In 1994, at the request of the Russian Government, a US Federal Aviation Administration team visited Russia to carry out an audit of the country's civil aviation, and to recommend what was needed to bring it into line with modern international standards.
One of the resulting pieces of advice referred to the maintenance and overhaul industry. It called for the certification of centres, staff and processes. The old Soviet system, where the state was the builder of aircraft, the operator and the maintainer, and where it recruited, trained and employed all staff, had not needed formal licencing. Now, everything needed to change. The responsibility fell on two bodies, Russia's Air Transport Department, now the Federal Aviation Service [FAS] for Russia's air operators; and the Interstate Aviation Committee's [MAK] Aviaregister for all CIS countries.
In the FAS, director Gennadi Zaitsev instructed his technical director Viktor Gorbov, to undertake the work. In the Aviaregister, chairman Valentin Sushko took the responsibility. The two teams worked closely together over the next two years, not aiming to Westernise the old Soviet industry, but to harmonise its approach with that of other countries, and to license formally each plant, process, engineer and technician in a manner compatible with international requirements.
The first "aviaremont" (overhaul centre) to be certificated by the FAS and the MAK was BASCO (Bykovo Aviation Services Company) in December 1996.
Source: Flight International
