There have been problems with airlines (not just regionals) using non-certified/outsourced maintenance. It’s been a while since I remember that being reported and I believe it involved foreign maintenance stations being used by US carriers. It might have been American that got in trouble or was being investigated.

Fortunately I work for a company that has outstanding maintenance and has a top training department. Others who have come to us from other carriers have shared horror stories in the differences between what we consider normal which is seen by others has unheard of. To be fair though it did take our company losing a EMB-120 in flight due to the tail separating because of lax mx in the 90’s to straighten everything out.

I’m really curious what the discussion of fatigue will generate. The rules/law that we have now do nothing to insure a rested crew. Sure a crew can decline a flight if they are fatigued but some companies put inappropriate pressure against crews who do not to mention that you need to realize that you are fatigued in the first place in order to pull yourself off a trip. They say that by the time you “feel” fatigued is too late, you’ve been fatigued with degraded senses for hours before.

Pilot groups have been fighting for more appropriate rules within their own companies for a long time. Unfortunately that unless every company has similar rules requiring more rest at one company can put them at a disadvantage while they try to compete with others. If your crews get 10 hours of rest while everyone else is doing 8 hours your competition will be off the gate 2 hours before you taking your business. Rule changes have to be made at the Federal level to insure some rouge outfit doesn’t keep their crews at minimum rest to beat out the competition.

In addition to that a reduction in available flight hours due to improved rest will impact the pay of the pilots because they are paid per hour flown. That magnifies another problem of incredibly low pay for regional pilots. The FO in the doomed Q400 commuted across the country to EWR. Her sub-$20,000 pay wouldn’t buy her a parking spot in the NYC area which forces pilots to live well outside of their base of employment. Now if rest rules lowered the pay further what will the effect be? I could go on but you get my drift.