Regulation: Aviation Maintenance
Aircraft maintenance is vital to aviation safety, so much so that regulations on aircraft upkeep are carefully monitored and disseminated by governing bodies like the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Aircraft mechanics are trained through intensive certification courses at accredited schools that support a cycle of maintenance, audits and testing.
Aircraft mechanics “supervise, manage, perform maintenance, inspections, and repairs on aircraft,” according to the National Aviation Academy. They ensure aircraft safety and airworthiness for passenger travel, air cargo and shipping. Such individuals are highly trained and federally certified with designations as an airframe and powerplant (A&P) mechanic or aviation maintenance technician.
Technical schools have begun offering a variety of educational paths to becoming an aircraft mechanic. In 2021, 6,929 people became aircraft mechanic certified—a 33% increase over the previous year, according to a 2022 Aviation Technician Education Council (ATEC)pipeline report. The increase could be a bounce back from a pandemic related slump in certifying new aircraft mechanics. However, the aircraft mechanic workforce still does not meet the demand for their services. The aircraft mechanic pipeline will need to pump out at least 20% more certified aviation technicians to meet projected workforce demand, according to the ATEC report
“The figures underscore that, in the U.S. at least, air travel is back to pre-pandemic levels,” the report says. “Indeed, the primary factor preventing U.S. airlines from being busier than they were in 2019 is a lack of qualified, skilled labor—including maintenance personnel.”
A solution to bridging that gap is introducing an aerospace maintenance curriculum at a high school level, the report states. Currently, the FAA certifies aircraft maintenance technical schools (AMTS) through ratings including airframe, powerplant, and a combination of the two (A&P).
In addition to certifying aviation technical schools, the FAA since 2001 has issued biweekly airworthiness directives (ADs) for both large aircraft (airplanes) and small aircraft (rotorcraft, gliders, balloons, unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and airships), that include guidance on safety and maintenance. The FAA also has a designated section for aircraft maintenance within the Code of Federal Regulations. Such ADs grow and evolve with aviation technology. The first AD to incorporate collecting drone data for safety use was in September 2005.
“Properly maintained aircraft are critical to aviation safety,” an FAA spokesperson told Avionics. “Aircraft maintenance regulations, and any applicable airworthiness directives, require operators to maintain and inspect their aircraft at specific intervals to make sure the airframe and all parts and components are safe and working properly. These inspections can reveal potential issues that can be fixed before they compromise the safety of the aircraft.”
Most of the time, the FAA’s biweekly directives offer new findings as well as amendments to previous ones. Specific aircraft manufacturers and aircraft components are listed with effective dates, determined unsafe conditions, and information on functional tests. The reports are intended to be accessed frequently and used by aircraft maintenance personnel to understand and implement better safety protocols.
For example, in a December 2022-January 2023 FAA airworthiness directive, the FAA amended a previous AD from September 2022 affecting cabin altitude pressure switches for numerous Boeing aircraft.
“The FAA is issuing this AD to address the unexpectedly high rate of latent failure of both pressure switches on the same airplane, which could result in the cabin altitude warning system not activating if the cabin altitude exceeds 10,000 feet, resulting in hypoxia of the flightcrew, and loss of control of the airplane," the directive said. It goes on to recommend precise functional tests that can be implemented to check efficacy along with minimum equipment list (MEL) provisions and alternative methods of compliance.
Other examples in that same AD include addressing replacement of fuse pins for landing gear beam end fitting with corrosion-resistant and stainless steel or steel-alloy ones, addressing a door frame crack “which could result in reduced structural integrity of the airplane,” and addressing “high operating temperatures within the IFC [integrated flight cabinet].” In each circumstance, the appropriate manufacturer, aircraft models affected, and recommendations for compliance are outlined. Such airworthiness directives remain an important part of monitoring ongoing safety issues. They could be used to update parts across an entire fleet of aircraft and keep aircraft mechanics up to date.
In Europe, EASA regularly updates safety and maintenance regulations on its website. An April 2021 update to basic regulations reinforced environmental protection requirements for all “aircraft, other than unmanned aircraft, and their engines, propellers, parts and non-installed equipment” according to standards as laid out in the Chicago Convention of 1944. The latter is a collective agreement establishing standards of international transport by air, managed by the International Civil Aviation Organization.
EASA also has updated its safety guidelines to address the growing threat to digital avionics systems from cyber-attacks.
“Information security risks are constantly increasing in the civil aviation environment as the current information systems are becoming more and more interconnected, and increasingly becoming the target of malicious actors,” according to EASA. Aviation is a “highly interconnected system of systems” in which safety and maintenance requirements should cover “all aviation domains and their interfaces.”
Thorough, carefully managed aircraft maintenance—of a plane’s physical structure and digital backbone—remains essential to the safe and efficient operation of civil aviation. Everything from certification of aircraft mechanics to biweekly reporting, part updates, broad sweeping environmental protection policies, and other regulations factor into a streamlined maintenance and safety culture. Security risks can include everything from the highly visible to the invisible—from cracked door forms to digital infrastructure hacking. Systems of auditing, reporting, and maintenance embody a holistic approach to aircraft maintenance that benefit everyone involved—from passengers to pilots.
