So will the FAA redefine who its ultimate customer is – the air company or the passengers? IF its not the passengers then who will look out for their interests? If the FAA had been doing its job for the air passenger would the crashes we have seen this year not have happened or would the FAA identify the airline shortcomings after the crash when its too late to prevent the crash? Their behavior towards whistleblowers is horrible; these people could have helped prevent crashes and made the FAA look better – perhaps the guideline of measuring this agency's success should be the number of days since there was a crash the FAA had to investigate.

Anderson Cooper!
I have been in the aircraft repair industry for almost 20 years. I feel that a person should be the best in regaurds to his work when so many lives are at risk. I have worked on most Boeing ,Airbus and McDonnell Douglas passenger planes and also our military f-15 cobra ,huey helicopters gulfstream g5 and military cargo planes. I worked at a repair station in Lake Charles, LA and one of the most upsetting thing about this place i something called piece rate. While it may not mean much in the auto industry, a plane would have a much tougher time pulling over with problems.with piece rate mechanics have been give specific hours to peform thier work task. When the next plane comes in for maintenance the hour are cut and continue to be cut with each incoming plane until a mechanic starts to loose money or has to be careless with speed. Example ; 30 minutes to install screw allowed! It takes 10/15 minutes to find screw that is missing on plane ,it can take 10 to 30 minutes to get new screw from tool crib if mechanics are ahead of you, then you have to go back onto plane after getting tools from tool box to install screw. Then you have to get Inspectors to stamp off your job as complied with after you have looked up your references for installing that screw and filling out all you paperwork. mean while management is getting richer with the money they are still charging the airlines and many mechanic loose their job for complaining . all managers have been known to recieve bonuses of thousands of dollars depending on how soon the planes go back into service which can be 27 days or so. Next time you fly think about the mechanics who worked on your plane, their experience, and how rushed the were. Also butt kissers friends and family always get the money making jobs. This is just for thought and i don't want my name out there because there are blackball list. F.A.A. warns everyone when they will be arriving and that allows companies to prep. think about it MV