Description

Provisions for International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Contracting States to regulate for the licensing of persons performing the certification of safety-critical maintenance tasks on aircraft are contained in ICAO Annex 1, Personnel Licensing. The term Technician may be freely interchanged with the equivalent terms Engineer or Mechanic for licensing purposes.

Requirements for Issue

The Annex requires that an applicant for an aircraft maintenance technician licence must demonstrate that they have a level of knowledge relevant to the privileges to be granted and appropriate to the licence being sought. The scope of such knowledge must include awareness of the relevant rules and regulations including airworthiness requirements and of the system for approving aircraft maintenance organisations and their procedures. It should also include an appropriate knowledge of "natural science and aircraft general knowledge, aircraft engineering, aircraft maintenance and human performance". In respect of human performance, Annex 1 specifically directs attention to the Human Factors Training Manual, ICAO Doc 9683, as a source of guidance material to inform the development of appropriate training programmes on human performance.

The Annex also describes minimum practical experience requirements and contains a recommendation that an applicant for a licence should have completed a course of training appropriate to the privileges to be granted prior to issue. Attention is directed to Part D-1 of the Training Manual ICAO Doc 7192 as a source of guidance material for training courses for applicants for an aircraft maintenance licence.

Licence Privileges

The privileges of the holder of an aircraft maintenance licence are envisaged in Annex 1 as being "to certify the aircraft or parts of the aircraft as airworthy after an authorized repair, modification or installation of a powerplant, accessory, instrument, and / or item of equipment, and to sign a maintenance release following inspection, maintenance operations and / or routine servicing." A recommendation that "details of the certification privileges should be endorsed on or attached to the licence, either directly or by reference to another document issued by the Contracting State" is also made.

Further Reading

• ICAO Annex 1

• ICAO Doc 7192 Training Manual

• ICAO Doc 9683 Human Factors Training Manual

• ICAO Doc 8984 Manual of Civil Aviation Medicine - Third Edition, 2012