Sign-Off After an Unrecorded Repair
A B1.1 engineer is asked to certify the completion of a scheduled check on an aircraft that has just come from another maintenance organisation. The paperwork shows a repair to a flap track fairing carried out 3 days earlier, but the repair record lacks the approved data reference, the material batch number, and the signature of the person who did the work. The fairing repair looks sound and the aircraft has flown 6 sectors since. The engineer's own inspection finds no defect in the repair. The operator's deadline is tight and the previous organisation is uncontactable until the next day. The engineer's company procedures require that all repairs be traceable to approved data before release.
1. Decide whether the engineer can certify the check with the repair record as it stands.
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The engineer cannot certify the check as complete while the repair is untraceable. Company procedures, and the underlying airworthiness requirement, demand that repairs be shown to conform to approved data with material traceability and an identifiable signatory. A repair that looks sound is not the same as a repair shown to be correct; the missing data reference means the engineer cannot confirm the method, the material, or the fastener torque were as approved. The 6 sectors flown without defect are encouraging but do not substitute for documentation. The engineer should not sign the certificate of release. The correct path is to obtain the missing record from the previous organisation, or to re-perform and re-certify the repair under the engineer's own organisation's approved data, documenting the material batch and the work.
2. Explain the airworthiness and commercial pressures and how the engineer should manage them.
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The commercial pressure is the operator's deadline and the unavailability of the previous organisation until the next day. The airworthiness position is that the aircraft must not be released for flight with an untraceable repair unless the engineer can establish conformity by other approved means. The engineer should inform the operator in writing that release is withheld pending traceability, offer the option of re-performing the repair under approved data if the operator needs the aircraft sooner, and record the decision in the maintenance documentation. Signing off on the basis that the repair looks acceptable would be a false certification and would expose the engineer and the organisation. The engineer's duty is to the airworthiness of the aircraft, and the deadline does not change that duty.