Qantas sacks fake engineer

[Mal]

Qantas sacks fake engineer - National - BrisbaneTimes - brisbanetimes.com.au

QANTAS has allowed an unqualified employee to undertake specialist maintenance work on its aircraft, in the latest blow to the safety reputation of the airline.

Last night the Civil Aviation Safety Authority said it had ordered Qantas to identify all the work done by the "employee over the past two years and assess the risk to air safety of each piece of work".

Airline sources said the man had been working as a licensed engineer in Sydney on aircraft used for domestic and international flights.

The authority has also ordered an audit of the qualifications of all Qantas licensed engineers - a process Qantas said had begun.

 

[oz_mark]

That's two. Wonder how many more they have

 

[Mal]

The union is of course blaming CASA for their lack of oversight (Hmmm, maybe that's because its an Australian based worker in trouble...)

The federal secretary of the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association, Steve Purvinas, expressed regret at the latest incident. But he said CASA was ineffective.

I presume the mechanic at fault (who was licensed as a mechanic, but wasn't licensed for a type of work he signed off on) was a ALAEA member?

 

[JohnK]

How do these people get jobs without the right qualifications? Do they submit forged/fake engineering degrees?

 

[nlagalle]

How do these people get jobs without the right qualifications? Do they submit forged/fake engineering degrees?

I believe the last one had fake documents. But don't quote me on that one!

 

[Nigelinoz]

My understanding is that CASA has issued a directive that Qantas investigate the circumstances surrounding how he was employed, and also they have been directed to have suitably qualified personell examine any work he performed on any Qantas aircraft,which I guess is what you would expect them to do.

Actually just found this:
http://casa.gov.au/rules/miscinst/2009/CASA82.pdf

 

[oz_mark]

How do these people get jobs without the right qualifications? Do they submit forged/fake engineering degrees?

In the current case it was more about the person not having the appropriate qualification for the role they performed, not so much that they weren't engineers.

The worrying aspect is that Qantas clearly haven't got an appropriate validation process in place to ensure that work is being done by people licensed to do the work.

 

[Nigelinoz]

In the current case it was more about the person not having the appropriate qualification for the role they performed, not so much that they weren't engineers.

The worrying aspect is that Qantas clearly haven't got an appropriate validation process in place to ensure that work is being done by people licensed to do the work.

Hopefully,oz_mark,your very valid second point will be addressed by the directive Casa has issued.

 

[JohnK]

The worrying aspect is that Qantas clearly haven't got an appropriate validation process in place to ensure that work is being done by people licensed to do the work.

Very worrying as Qantas is my carrier of choice. In an ideal world it would be necessary for another person to check any work carried out before any maintenance is approved....

 

[oz_mark]

Very worrying as Qantas is my carrier of choice. In an ideal world it would be necessary for another person to check any work carried out before any maintenance is approved....

It is necessary for someone to check. Just in this case the checker wasn't licensed to do the checking on that aircraft.