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Breakdown in quality control and supervision of outsource maintenance work at a major airline puts public at risk of catastrophic accidents. A former United Airlines mechanic who was fired from his job told KCBS he first became suspicious after discovering from company computer records that a third-party contractor had neglected to perform required maintenance on United's entire fleet of 727's in 2000. By that time, the planes had already been up in the air for four months and the same contractor was allowed to continue servicing United planes. Furthermore, the system of quality control and oversight designed to insure adequate maintenance at United's outsource facilities had broken down. It was secretaries and not the qualified mechanics who were signing off on a vast array of maintenance jobs at repair shops.