The Department of Civil Aviation?s director is to question the US Transportation Department over a report which claims that major aircraft maintenance is carried out on the Island without proper regulation.

The report from Inspector General Kenneth Mead said US airlines have been assigning critical work on planes to repair stations, including Bermuda, that have not been certified or inspected by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

It heavily criticises the FAA and the airlines for a lack of supervision, and claims that potentially lethal mistakes occurred at some non-certificated centres. One example ? which does not identify which centre is relates to ? is of an improper maintenance procedure on a switch that could have resulted in an engine failing to restart during flight.

?Air carriers have used non-certificated facilities for years, but it was widely accepted that these facilities were principally used to perform minor maintenance tasks, and only performed more significant work in emergency situations. However, our review determined that this is not the case today,? says the report.

It later states: ?We identified non-certificated facilities in St. Thomas, Bermuda, and El Salvador that performed critical repairs, such as replacing an engine electronic control unit, for a US air carrier.

?FAA had never visited any of these foreign maintenance providers.?

When contacted the US Transportation Department to inquire what critical repairs were being carried out in Bermuda, a spokesman said no further information would be released.

Department of Civil Aviation director Ian MacIntyre said he had been left puzzled by the claims in the report, telling : ?There are some inconsistencies, and I will be following up on them probably with the FAA to ask what exactly is the concern with Bermuda.

?It says the FAA has never visited any of the foreign maintenance providers and that is not correct. They do come here.

?The US carriers have authorised people who provide certain levels of maintenance. They would not exceed the authorisation that the carrier has. That would be silly as it would make them liable for damages if anything was to go wrong.

?If there was a safety critical repair required the airline would send the part here along with a qualified quality assurance person from the airline.

?I will definitely be following up on this report because our name appears to have been taken in vain. This would not happen. We don?t park aeroplanes under palm trees and repair them with string and chewing gum any more!?

Airport general manager James Howes also expressed surprise at the report.

?There have been occasions when US airlines have had a maintenance problem and what happens is that they fly in their own parts and mechanic from the US,? he said.