The U.S. Aviation maintenance shortage and aircraft… “mechanic?” or, is it “engineers?”

Do you refer to them as aviation maintenance engineers or aircraft mechanics? They are individually responsible for taking care of something worth between $150 to $170 million, right? It's really intriguing - according to Boeing's predictions, 610,000 new maintenance technicians and 899,000 new cabin crew members will be required for flights and upkeep globally in the next two decades. Breaking this down further, 435,000 pilots, mechanics and cabin crew are required in North America alone.

Naturally, there are numerous causes for this. Dillenburg from the US Aviation Training Group says that a trust flight aircraft maintenance technician is quite different from an aircraft maintenance engineer. It's their responsibility to attach their signature and AP number, which translates to 241 lives and a $175,000,000 airplane. Consider the magnitude of 750 people flying on a $150 million plane traveling 610 knots at 35,000 feet - yet some will call them aircraft mechanics.

Although you could make the argument that there are aircraft engineers or aviation engineers designing aircraft systems, one should not dismiss these professionals as merely aircraft maintenance technicians. That's similar to someone comparing the expertise of an engineer designing jet engines to the service of someone coming to your home.

My point being - a lot of people don't understand that an aircraft maintenance person (AMP) has to fix every single thing on that aircraft and be capable of driving the plane out.

brian bermudez - craftoftheair