Aviation Tool Control

The Ever-Evolving World of Aviation Tool Control

Marcelino Magallanez

Embry Riddle Aeronautical University

The Ever-Evolving World of Aviation Tool Control

Tool Control in Aviation, whether it be in the airline industry, general aviation or even the United States Military, is and will always be a factor when it comes to putting an aircraft in the sky. A missing tool can get sucked through an aircraft intake or it can get lodged in between flight control linkages, catastrophically causing an in-flight mishap, such a severe accident that pilots, aircrew, and in the airline industry, passengers die. Why? All because a careless maintainer, loses a tool. What is in place when it comes to preventing such mishaps? A tool control program. The question is, how effective is this program in different aviation organization, and from a management perspective, how important is this program to Manager’s in the aviation industry? Right up there with general safety, tool control should be priority one to all upper management in the aviation world.

Tool Control in Naval Aviation

When it comes to military aviation, tool control is a program they do not take lightly. Naval Aviation in particular has a five-volume directive, the Naval Aviation Maintenance Program (NAMP) mandated for use by all Naval Aviation Activities, including Commercial Contractors. Volume V, chapter 13 contains the details for ensuring control of tools and loose consumables, which if unaccounted for, may contribute to, or cause a flight safety consideration. All of the Navy’s contracts utilize the NAMP as the baseline for Contractor Aviation Maintenance and allow for flexibility to adjust the process when cost and other factors dictate (Thompson, 2001, para. 2). Physical Quarterly tool container inventories conducted by work center tool representatives with the tool control coordinator and results provided to the work center supervisor (Thompson, 2001, para. 7). The NAMP’s emphasis of reporting...