Between 2002 and 2008, Tobias Aerospace in San Antonio tested more than 1,400 aircraft mechanics. Some of them have told News 8 they were given a license by Bryan Tobias, but never took a proper test.
Three months ago, the Federal Aviation Administration sent every mechanic tested by Tobias a letter, notifying them they would have to be re-tested. They had two weeks to respond.
Now the FAA says about 600 of those mechanics never did. As a result, all of them are subject to lose their license.
This isn't the first time the FAA has had a licensing problem.
At St. George Aviation in Florida in the late 1990s, the FAA determined that thousands of mechanics had been improperly tested after paying for their licenses.
Dozens of them have never been re-examined and are still at work.
It went on then, and it goes on now, said former Department of Transportation Inspector General Mary Schiavo. A decade later, it's the same kind of problem, and in fact it appears to be even worse, and I think this is the tip of the iceberg.
Schiavo investigated the testing of airplane mechanics from 1990 to 1996. I think people were just giving people licenses, and it was really rampant, she said.
Licensed mechanics sign off on work when a repaired plane takes to the air.
In 2005, a Chalk's Ocean Airways flight went down in flames after takeoff from Miami, killing 20 passengers.
A mechanic missed a critical crack in a wing of the vintage seaplane.
In 2003, a U.S. Airways commuter flight crashed in Charlotte, North Carolina, killing 21. Investigators said part of the blame goes to mechanics who improperly connected flight controls.
In general, both airlines and the FAA say their safety record from mechanical mistakes is good.
Schiavo sees things differently.
It is very dangerous for the flying public, because the presence of a set of FAA regulations that says people are tested and rigorously tested, she said. Whenever you have someone out there with a fake license which is really what this is you have just been given a certificate that you shouldn't have. That's a problem.
The mechanic involved in the fatal Chalk's crash was licensed at St George Aviation in Florida. He was retested twice.
He failed both times.
E-mail bharris@wfaa.com
