Wilson Says

On Training

I was there, everyone was proud and excited to have our new state-of-the-art airliner in service. Surely customer satisfaction, operational efficiency and profits would all increase.

Three weeks into operation, a ground service vehicle drives into an engines aft nacelle, creating a large hole in the…..“that stuff’s not aluminum” structure. Realizing that sheet metal and rivet guns were useless here, the call went out for the mechanic who was certified for Advanced Composites Repairs. None were found.

With more than eighty mechanics on staff, it was discovered that not a single one had been trained and certified in aircraft composite structural repair! There was Zero stock of any composite repair materials in stores and the aircraft Structures Shop supervisor said “We don’t do fiberglass here”!

My first observation was, that complete ignorance of Advanced Composites can be expensive! The aircraft was grounded for several days, for what could have been a straight forward “overnight” repair. My second observation was that for the cost of this single aircraft being out of service ( AOG ), we could have trained a large number of our mechanics in composites repair, purchased the best repair equipment & supplies and would have been totally prepared for this incident.

“An abundance of training cannot be a guarantee of success. But an absence of training is a guarantee of failure.”

- Gunter O. Eser

Director General, International Air Travel Association

*** (it was an aramid fibre – NomexTM honeycomb sandwich panel)

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