What's Up Doc?

Many aircraft maintenance professionals liken what we do as aircraft maintenance professionals to doctors. After all, doctors are responsible for the health and well-being of their patients. Similarly, we are responsible for the health and well-being of the aircraft we maintain. 

Routine Checkups

Doctors: We have annual checkups with our doctors. There are also other scheduled visits with our doctors such as mammograms and colonoscopies. These routine checkups help our doctors find, diagnose and “fix” discrepancies. Doctors often use additional testing such as blood samples to further understand what is going on with their patients (routine inspections). Sometimes, lab results point to something that is not normal.

Aircraft Mechanics: Aircraft have scheduled visits in the form routine inspection and maintenance intervals. We use these “exams” to find, diagnose and fix any discrepancies.

Non-scheduled Events

Doctors: Sometimes patients schedule a doctor visit because of a particular issue they are having. 

Aircraft Mechanics: Likewise, we sometimes deal with non-scheduled maintenance issues. Oftentimes, it is a pilot who tells us that the aircraft isn’t operating properly. Like doctors, we use our knowledge, experience and skills to figure out the problem. 

FOD Control

Doctors: Surgery is often needed on patients. There were horror stories in the past of medical instruments being left in the body after completing the surgery. Surgical teams now have stringent “FOD control” programs in place to prevent this from happening. Every surgical instrument and other items like gauze are inventoried before surgery and after surgery is complete before closing the patient.

Aircraft Mechanics: We also realize the significant problem FOD can cause. Many companies have FOD control programs in place. We inventory our tools before and after each task. Oftentimes, toolboxes are shadowed with each tool having its own place in a drawer. This makes it easy to see if there are any missing tools. There are also “smart” toolboxes that use RFID, optical scans and other technology to help identify missing tools.

High-level of responsibility

Doctors: Doctors have a high level of responsibility. A misdiagnosis or error during surgery could lead to the death of their patient.

Aircraft Mechanics: I would argue that aircraft mechanics have an ever-higher level of responsibility. A misdiagnosis of the problem, an error during a repair, or not following proper procedures could possibly lead to the deaths of numerous people.

Aircraft mechanics have many tools at our disposal to help correct discrepancies. Sometimes we use data from onboard diagnostic systems to help determine the cause. We also have other tools at our disposal such as non-destructive testing, visual inspections and even artificial intelligence (AI) to help us out. At the end of the day, we are responsible for putting a plan in place to fix the problem. 

To share the similarities that aircraft mechanics have to doctors, some mechanics I know have even used “doctor” in their emails. Two people I think of right off the bat are Ken MacTiernan (jetdr@verizon.net) and Mike Broderick (rotordoc1223@icloud.com).

I guess that’s all for now docs!

Thanks for reading, and we appreciate
your feedback! 

Joe (Doc?) Escobar