$77 Million Omission?

According to reports from the Canadian press, Montreal-based Bombardier Aerospace recommended on September 12 that some of its Q-400 turboprop planes be grounded. The problem? landing gear malfunctions that led to two emergency crash-landings of planes in the Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) fleet. In the first incident, the turboprop caught fire after an emergency landing. In the second, the plane skidded off the runway and smashed one wing into the groun after right-side landing gear failed to lower. No one was seriously injured in either accident.

Incomplete Documentation

SAS grounded its entire fleet of Q-400 turboprops and announced that "the incidents were caused by flaws in components not included in the maintenance manual."

The airline group is now asking $77 million in compensation from Bombardier, citing $62 million in losses since the groundings as well as damages to credibility and reputation. A spokesman would not comment on whether SAS planned to sue Bombardier for the losses, saying "we won't go into methods yet."

The Bottom Line

In the aircraft industry, a number of factors have converged to highlight the importance of maintenance manuals:

• The number of aircraft has increased, but the number of maintenance technicians has not, leading to a critical shortage of qualified aircraft mechanics.
• Maintenance facilities are being forced to lower hiring requirements, leading to a growing number of lesser-trained and lesser-educated maintenance personnel  who rely much more heavily on the content of maintenance manuals. 
• Inexperienced technicians lack the background knowledge that enables them to determine when a manual may be in error. 
• Off-shoring and outsourcing bring with them additional concern about usability and translability of manuals.

Similar pressures face a number of industries, especially those that directly affect public health and safety. As technical communicators, we cannot be content with writing grammatically correct and easy-to-read paragraphs. We must do that, but it is our job to do more:  to push for better management of documenation review and testing procedures in the face of changing information requirements.