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Setting high engineering standards

SriLankan to apply for JAR145
SriLankan Airlines' engineering division is to apply for the JAR145 certification shortly. This certification issued by the global Joint Airworthiness Authority (JAA) would enable the engineering division to carry out repair and maintenance services for other airlines.

Currently the division carries out repair and maintenance activities for its own fleet. To apply for this certification which is very difficult to obtain, the division has been revising its standards and procedures to achieve full compliance. The audit of compliance has been carried out by Lufthansa Technical.

According to Ian Dunning, Senior Manager - Aircraft Maintenance, this would ultimately enable the division to be self-run. He said, "We have the facility and capacity. Our capabilities now meet the requirements of the JAA. All we need is to get a commitment from a potential customer before making a formal application to the JAA. We expect third party work to commence early next year".

The JAR145 was developed by the European body to make repair and maintenance work of airlines less costly by confining the work to the region the airlines belongs to. Earlier some of these airlines had to be flown to certified facilities in distant locations to carry out mandatory checks and repairs.

By Akhry Ameer
As we enter the Sri Lankan Airlines engineering hangar the board above the entrance about the men behind the scenes attracts our attention.

With this in mind we enter the hangar and within is the airline's newest acquisition, an Airbus A320. Wrapped entirely in polythene the aircraft was being given its initiation, the painting of the 'Monara' logo. "This is one of the duties that we now carry out," explains Ian Dunning, the Senior Manager - Aircraft Maintenance.

Incidentally most of the transformation from the older "Airlanka" designs were carried out by the engineering division, thus saving a large cost that otherwise would have been incurred when outsourced. Walking further ahead we see another aircraft of the SriLankan fleet having its carpets replaced while checks were being carried out. Very soon, the hangar will possibly hold even the biggest commercial airlines such as the Boeing 747, which the hangar has been designed to accommodate. The engineering division is currently working towards a European certification called Joint Airworthiness Requirements (JAR 145) that will enable it to carry out the repair, maintenance and service of aircraft belonging to other airlines.

When asked as to why SriLankan Airlines engineering division wants to venture into such a field, hitherto unknown facts were revealed. Says Dunning; "SriLankan Airlines's technical reliability is high and has always been above average. This is very credible considering where we are, because support from manufacturers is limited due to the distance from Europe. Besides this we have adequate capacity after attending to our own fleet. We can work on three or four planes at once, the only limitation being man hours."

After the July 26, 2001 airport LTTE attack last year this division was tested to its maximum, having to work on three aircraft simultaneously in conjunction with the manufacturer.

Aircraft generally go through a complete scrutiny called a 'C' check every 15 months after 4,000 flying hours. This check which lasts 10 days includes a major structural inspection and other complex tests and takes up as much as 10,000 man hours of the engineering division. It is an internationally regulated procedure and has to be certified by the division. Other checks include the 'A' and 'B' checks which are conducted more frequently for changing of filters and other inspections. The engineering division is fully equipped both technically and mechanically to carry out these checks.

Yet another ability that was rated high by the maintenance manager, a British national who has completed 11 years of service having been around since the Airlanka days, was the high level of mechanical aptitude of the Sri Lankan technicians who have been trained locally. He added, "I would say the best asset here is the staff. They display a high level of mechanical aptitude and work with less supervision. Because of this I am secure in the thought that aircraft are maintained well above the required standards."

The airline which has around 650 working in the engineering division has also been vested with the authority to certify technicians. Hence the airline recruits local staff and conducts its own training programmes. The training lasts three years at the end of which they sit an examination and face an interview before being certified as an aircraft technician. After the certification the airline absorbs most of the successful trainees into its cadre. Dunning said another such programme would commence next year in which 50 new applicants will undergo training. After the certification, if the technicians wish to pursue their career they need to undergo a further four years of training before becoming a licensed engineer, the position which gives authority to certify and release aircraft after a check. However, the training does not end at this point and every engineer including the senior manager himself has to continuously undergo what is known as type training every 24 months. The type training allows engineers to repair only the specified aircraft types.

The duties of the Sri Lankan engineering division are not confined to SriLankan's fleet even at present. The engineering division also handles technical ground handling for all aircraft that use the Bandaranaike International Airport. This is because even an aspect like refuelling has to be certified by an aircraft technician, in addition to providing maintenance services.

Having heard all these achievements I recalled having seen reports of aircraft having to dump fuel and return to the airport for emergency landing due to various technical faults, and asked Dunning about it. He immediately gave us an exclusive tour of the restricted area of the aircraft.

Down in an A320's hull, Dunning explained - showing an array of about 50 computers like sealed boxes - the need for such precautions. His explanation was that there are over 1,000 feet of cabling within the aircraft linking these computers some of which are in duplicate, and sometimes there can be a glitch which gives an incorrect signal. On a new aircraft such as an A320 that are predominantly computer controlled and flown-based on a dark screen concept, a glitch of this nature lights up the computer monitor signalling a problem. These problems are diagnosed according to a given procedure and this may well mean that the aircraft has to cut short its journey.

However, as Dunning points out these problems are not unique to SriLankan. This happens in airlines around the world but such cases are not reported in Sri Lanka. Hence any such instance in Sri Lanka raises questions from the media and the public.

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