The partial suspension of Turkish Technic's EASA Part 145 maintenance approval was due to the absence of B2 engineers at line maintenance stations.
The "temporal removal" of parts of the approval - as EASA defines the suspension - affects all of the group's line maintenance stations within European Union member states, but has had no impact on Turkish Technic's base maintenance operations in Turkey.
Line maintenance customer airlines with EU-registered aircraft at the affected stations had to be referred to other third-party service providers, while the aircraft of parent carrier Turkish Airlines are covered by the national aviation authority in Turkey and so can be serviced as usual.
The relevant approval parts were suspended on 27 September 2011 after an EASA audit. "It could not be demonstrated that the organisation had any Part 66-licenced B2 [engineers]," says the Istanbul-based maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) provider in a letter to Flightglobal.
EASA's Part 66 defines the licence requirements for aircraft maintenance engineers. The B1 licence covers work on airframe structures, powerplants, mechanical and certain electrical systems, while B2 engineers specialise in avionic and electrical systems.
Turkish Technic hopes that its Part 145 approval will be fully reinstalled by the end of next month or early in the fourth quarter, Ahmet Çağrı Özer, strategy planning and projects manager, tells Flightglobal.
The MRO provider completed all root cause analyses for the findings and submitted "almost all" responses to EASA, after the EU authority had suggested an action plan, he adds.
A number of procedures have been revised, with EASA accepting the changes.
The line maintenance stations have been managed by parent Turkish Airlines, because the carrier wants to be directly responsible for the operations at its destinations. Line stations in Turkey have not been affected by the partial approval suspension.
Kristin Majcher contributed to this article.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
