Approved Maintenance Organisations
Part-145 in practice
A Part-145 organisation may maintain and release aircraft and components used in commercial air transport. Core requirements: an approved Maintenance Organisation Exposition (MOE) describing procedures and scope; suitable facilities, tooling and storage; current maintenance data; an accountable manager plus nominated post-holders; sufficient certifying staff (145.A.30); a documented quality/management system with independent audits and occurrence reporting; a work-order system; and record retention of three years.
Privileges (145.A.75) cover line and base maintenance, specialised services and component maintenance. After work, certification of maintenance (145.A.50) produces a certificate of release to service; components receive an EASA Form 1. Changes to the organisation, scope or MOE need prior approval (145.A.85), and findings must be corrected within the agreed period (145.A.95).
Traps: assuming a Part-145 organisation can also manage continuing airworthiness - that is a Part-CAMO function. A Part-145 approval does not include the airworthiness review or the issue of an ARC. Another trap is believing that the MOE is optional or that the quality function may report to the production manager; independence is required.
Rule of thumb: Part-145 answers "who may do the work and sign it off"; Part-CAMO answers "who decides what must be done and when".
Worked example: an operator asks an AMO to extend a scheduled check interval. The AMO cannot: it must work to approved data and the approved maintenance programme. Any interval change is the CAMO's task, approved by the competent authority.