AD Compliance, Self-Disclosure Examined by FAA

On Thursday, April 17, at Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) North America Conference & Exhibition in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Jim Ballough, director, Flight Standards Service, FAA, and John Hickey, director, Aircraft Certification Services, FAA, discussed airworthiness directive (AD) compliance issues and Safety Management Systems (SMS) with airlines, services providers and suppliers. Highlights include:

  —  AD compliance issues related to the FAA-mandated audit fall into three categories: 1) outright non-compliance for which aircraft are grounded; 2) perceived compliance, but poor workmanship, which could cause issues such as chafing of the wiring that could result in mandatory groundings; 3) basic compliance, but slight deviations in application need to be examined. Once an issue has been identified, airlines should not continue to operate affected aircraft, said the FAA.
  —  The FAA maintains that overall compliance is at 99 percent, but airlines are uneasy about the remaining 1 percent. "We're just wondering what's going to happen next," says Oliver Martins, American Airlines' engineering, planning and quality assurance chief.
  —  The FAA is reviewing its AD and self-disclosure processes to see how they can be improved to minimize ambiguities. As in the past, it continues to work with suppliers and airlines during this review.
  —  Companies should implement SMS and known best practices to internally evaluate themselves and ensure safety.
  —  The FAA is reviewing its oversight of suppliers and the routing of Suspected Unapproved Parts (SUPs). Both may result in further hearings from Congress in months to come.