonstrate air safety is improving, he proceeds to use United to support his working premise that airlines are 'getting sloppy with maintenance.'"

Editor's note: I don't think the Forbes article defames the maintenance technicians, but rather, the attitude of UAL management that discourages these technicians from reporting safety problems of the aircraft. Perhaps Mr. Studdert is unaware that two of his mechanics, David Lawson and George Gulliford, were fired shoftly after whistleblowing on safety issues? Regardless, if Mr. Studdert feels that Forbes has defamed his employees, why doesn't he put his money where his mouth is and initiate legal proceedings against the magazine?

The Forbes story cites several maintenance errors that are not substantiated in any of United's extensive maintenance records or quality- assurance reports. Studdert says that in instances when problems did occur, United or its FAA- certified vendor discovered them, reported them, then followed up and fixed the process so the errors would not reoccur.

Sadly, we're already well acquainted with United's ability to keep track of its own records, as it managed to "misplace" those belonging to employees Anne Puccini and Gregory Kevakian when issues of compensation arose.

As a special bonus, a current UAL employee who wishes to remain anonymous (for obvious reasons) sent us copies of the maintenance records (from United's computerized maintenance logbook) referred to in the Forbes article. Media sources may contact us to obtain the full set of these records. Click for full resolution image.

Mr. Studdert, are you really sure that these don't exist?

"In my opinion," he adds, "our quality assurance and follow-up are what make our maintenance program the best in the industry."

No arguments there -- United certainly does have a great reputation for providing "assurances" about quality. But what concerns us more is United's ability to deliver on that quality, in an environment of mistrust and continued intimidation of employees.

Bill Norman, vice president-Line Maintenance, echoed Studdert's assessment of the article.

"We received high marks during the FAA's safety audit of U.S. carriers," says Norman. "We have the industry's lowest inflight engine-shutdown rate across all our fleets, and most of our maintenance practices exceed FAA requirements by a wide margin. That's why the U.S. Air Force and many commercial airlines rely on us to perform their maintenance. Maintenance is one of the areas where United sets the benchmarks for the industry. The two employees quoted in the Forbes story who commented on United's maintenance practices did not represent the facts correctly, nor do their opinions represent the thousands of highly skilled technicians across our system. We take great pride in the quality of the work we produce."

It's interesting that Mr. Norman focusses on the one statistic (inflight engine-shutdown rates) where UAL did well... I wonder whether he would oblige us by offering all of the statistics? Also, what are readers supposed to infer from "most of our maintenance practices exceed FAA requirements..."? What about the ones that don't?

I'm inclined to agree that the two employees quoted in the Forbes story don't represent the thousands of technicians across UAL. However, Mr. Norman, neither do you. So here's what I'm suggesting we do: let's open up a web-based voting page that asks your employees whether they agree with the mechanics or with you and your management colleagues? If you'd like to manage this process yourself, please contact me to discuss how this should be done; otherwise, I'll be happy to help out and set up the page at Untied.com.

Senior Vice President-Flight Operations Capt. Steve Forte affirmed the sentiments of Studdert and Norman, adding, "As a United pilot for more than 23 years, I have complete confidence in our maintenance procedures and the quality of the work performed by our technicians. They do an outstanding job."