How does EASA (or any avaition authority) determine "fit for the intended flight"

As result of an upcoming court case where a engineer that performed the last Pre-Flight Check on an aircraft just before an accident happened (with loss of an aircraft but luckily no loss of lives or injuries) is now probably being charged with negligence by the state attorney (because he might not have noticed wear of the nose gear steering cables, although this is not specifically mentioned on the checklist), there is a huge discussion with the supporting lawyers what the definition "fit for the intended flight" actually means. This because the only thing you do with a Pre Flight Check is make sure the aircraft is "fit for the intended flight".

With the trend of trying to find a victim (American culture ???) to punish people making errors, therefore totally opposing anything we as industry tried to gain safety wise by embracing the “no blame culture” is lost this way.

Although in many airlines the preflight check is done by pilots, within our company the majority of pre flight inspections, is still done by Engineers (as it should according to AEI policies ;D). The questions raised by the lawyers whom will be defending the engineer are the following:

1. How do you determine "fit for the intended flight".
   
   
2. What is the reference you use? Do you use a maintenance manual or any other document?
   
   
3. To what standard or values do you (pilots or engineers) determine the possible wear or deterioration you observe?
   
   
4. How should the pre flight checklist be read? This because the check list is more or less a general list of items, like Check the engine intake, Check left side of the fuselage, check main gear etc, and therefore not so specific as many maintenance inspections, like check the nose wheel steering cable system etc.
   
   
5. How, if a pilot does the pre-flight check under JAR OPS, should he recognise wear and tear and declare "fit of not fit for the intended flight", and what should/is his/her training to gain (keep up to date) this knowledge, and to /or against what reference does he/she do this. In JAR Ops nothing specific is mentioned, neither could we find it in other manuals.
   

For us engineers, it is also very important to realise if we do the Pre flight check, what the implecations could be? Several years in prison if an accident is fatal, or anything else, just because you were the last one doing this check?

Any comments via the AEI Forum are appreciated

Fred Bruggeman, AEI Secretary General

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