14.7 Maintenance Planning, Stores Control, CRS & Occurrence Reporting

14.7 Maintenance Planning, Stores Control, CRS & Occurrence Reporting

Maintenance planning converts continuing-airworthiness requirements into controlled work. The approved maintenance programme, airworthiness directives, life limits, reliability actions, defect history, and event-driven tasks determine what is due. Individual check labels and intervals vary by aircraft and operator; generic A-, C-, or D-check examples do not create a universal interval.

Scheduled and unscheduled work

A work package identifies the aircraft or component, task scope, current data, access, parts, tooling, personnel, inspections, tests, and release points. Unscheduled defect rectification uses the same controls. New findings are assessed and added to the package or deferred only through an applicable authorised process.

Airworthiness directives are mandatory as stated in the applicable regulatory system. Manufacturer service information becomes mandatory when incorporated by an AD, approved programme, or other binding requirement. Always establish applicability, revision, compliance method, and records.

Stores and component status

Serviceable, unserviceable, quarantined, and scrap material are segregated and identified. Before issue, verify part number, modification and software state where applicable, release documentation, serial or batch identity, life and shelf status, storage condition, and eligibility for the intended installation. Suspect or unverified material is quarantined and reported.

Life-controlled parts require the records specified to establish remaining life and configuration. Shelf-controlled materials are issued under the organisation’s inventory process and environmental requirements. A component is not installable merely because it carries a familiar tag or fits physically.

Certificate of Release to Service

Under Part-145, the CRS is issued by appropriately authorised certifying staff when satisfied that the ordered maintenance has been properly carried out in accordance with applicable data and procedures, subject to the specific provisions for any permitted incomplete work. The record identifies the work and date and the person and organisation issuing the release.

Licence category alone is not enough: the person also needs applicable type or task competence and organisational authorisation within scope. Category privileges differ, and avionic, electrical, mechanical, line, and base-maintenance certification boundaries must be checked in current Part-66 and company authorisation.

MEL and CDL interfaces

The approved operator MEL may permit operation with specified equipment inoperative subject to conditions, maintenance procedures, operational procedures, placarding, and rectification intervals. The Master MEL is a basis for the operator document, not normally the dispatch document used directly by maintenance. A CDL addresses approved configuration deviations such as specified missing external parts and their conditions or performance effects.

Use the exact approved MEL or CDL item. Category definitions, day-counting, extensions, and procedures are applied as that document and the operator system require. A generic worked example must never replace the actual item.

Occurrence reporting

Personnel report safety-significant events through the organisation’s occurrence-reporting system. Regulation (EU) No 376/2014 establishes mandatory reporting and specifies that covered occurrences are reported as soon as possible and in any event within 72 hours after becoming aware, unless exceptional circumstances prevent it. Internal notification should be immediate enough for the organisation to assess, protect evidence, and meet its obligations.

A just-culture framework supports reporting but does not excuse wilful misconduct or gross negligence. Records should be factual, timely, and clear about known information versus inference.

The exam pattern is to connect authority with evidence: planning derives from approved requirements; stores control protects eligibility; the MEL or CDL controls any dispatch relief; authorised staff issue the CRS when release conditions are met; and safety occurrences enter the formal reporting system.

Interfaces and controlled changes

Maintenance planning must also coordinate overlapping tasks. Opening a common panel, isolating a shared bus, or draining a system for one job can affect another. The package should identify these interfaces, sequence inspections and close-up, and prevent one team from restoring a system while another still depends on the isolation. Planning is revised when findings change scope; the record must show the authorised change rather than leaving technicians to reconcile conflicting instructions informally.

Component transfer or cannibalisation between aircraft requires the same eligibility and documentation controls as a stores issue. Record removal and installation, preserve identity and status, inspect both aircraft, protect open systems, and account for any configuration difference. A serviceable source aircraft does not by itself prove that a transferred part is eligible for the recipient.

Before the final release decision, reconcile deferred defects, MEL or CDL actions, maintenance messages, work-card completion, parts records, independent inspections, and test results. If a task cannot be completed, use only the regulatory and organisational provisions applicable to that case, identify the incompleteness clearly, and communicate it to the operator. A CRS is a bounded statement about specified work, supported by records; it is not a general guarantee that substitutes for continuing-airworthiness control.

Release Review

• Confirm the ordered work and all authorised scope changes are accounted for.
• Reconcile current maintenance data, work-card sign-offs and independent inspections.
• Verify parts, configuration, life and shelf controls, close-up and functional tests.
• Identify any permitted incompleteness or MEL or CDL action precisely in the records.
• Ensure the certifying person holds the applicable licence and organisational authorisation.
• Submit reportable occurrences through the organisation within the governing timeframe.