The cuts leave the Smyrna-based company with an employee roster of about 130, says Dave Henley, director of component operations. The company has suffered in part due to a general lag in the aviation industry and the grounding of one of its largest customers, Emery. But, not withstanding the events of the past week, there has been a downturn in the aviation industry. In the wake of an investigation into a crash of one of Emery's DC-8 cargo planes in February near Sacramento, the company grounded its remaining fleet of 37 aircraft last month. Calif. It is suspected that a bolt fell out of the plane's tail, allowing its elevator assembly to separate.
Elevator controls allow a pilot to raise and lower a plane's nose.
TTS has reportedly come under scrutiny by the National Transportation Safety Board as part of its investigation of the Emery plane crash. TTS had done some maintenance work on the doomed plane. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, NTSB investigators found discrepancies in the company's work records. Not so, Henley says. Henley says the company has been cooperating fully with the NTSB during its investigation and would continue to do so.