Jet repairs slow at Hill AFB, slower elsewhere

WASHINGTON — If you've ever been forced to wait an extra day for car repairs, you might relate to Air Force units that had to park planes up to two years longer than planned for work at the nation's three air logistics centers — which include Utah's Hill Air Force Base.

What's more, like car repairs that cost more than estimated, work done by the three logistics centers cost much more than planned — $134 million in 2001 alone on just six types of planes studied by inspectors. The depots had to absorb those losses themselves instead of their customer Air Force wings.

That's according to documents obtained by the Deseret Morning News through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The documents provide some good news for Hill, however:

Delays and cost overruns for aircraft serviced there were much less severe than those serviced at the two sister bases. That could be important, as another base-closure round is scheduled next year and the bases may compete against each other for survival.

The Pentagon's Air Force Audit Agency studied the efficiency of planned, major maintenance work on six types of aircraft: the F-16 fighter and A-10 bomber serviced at Hill, the C-5 and C-141 cargo planes serviced at Robins Air Force Base, Ga., and the KC-135 and B-1 bomber serviced at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla.

After looking at such aircraft serviced from October 1999 through January 2002, inspectors concluded the three bases "did not accomplish aircraft maintenance requirements in a timely and cost-efficient manner."

In fact, 40 percent of all planes studied had planned maintenance completed late, even though bases could delay their promised finish times once per plane (after an initial inspection) without the newly revised date being considered late.

Inspectors said 33 percent of the A-10s and 31 percent of the F-16s receiving planned maintenance work at Hill were delayed beyond promised finish dates.

But that was at least two times better than the 70 percent of B-1s and 88 percent of the KC-135s that were late at Tinker, and about three times better than the 93 percent of C-5s and 94 percent of C-141s delayed at Robins.

Grounded aircraft

Inspectors said delays at Hill ranged between six and 342 days, or just under a year. They were up to 384 days at Robins and up to 842 days (over two years) at Tinker.