The real cost of outsourcing

At some point, the American public is going to reach a point where they realize that their drive to get "the cheapest" does come at a cost. The airline industry has already had a couple of these moments. The biggest was obviously ValuJet and the crash into the Everglades. The accident was caused by poor oversight by an airline that didn't have the infrastructure to oversee what was being put on its own planes. More recently, jetBlue suffered a meltdown of its own when its lean (more appropriately called "understaffed") ground staff and gate agent staff couldn't handle an ice storm on Valentines Day.
Now comes this, the National Transportation Safety Board is preparing to release a report that places blame on a ground crew in Syracuse that didn't report a FOOT LONG GASH in a plane that IT HAD PUT THERE when someone DROVE A TRUCK INTO THE PLANE during boarding. The plane took off and just minutes later ripped open and depressurized resulting in it making an emergency landing in Buffalo.
During nwa's bankrupcty proceedings, the company replaced Northwest employees at 60 stations across the network, replacing them with outsourced employees. The outsourced employees have no connection to nwa other than they work the flights. They are employees or a separate company and are compensated at much lower rates than previously. This saves nwa loads of money but has always had questionable side effects. We have been hearing stories of numerous problems with the outsourced companies (AirWisconsin, the company involved in this incident, is a very well respected company and this incident is an abberation for them) but now we have had two incidents in the last month that has cost one life and nearly cost 100 more here.
Remember people, cheap doesn't always equate to bargain. There are always reasons why something is cheaper. Something has been cut out someplace.

Below is the article...taken from WEAN 10 website in Syracuse

Flight 1411 was en route from Syracuse to Detroit when just 20 minutes into the flight, decompression occurred. Oxygen masks dropped, and the plane was headed toward an emergency landing in Buffalo. On the ground, an inspection showed a 12-inch gash had opened in the fuselage.

An NTSB preliminary report, due to be released in a few days, is

		WATCH THE VIDEO
	Flight 1411 investigation report The National Transportation Safety Board is reviewing a preliminary report on what happened to Northwest Airlines flight 1411, a DC-9 that was forced to land shortly after a takeoff from Syracuse nearly three weeks ago. News 10 Now's Bill Carey says the investigation may be bad news for some workers at Hancock Airport.

likely to blame a ground crew in Syracuse for damaging the aircraft during the baggage loading process. However, there is no record of that crew reporting any collision between their vehicles and the plane.

The episode is virtually identical to an incident two years ago in Seattle. An Air Alaska jet was forced to return for an emergency landing after a decompression episode caused by a 12-inch gash found in the fuselage. A ground crew member had struck the plane with his loading cart but failed to report it because he said the damage did not seem severe.

In the case of that Air Alaska incident, a ground crew member was suspended, while other members had to undergo safety training. At this point, there's no word what, if any, disciplinary action is planned for the ground crew in Syracuse.

Air Wisconsin employs the ground crew working in Syracuse, but referred all comment to Northwest Airlines. Northwest Airlines, acknowledging that the ground crew was likely to be blamed in the NTSB report, said it is continuing its own investigation.