Aircraft Maintenance Technicians must continuously adapt to the changing environments created by financial concerns of air carriers and regulatory enforcement echoed by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The system is currently designed to function with minimum manpower and maximum regulation, with the technician confronted with an array of regulations, yet is required to work in an environment that rewards those that overlook the regulations to accomplish a multitude of tasks in a minimal amount of time. The unspoken reality is that the entire national aviation system in the United States today is dependent upon the aviation technician who must weigh the Federal Air Regulations on the one side and the ethical reality of providing a safe product to the flying public on the other.

The question remains – is the certified aircraft technician responsible to the customers and flight crews that fly in these airplanes, the airline carrier’s profit margin, or the regulations set forth by Federal regulators? The answer is obviously all three. Aviation technicians are required by law to follow the Federal Air Regulations, adhere to an ethical responsibility to provide an aircraft that’s airworthy and safe, and a responsibility to our employers to provide a financially secure work environment to provide a stable and secure life for our families.

The proposed rule making of the new FAR Part 145 is a major indicator of the changes that will occur in our profession in the very near future.

The introduction of the MSPG3 maintenance system will also serve to further question the authority of the U.S. certified aircraft maintenance technician who will now be required to “overlook” certain maintenance discrepancies on check aircraft. Responsibility for final approval on maintenance performed within the carriers themselves appears to be shifting from the aircraft inspector classification to the basic technician.

This system may further support the philosophy of Part 145 third party maintenance providers (3PMP) in that maintenance provided by non-certified technicians, in repair stations both domestic and abroad, will be supervised by management governed by time constraints following criteria that mainly addresses profit margin.

The consequences of 9/11 and the resultant erosion of the nation’s air transportation system have created an atmosphere of eroded profit margins within the airline industry, and has exploited the weakness and vulnerably of a system that is dominated by corporate greed and a relationship between big business and government that is unsurpassed.

Historically, in our opinion, aircraft maintenance technicians have rarely been affected by changes in the economy, as airplanes require continual maintenance, with a measured increase of required maintenance when aircraft are not being utilized at maximum capacity, yet technicians continue to lose their jobs at an alarming rate.

The cost of aviation fuel has been reduced dramatically from a previous level, and the amount of maintenance farmed out to third party maintenance providers has increased, implying that profit margins will increase significantly in the future, but the question remains as to the price we will all have to pay.