2011-10 · NASA ASRS report 978633
Two mechanics report discrepancies with Confirmation Checks that were accomplished on a Service Work Card and a Chip Detector Card for the #2 Engine of a B737-800 aircraft. Signature Blocks on the Work Cards that should have had Not Applicable (N/A) entered were left blank. Qualifications of Mechanic doing Confirmation Checks had previously expired.
October 2011; I was assigned to perform maintenance on three aircraft for the Graveyard Shift. I was working with fellow Mechanic Y. We were assigned to perform a Service Work Card in addition to a Chip Detector Card for the Number Two engine. Mechanic Y performed the maintenance function of the work card and I [confirmed] his work. The error I made was that I am not RII qualified. My qualification had expired some time ago. I was not aware at the time that the Work Card required an RII qualification Check; I thought that it just required a Confirmation Check. We had a very heavy work load that night and knew that there where some changes that occurred previously by Maintenance and Engineering concerning Confirmation and RII sign-offs. I would not have [confirmed] the maintenance work if I knew I was not qualified to sign the check off. I am now aware of my actions and I will say that the error will never occur again. I would like to see more information made available when changes occur within our Maintenance and Engineering department concerning paperwork. I have to put blame on myself for not being aware of the necessary qualification involved in the Confirmation Check sign-off.
It has been brought to my attention that in October 2011; I inadvertently failed to [apply] Not Applicable (N/A) to certain blocks on a Work Card assigned to a B737-800 aircraft that night. I failed in my duties to N/A those certain blocks; indicating to someone else reading that Work Card; that AFTER said maintenance was done being performed and the aircraft was gone; there was no way for anyone to know that I had intended to N/A those blocks; indicating that there were no debris found during the inspection; and that no further action was necessary. I also did not include any other supporting facts of any debris found on the chip detectors such as taking photos of the debris; sending them to Engineering and identifying debris if possible and attaching them to the sheet and mailing them to Engineering and Management. The deletion of that information forces one to make assumptions [about] what was actually done and how it was performed. No one should ever have to make an assumption on paperwork that has been issued to an aircraft. I take this matter very seriously and take full responsibility for my mistake. The mistake was purely innocent and unintentional. I had no intention; not to include the necessary supporting N/A's in the Signature Blocks but the omission has already happened. Why event occurred: Bad habits. I have a bad habit of signing my signature blocks and going back and N/A-ing blocks. I am going to stop this practice immediately. [Our] Air Carrier also has a system to catch things like this; the 'Work Package Review'; the practice is supposed to catch things like this. When I seen the work package; the review hadn't been signed for. Perhaps the work package got mixed up with the others on the Lead Mechanic's desk and just got missed. Sometimes there can be a bunch on the desk. I will treat every signature block as it should be; individually.
More incidents for this aircraft family
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.
We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.
Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.
Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.