[mymuss]

It's a bit more than "unscrew this, replace that". Even the relatively simple maintenance procedures often require multiple steps and referring to bunch of charts and tables. Something small like using incorrect torque setting can have disastrous consequences. Most of mx manuals are not available in languages other than English. And it has nothing to do with competence of overseas mechanics, it's just humanely impossible to memorize those procedures. So yeah it's kind of a big deal.

PS: Also from personal experience I can tell that US does have significantly higher training and work standards than certain other countries when it comes to aviation. I immigrated to the US from overseas, am currently employed in aviation industry and hold a dozen of aviation certificates and ratings including those from FAA.

[thingylab]

Are you saying that aviation is inherently less safe in non-predominantly english speaking countries?

[lujim]

I think routes, prevailing weather, average crew experience, average aircraft age, geographic (topographic features) , airspace complexity and about a thousand other things go into that accident statistics. I couldn't find solid numbers in my 2 min google search, but I would think English speaking countries are probably close to the top of the list in terms of safety.

Plus there is a difference when South Korean maintenance personnel work on South Korean planes flow by South Korean crews, than just sending a US plane to the lowest contract bid in the developing world.

[mymuss]

I did not say that. I'm sure best maintenance facilities for TUs and ILs are in Russia.

I am going to say though flying is safer in the developed world. US based passenger airlines did not have one fatality since February 2009.

[yarper]

It's more just rich places. Europe, North America and Australia/Japan have very good safety records, and some don't speak English natively.

These places all have highly developed regulatory bodies that communicate with manufacturers and each other. Most happen to enforce English to ease communication on safety related issues.

[jjp]

http://www.jacdec.de/airline-safety-ranking-2015/

[omonra]

That is a statement of fact.