Par 900 Page 33 CHAPTER 9. CONTRACT MAINTENANCE
900. RESPONSIBILITY FOR MAINTENANCE PERFORMED BY OTHERS. Consistent with §§ 121.1(b), 135.1(b)(2) and others, when you use a maintenance provider to accomplish all or part of the maintenance activities on your airplane or its component parts, that maintenance provider becomes, in effect, part of your maintenance organization and under your control.
However, §§ 121.363 and 135.413 make it clear that you remain primarily responsible for all of the maintenance performed by that maintenance provider on your aircraft. You must determine that the maintenance provider has the capability to do your work on your behalf, direct their work, and determine that their work was done satisfactorily according to your manual and your standards. Because all work on your aircraft must be performed in accordance with your maintenance manual and your maintenance program, you must also provide the maintenance provider with appropriate material from your maintenance manual for that work. You must ensure that the maintenance provider follows the procedures in your manual that you have provided. You should accomplish this through work-in-progress audits while the maintenance provider is accomplishing the work. Your manual system should accommodate work performed for you by each maintenance provider. The policy and procedures portion of your maintenance manual should assign clear authority and responsibilities and outline procedures for your personnel to administer, control, and direct all contracted work. The technical material that you provide should be arranged for the use and guidance of the maintenance provider. When possible, you should have a written contract with anyone performing maintenance work for you on a continuing basis. This will help ensure your responsibilities are addressed. In the case of major operations, such as engine, propeller, or airframe overhaul, the contract should include a specification for the work. You should include or reference that specification in your manual system.
901. UNSCHEDULED MAINTENANCE PERFORMED AWAY FROM REGULAR FACILITIES. Sometimes, you will need maintenance performed on your aircraft while it is away from your regular maintenance facilities. You also may need maintenance services on short notice. Your maintenance manual should include procedures for obtaining these services under these unanticipated conditions. You should never use the term “emergency maintenance” to describe short notice unscheduled maintenance, as such terms imply to your workforce that FAA’s regulations and your procedures do not have to be followed. Emergency means that a serious situation has occurred unexpectedly, involves a peril to life or property, and demands immediate action. An out of commission aircraft parked on an airport ramp could hardly constitute a peril to life or property. You should outline the procedural steps you will take to control and direct the unscheduled maintenance that is required. Unscheduled, short-notice requirements for maintenance do not void your responsibility to determine that your maintenance provider has the organization, adequate facilities and equipment, competent personnel, and appropriate portions of your manual for the work that needs to be done. These determinations must be made before any maintenance provider starts to work on your aircraft. These procedures and determinations should be in your manual.
902. AIRWORTHINESS RELEASE FORM OR AIRCRAFT LOG ENTRY.
Sections 121.379(b) and 135.437(b) authorize you to approve your aircraft, airframes, aircraft engines, propellers, or appliances for return to service after you accomplish any maintenance, preventive maintenance, and alterations. These sections only authorize any person other than you
Page 34 Par 902 to approve your aircraft for return to service. §§ 121.709(b) and 135.443(b) outline requirements for those personnel making a Log Entry or issuing an air carrier Airworthiness Release Form under part 121 or part 135. These regulations require a certificated repairman, or certificated airframe and powerplant mechanic that you authorize to make the Log Entry or issue the Airworthiness Release Form for you. These regulations clearly do not authorize a repair station certificated under part 145 or any other entity to make an Airworthiness Release Form or Log Entry on your behalf. The regulations set forth clear personnel qualification requirements for each individual you so authorize. The approval for return to service authority remains solely with you. An individual may not issue an approval for return to service for your aircraft unless you authorize them to do so.
a. You must designate each individual authorized to execute the Log Entry or Airworthiness Release Form for you by name and occupational title. The individual making the Log Entry or Airworthiness Release Form acts as your authorized agent. He or she certifies that the maintenance was accomplished according to your maintenance manual and maintenance program procedures and that no known condition exists that would make the aircraft non-airworthy. This arrangement does not reduce the responsibility of maintenance personnel to accomplish maintenance functions or tasks in accordance with your manual.
b. Consistent with §§ 121.709(b)(1) and 135.443(b)(1), you must include in your maintenance manual the procedures for making an aircraft Airworthiness Release Form or Log Entry. A Log Entry or Airworthiness Release Form is required to be accomplished before you can operate your aircraft for any reason after you have accomplished any maintenance. You are required to make a Log Entry or an Airworthiness Release. Other than form or format, there is no legal or technical difference between an Airworthiness Release Form and a Log Entry.
903. EVALUATING NEW CONTRACT MAINTENANCE PROVIDERS. Before you can use a maintenance provider for the first time, you must determine that the maintenance provider candidate complies with pertinent requirements of part 121, subpart L, or part 135, subpart J. In most cases, you would conduct an onsite audit. You must demonstrate, through this audit or by some other means, that the maintenance provider has an adequate organization, adequate facilities and equipment, competent personnel and is capable of performing the work consistent with the requirements of your program. Your determination of whether to accomplish an on-site audit should be based on risk assessment. The risk assessment should take into account the aircraft part failure or system loss of function, and the consequence of the loss of function related to the work being accomplished.
904. CONTINUING MAINTENANCE PROVIDER OVERSIGHT. Ensuring that each one of your maintenance providers is in continuous compliance is a major function of your CASS.
You should use your risk-based process for establishing a schedule for auditing and inspecting each of your maintenance providers. Inherent with a risk-based process, you may determine that some of your maintenance providers do not require an on-site audit. Consistent with the “performance” wording of § 121.373 or 135.431, the audits that you accomplish should be primarily work-in-progress audits that determine if the maintenance personnel are following your manual. The audits should be accomplished by trained auditors, and the results analyzed by trained analysts. The results of the analysis should permit you to determine each maintenance
Par 904 Page 35 (and 36) provider’s continuing compliance with part 121, subpart L, or part 135, subpart J, as appropriate, and your maintenance program.
905. USING A CERTIFICATED REPAIR STATION AS ONE OF YOUR MAINTENANCE PROVIDERS.
a. If you decide to exercise your authority under §§ 121.379 or 135.437 to make arrangements with other persons to perform maintenance, preventive maintenance, and alterations for you as provided in your manual, you may choose to make these arrangements with an FAA certificated repair station, but you are not required to do so. The scope of your authorization to make arrangements for maintenance is very broad; you can make these arrangements for maintenance with any “person” as that term is defined at 14 CFR § 1.1.
Although the 14 CFR § 1.1 term “person” includes a certificated repair station, it also clearly does not exclude any other “person” who does not hold an FAA certification.
b. The air carrier regulatory and maintenance program requirements that you would use to qualify a maintenance provider that holds a current part 145 repair station certificate are exactly the same as those that you would use for a maintenance provider who does not hold a current part 145 repair station certificate; there is no difference. Consistent with §§ 119.1(c), 121.1(b) or 135(b)(1), each “person,” whether certificated or not, that is employed or used by you for any maintenance, preventative maintenance or alteration of your aircraft is required to comply with the part 121 requirements and your maintenance program requirements, not part 65 or part 145 requirements.
c. Further, your §§ 121.379(b) or 135.437(b) authorization to approve your aircraft for return to service after maintenance extends to the work accomplished under your §§ 121.379(a) or 135.437(a) authorization to make arrangements with other “persons” for maintenance.
Par 1000 Page 37 CHAPTER 10. PERSONNEL TRAINING 1000. MAINTENANCE PROGRAM TRAINING REQUIREMENTS. You can find your specific air carrier maintenance training requirements in certain sections of part 121, subpart L, and part 135, subpart J. Sections 121.375 and 135.433 require you to have a training program that ensures each person (including inspection personnel) who determines the adequacy of work done for you is fully informed about procedures and techniques and new equipment in use and is competent to perform his or her duties. There is an additional implied training requirement in part 121, subpart L, and part 135, subpart J based on your responsibility to provide competent personnel for the proper performance of your maintenance program. A training program is the logical means for ensuring maintenance personnel are competent. FAA regulations allow you to develop a training program fitting your particular needs.
1001. TYPES OF TRAINING. Some of the possible types of training in your training program are initial training, recurrent training, specialized training, competency-based training, and maintenance-provider training. You should select the appropriate training for your personnel, including your maintenance provider personnel, which is based on an assessment of training needs. This assessment is a reflection of the required knowledge, skills, and ability to properly accomplish a given task or function and the current capability of those who would be assigned the task or function.
1002. INITIAL TRAINING. You should provide initial training right after a person is hired, or when your personnel begin to work on new equipment or a new assignment. Your initial training program may include subjects such as employee indoctrination or orientation, maintenance department policies and procedures, maintenance recordkeeping and documentation, aircraft systems or ground equipment, specific skills (for example, avionics, composite repair, aircraft run-up and taxi), skills upgrade, human factors, task-specific training, hazardous materials, or Environmental Protection Agency and Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations familiarization. Your initial training should also include a competence-based assessment of employees. This evaluates an employee’s previous training and experience and helps identify his or her specific individual training needs. The objective is to provide training that addresses the gap between required competence and the competence an individual already has.
1003. RECURRENT TRAINING. Recurrent training is education occurring on a repetitive basis. You must provide maintenance personnel with the information and skills necessary to maintain your standard of competence. This training also accommodates the introduction of new aircraft, aircraft modifications; new or different ground equipment; new procedures, techniques, and methods; or other new information. Your recurrent training, although occurring on a repetitive basis, may not adhere to a defined schedule. You should not provide repetitive information in recurrent training unless it is needed to maintain the desired degree of competence. Your recurrent training may include:
a. Continuing competency training designed to maintain regulatory and certificate currency requirements.
b. Refresher training on a seldom accomplished task or seldom used skill.
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c. Update training for particular tasks or skills. Update training can include training bulletins, bulletin-board items, self-study tasks, and computer-based instruction.
d. Any other continuing education or training that may not be provided on a defined schedule.
1004. SPECIALIZED TRAINING. Your specialized training should focus on competence in specific tasks or areas of responsibility, such as RII, borescope, non-destructive testing, or flight control rigging. You might provide this training with initial or recurrent training. You do not need to limit it to maintenance subjects, but instead may include management skills training for new supervisors, computer skills, or other training necessary because of a change in an individual’s duties and responsibilities.
1005. MAINTENANCE PROVIDER TRAINING. Your training program must provide appropriate information to each employee of a maintenance provider about your specific program. The training should include function-specific training appropriate to each person’s job assignment or area of responsibility. You do not need to provide training to maintenance provider personnel in areas that do not concern them. For example, training on aircraft log procedures and minimum equipment list procedures would not be required for aircraft interior cleaners, but would be required for maintenance personnel assigned to on-call maintenance for you.
NOTE: If your maintenance provider has specific types of training for its personnel, you do not need to duplicate that training for those individuals.
However, you must ensure your maintenance provider actually has provided the training and that the training meets your own needs and training standards. This could be a CASS work-in-progress audit.
1006. COMPETENCY-BASED TRAINING. Although air carriers historically have provided a specified number of maintenance training hours to ensure employees have the competencies needed for their jobs, studies have shown that it may be better for you to train to a competencybased standard. You do not have to perform this type of training on a defined schedule or for a specific number of hours. Rather, you should test each individual to evaluate what training he or she needs, and then use these evaluations to identify those personnel who retain a high level of subject competence and who may not require a particular block of instruction. Conversely, you also should identify those individuals who require more training. Training to competence permits you to tailor training programs to the specific requirements of your individual maintenance personnel and maintenance providers.
a. Competency-based training can be used to raise an employee’s level of competence to that level required by the individual’s duties and responsibilities. You should have procedures to determine when an individual requires competency-based training. You may determine the need for this type of training through pre- or post-employment testing, or through the analysis and corrective action functions of your CASS. If you use competency-based training, it should specifically address the lack of competence. In some instances, competency-based training may consist of an appropriately knowledgeable person simply reviewing procedures with an employee through on-the-job training. You should design competency-based training to fix an
Par 1006 Page 39 (and 40) immediate knowledge or skill deficiency and the training may focus on one individual or a small group. You may include competency-based training in your initial or recurrent training requirements.
b. For those circumstances where you identify a competency deficiency through investigation of an event, your competency-based training should show an individual what happened, why it happened, and demonstrate, in a positive manner, how to prevent it from happening again.
c. Your competency improvement training should be oriented toward correcting personnel competence deficiencies that may be identified through your CASS.
Par 1100 Page 41 CHAPTER 11. CONTINUING ANALYSIS AND SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM (CASS) 1100. BACKGROUND OF THE CASS. Introduction of the CASS requirement resulted from an FAA-industry study of a series of maintenance-related air carrier accidents occurring during the 1950s. The study found that, in many cases, the primary causal factor of an accident was a fundamental weakness or weaknesses in the maintenance program. The study found that in some cases maintenance personnel failed to accomplish required maintenance tasks or failed to accomplish the task correctly. They simply didn’t follow the manual. In other cases, the study found that the maintenance program, even when followed as planned and documented, was not effective in preventing the situation that led to the accident. It did not produce the desired results.
a. Responding to this finding, the FAA introduced regulations (§§ 121.373 and 135.431) that require air carriers to establish and maintain a system for the continuing analysis and surveillance of the performance and effectiveness of their inspection, maintenance, preventive maintenance, and alterations programs.
b. These regulations further require that the air carrier’s CASS provide a process to correct any deficiency identified in those programs, regardless of whether the work was accomplished directly by the air carrier or by other persons.
1101. CASS IS A SAFETY MANAGEMENT TOOL. A CASS is your system for managing safety as it relates to maintenance functions. As a safety management tool, it is part of the overall structure of policies and procedures that you use to ensure operations are to the highest degree of safety. It is a structured, methodical process that helps you reach your maintenance program objectives. CASS is the only management system currently mandated by regulation. If you use it properly, your CASS becomes an inherent way of doing business for you, and helps you promote a culture of safety in your company by providing a formal process for employees to identify and correct safety discrepancies. As you will see in the following brief discussion of the structure of a CASS, the same objectives of measuring and continuously improving the performance (program execution) and effectiveness (program results) of a major function (maintenance) apply equally to all safety-related functions that must be managed by an air carrier.
1102. BASIC CASS PROCESSES.
a. Your CASS is a risk-based, closed-loop system that has four basic processes:
(1) Surveillance. An information gathering/audit process you use to collect data to measure your program execution and measure your program results.
(2) Analysis. An analysis process you use to identify any maintenance program deficiencies and any necessary corrective actions.
(3) Corrective Action. A planning process you use to ensure that your corrective actions and implementation steps are well-defined.
(4) Followup. A followup, performance measurement process you use to verify that your corrective actions are performed and are effective. This is also an information-gathering and analysis process, thereby, closing the loop.
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b. During the first step, surveillance, you will gather and obtain data using an audit program to support measurement of performance (program execution). Your audit program should be well-structured, based on risk assessment, and accomplished by individuals trained and skilled specifically at auditing. Consistent with the wording of the regulation, your primary type of audit should be work-in-progress audits that evaluate if the worker is following the manual.
Your auditors would also look at areas such as manuals and other maintenance technical data, aircraft condition, actual in-process maintenance practices, training, publications, and ground operations. In addition, information gathering to obtain data that will support the measurement of effectiveness (program results) is generally a collection of flight operational data such as accidents/incidents, mechanical delays and cancellations, in-flight engine shutdowns, unscheduled landings, engine performance, pilot log book write-ups, and unconfirmed components or parts removals.
c. In the second step, you will analyze the data to identify indications of maintenance program weaknesses. Your analysis should be accomplished by individuals experienced and/or trained as analysts. One of your key objectives here is to not only identify a weakness, but to determine its root cause. This is where your knowledge of human factors becomes critical.
d. Based on the results of your analysis, the third step is for you to develop a corrective action, if necessary, again taking into account human factors so that your corrective action is likely to be successful. Once you determine what the corrective action is, you will develop and implement a corrective action plan.
e. To close the loop, the fourth step of your CASS will have you conduct a followup measurement process using surveillance and analysis to verify that your corrective action was implemented properly and completely and that it has effectively corrected the deficiency you identified. You can design this followup data gathering process specifically for the issue of interest, or you can make it a part of your continuing surveillance that is the first step of your CASS. Determining if a special information gathering is needed is part of your analysis that you accomplished in step three.
f. Note that both the initial and followup surveillance can and should have proactive and reactive aspects to them. In the case of audits, by auditing systems and procedures, as well as specific transactions, the analysis of audit results can identify weaknesses in a process.
Correcting these weaknesses before a problem results is a proactive approach. An audit also may uncover a missed or improper maintenance action. Investigating this finding and correcting the immediate problem is a reactive process. Developing and implementing a corrective action to prevent a similar future event is equally important for improving the maintenance program, and it is required by the regulations. Similarly, your analysis of operational performance data from a systems point of view can result in identification of a system’s weakness before a specific unwanted event, such as a cancellation, occurs, which is a proactive process. Investigating and correcting an undesirable operational event related to the maintenance program after it has occurred, though reactive, also is a necessary and desirable procedure.
1103. RISK-BASED DECISIONS. All effective CASS take into account the need to manage risk to an acceptable level, as well as the practical limitations that must be faced when addressing deficiencies. Consequently, you must set priorities and make choices for planning audits and
Par 1103 Page 43 other information gathering activities, analyzing data, and selecting and implementing corrective actions. You should tie setting such priorities directly to a risk assessment process, so the resulting maintenance program achieves its objectives.
1104. SCOPE OF CASS. CASS monitors all 10 elements of your maintenance program:
• Airworthiness responsibility,
• Air carrier maintenance manual,
• Air carrier maintenance organization,
• Accomplishment and approval of maintenance and alterations,
• Maintenance schedule,
• RII,
• Maintenance recordkeeping system,
• Contract maintenance,
• Personnel training, and
• CASS.
1105. CASS DESIGN PRINCIPLES.
a. The following are attributes of system safety:
(1) Clear authority,
(2) Clear responsibility,
(3) Specific written procedures,
(4) Effective controls,
(5) Performance measures, and
(6) Well-defined interfaces.
b. These six system safety attributes should be the starting point for the design of your CASS. It should be clear who in your organization is responsible for and who has authority over the CASS. You should not divide responsibility/ authority into two or more parts due to the likely possibility that activity such as auditing and operations data analysis are poorly coordinated. Typically, in addition to an individual with overall CASS responsibility, you should have a management board or committee to ensure good communications and coordination of all
Page 44 Par 1105 CASS functions and to maintain regular senior level management involvement. This oversight group also can provide a form of control over critical aspects of your CASS operation and measure the performance and effectiveness of the CASS itself.
c. In addition to the many elements within your maintenance organization, there are many interfaces between the CASS and functions or organizational elements of a typical air carrier that are outside maintenance. Some of the more obvious examples are engineering, flight operations, purchasing, safety, and the FAA. It also is important to ensure the CASS relationships to your other programs (if they exist) such as internal evaluation programs, Flight Operations Quality Assurance programs, voluntary disclosures, and Aviation Safety Action Programs, are welldefined and coordinated 1106. CASS PERSONNEL REQUIREMENTS.
a. An effective CASS requires certain skills that may not be readily available within a maintenance organization. For example, auditing skills are not automatically inherent in those skilled in maintenance. Analysis capability, particularly related to root cause determination, risk analysis, and consideration of human factors is specialized and generally requires specific training and experience.
b. For all operators, but particularly for the smaller ones, required personnel can be shared, functions can be performed part-time, and some functions can be accomplished under contract.
However, it is essential that you recognize the need for knowledge and skills that do not necessarily coincide with those resulting from many years of maintenance experience repairing airplanes.
NOTE: You can find more detailed information concerning developing and implementing a CASS in AC 120-79, Developing and Implementing a Continuing Analysis and Surveillance System.