Par 9-1 Page 37 CHAPTER 9. CONTRACT MAINTENANCE
9-1. MAINTENANCE PROVIDERS. As a result of confusion related to the meaning of various terms such as contract maintenance, outsource maintenance, outsource contract maintenance, outsource maintenance provider (OMP), and substantial maintenance, we have standardized all these terms to two terms in this AC.
• When we say “contract maintenance,” we mean any maintenance, preventive maintenance, or alterations accomplished by an air carrier maintenance provider.
However, you always retain primary responsibility for any contract maintenance accomplished by your air carrier maintenance providers.
• When we say “air carrier maintenance provider” or “maintenance provider,” we mean any person with whom you, an air carrier, have made arrangements for the accomplishment of any of your maintenance, preventive maintenance, or alterations.
a. Essential Maintenance. Essential maintenance encompasses any RII on wing accomplished after any maintenance or alteration. This maintenance, if done improperly or if improper parts or materials were used, would result in a failure effect that would endanger the continued safe flight and landing of the airplane. Essential maintenance is the accomplishment of the air carrier designated inspection item on wing. Essential maintenance does not encompass any off-wing maintenance.
b. Maintenance Provider List. Under our maintenance manual rules, we require you to list each person who accomplishes contract maintenance for you in your manual. In this listing, we also require you to identify each of your maintenance providers by name, location, and a general description of the work. We recommend that you identify the description of work for your maintenance providers using the following five categories. If you operate more than one type of aircraft, the categories should include the type of aircraft. For categories four and five, you should include the type of specialized service or the kind of component, as appropriate.
These lists are used for your CASS functions and should have that level of detail needed by your maintenance provider surveillance and audit planning functions.
(1) Aircraft maintenance;
(a) Heavy maintenance.
(b) Line maintenance.
(2) Aircraft engine work;
(3) Propeller work;
(4) Component work; and
(5) Specialized service.
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c. Essential Maintenance Provider List. For your essential maintenance providers, you should have a means to identify, within your list, those maintenance providers who accomplish essential maintenance for you. You should also identify the specific required inspection that you have authorized each essential maintenance provider to accomplish for you in your maintenance provider list.
9-2. RESPONSIBILITY FOR MAINTENANCE PERFORMED BY OTHERS. Consistent with §§ 121.1(b), 135.1(a)(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 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 (refer to subparagraph 3-2c). You should accomplish this through work-in-progress audits while the maintenance provider is actually 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 contract maintenance. You should arrange the technical material that you provide for the use and guidance of the maintenance provider. When possible, you should have a written contract with anyone performing contract maintenance for you on a continuing basis. This will help ensure that 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.
9-3. UNSCHEDULED CONTRACT 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 employees and your maintenance providers that the 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 that you will take to control and direct the unscheduled maintenance accomplished by your maintenance provider. 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 method of determination should be in your manual.
Par 9-4 Page 39
9-4. 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 RTS after you accomplish any maintenance, preventive maintenance, and alterations. These sections do not authorize any person other than you to approve your aircraft for RTS. Sections 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 135 on your behalf. These regulations require a certificated repairman or certificated 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 RTS authority remains solely with you. An individual may not issue an approval for RTS for your aircraft unless you authorize them to do so.
a. Log Entry or Airworthiness Release Form. 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 unairworthy. This arrangement does not reduce the responsibility of maintenance personnel to accomplish maintenance functions or tasks in accordance with your manual.
b. Procedures for Log Entry or Airworthiness Release Form. 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. Our regulations require you to make a log entry or complete an Airworthiness Release Form 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 Form. Other than form or format, there is no legal or technical difference between an Airworthiness Release Form and a log entry.
9-5. EVALUATING NEW 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. You should use a risk assessment process to determine whether to accomplish an onsite audit or not. Your risk assessment should take into account what happens (the failure effect) when the aircraft part or aircraft system that the maintenance provider works on fails. If the failure effect is safety, your procedures should mandate an initial onsite audit along with recurrent onsite audits, as well as the posting of a resident employee at the maintenance provider’s facility, who is assigned audit and oversight duties.
Page 40 Par 9-5 NOTE: Since the failure effect of parts and systems that come under essential maintenance is safety, we expect you to have robust policies and procedures to qualify, supervise, and control these maintenance providers, which should include onsite audits.
9-6. 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 onsite 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 serve to determine that your maintenance providers 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 provider’s continuing compliance with part 121 subpart L or part 135 subpart J, as appropriate, and your maintenance program.
9-7. USING A CRS AS ONE OF YOUR MAINTENANCE PROVIDERS.
a. Arrangements for Maintenance. If you decide to exercise your authority under § 121.379 or § 135.437 to make arrangements with other persons to accomplish contract maintenance for you as provided in your manual, you may choose to make these arrangements with an FAA CRS, but these rules do not require you to do so. The scope of your authorization to make arrangements for maintenance is very broad; you can make arrangements for maintenance with any person as that term is defined in § 1.1 as long as that maintenance provider accomplishes your maintenance in accordance with your manual and maintenance program.
Although the § 1.1 term “person” includes a CRS, it also includes anyone who does not hold an FAA certification.
b. Part 145 Maintenance Provider. 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 145 requirements (refer to paragraph 8-3). Further, your § 121.379(b) or § 135.437(b) authorization to approve your aircraft for RTS 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 10-1 Page 41 CHAPTER 10. PERSONNEL TRAINING
10-1. 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 that maintenance personnel are competent. FAA regulations allow you to develop a training program fitting your particular needs.
10-2. 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 you should base 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 you would assign a particular task or function.
10-3. INITIAL TRAINING. You should provide initial training right after you hire an employee, or when your existing employees 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, hazmat, or Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) 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.
10-4. 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:
• Continuing competency training designed to maintain regulatory and certificate currency requirements.
• Refresher training on a seldom-accomplished task or seldom-used skill.
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• Update training for particular tasks or skills. Update training can include training bulletins, bulletinboard items, self-study tasks, and computer-based instruction (CBI).
• Any other continuing education or training that may not be provided on a defined schedule.
10-5. SPECIALIZED TRAINING. Your specialized training should focus on competence in specific tasks or areas of responsibility, such as RII, borescope, nondestructive 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.
10-6. 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 (MEL) procedures would not be required for aircraft interior cleaners, but would be required for maintenance personnel assigned to oncall 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.
10-7. 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 competency-based 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. When to Require Competency-Based Training. You could use competency-based training 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 (OJT). You should design competency-based training to fix an immediate knowledge or skill deficiency and
Par 10-7 Page 43 (and 44) 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. Competency Deficiencies. 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. Competency Improvement Training. You should orient your competency improvement training toward correcting personnel competence deficiencies that you have identified through your CASS.
Par 11-1 Page 45 CHAPTER 11. CONTINUING ANALYSIS AND SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM
11-1. 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 air carrier 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. Regulations. Responding to this finding, we introduced regulations (§§ 121.373 and 135.431) that require you to establish and maintain a system for the CASS of the performance and effectiveness of your maintenance program.
b. Correcting Deficiencies. These regulations further require that you include a process in your CASS to correct any deficiency identified in your maintenance program, regardless of whether you did the work or had a maintenance provider do the work.
11-2. CASS IS A SAFETY MANAGEMENT TOOL. A CASS is your system for managing safety as it relates to maintenance functions. As a tool to manage safety, it is part of your overall structure of policies and procedures that you use to ensure your operations are to the highest possible degree of safety. It is a structured, methodical process that helps you reach your maintenance program objectives. CASS is the only management system that we currently mandate by regulation. If you use it properly, your CASS becomes an inherent way of doing business for you, and helps you to promote a culture of safety in your company by providing a formal process for your employees to identify and correct safety deficiencies. 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 maintenance program functions that you must manage.
11-3. BASIC CASS PROCESSES.
a. CASS Processes. 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 are implemented.
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(4) Followup. A performance measurement process that you use to verify that your corrective actions are effective. This is also an information gathering and analysis process, thereby closing the loop.
b. Using an Audit Program.
(1) 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.
(2) 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 writeups, and unconfirmed component or part removals.
c. Data Analysis. In the second step, you will analyze the data to identify indications of maintenance program weaknesses. Your data 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. Developing Corrective Action. 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. Conduct a Followup Measurement Process. 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 has effectively corrected the deficiency that 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 you need a special information gathering procedure is part of your analysis that you accomplished in step three.
f. Aspects of Surveillance. 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
Par 11-3 Page 47 maintenance program, and the regulations require it. 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.
11-4. RISK-BASED DECISIONS. All effective CASSs take into account the need to manage risk to an acceptable level, as well as the practical limitations that you must face when addressing deficiencies. Consequently, you must set priorities and make choices for planning audits and 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 that the resulting maintenance program achieves its objectives.
11-5. SCOPE OF A CASS. The 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.
11-6. CASS DESIGN PRINCIPLES.
a. 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. CASS Design. 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