Aircraft maintenance technician — skills, knowledge and links
Where this job sits in the official classifications, what those classifications say it demands, and what it connects to. Every block names its source: our own judgements, the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET, or the U.S. Department of Education.
How it connects#
O*NET also lists (no page here yet): Avionics Technicians · Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers · Aircraft Service Attendants · Aerospace Engineering and Operations Technologists and Technicians · Engine and Other Machine Assemblers · Electro-Mechanical and Mechatronics Technologists and Technicians · Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists · Motorboat Mechanics and Service Technicians
In the official classification#
Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians
Fit with this page: same job
Job Zone 3: medium preparation
See it on O*NET OnLine ↗In Europe, internationally and in Singapore
Aircraft engine mechanics and repairers
Fit with this page: broader than this page
Aircraft engine mechanic/repairer
Fit with this page: same job
What O*NET rates highest#
From O*NET 49-3011.00 (Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians). Ordered by O*NET's importance rating; the words are O*NET's own scale anchors.
Transferable skills
- Equipment MaintenanceExtremely important
- RepairingExtremely important
- TroubleshootingExtremely important
- Operations MonitoringVery important
- Complex Problem SolvingVery important
- Operation and ControlVery important
- Quality Control AnalysisVery important
- Judgment and Decision MakingVery important
Knowledge
- MechanicalExtremely important
- Public Safety and SecurityVery important
- Engineering and TechnologyVery important
- English LanguageVery important
- TransportationVery important
- Education and TrainingImportant
Work activities
- Documenting/Recording InformationExtremely important
- Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or MaterialsExtremely important
- Evaluating Information to Determine Compliance with StandardsExtremely important
- Getting InformationExtremely important
- Making Decisions and Solving ProblemsExtremely important
- Updating and Using Relevant KnowledgeVery important
Abilities
- Problem SensitivityExtremely important
- Written ComprehensionVery important
- Near VisionVery important
- Information OrderingVery important
- Manual DexterityVery important
- Finger DexterityVery important
Essential skills
- Reading ComprehensionVery important
- Critical ThinkingVery important
- MonitoringVery important
- Active ListeningVery important
- SpeakingImportant
Each task in O*NET's terms#
O*NET describes work as detailed activities. Each of this page's 5 tasks is matched only against the activities O*NET lists for this occupation, with a stated fit; 5 match at least one. The alignment and its fit are this site's judgement, made task by task by its AI agent (Claude) on 2026-09-26; O*NET does not align tasks like ours. The activity names are O*NET's, the translations ours.
- Scheduled inspections and checksInspect structural components of vehicles to identify problems.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Materials · O*NET 31.0Inspect mechanical equipment to locate damage, defects, or wear.covers part of this task · Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Materials · O*NET 31.0
- Borescope and non-destructive inspectionInspect mechanical components of vehicles to identify problems.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Materials · O*NET 31.0
- Troubleshooting and repairTroubleshoot equipment or systems operation problems.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Making Decisions and Solving Problems · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Auto mechanic · LibrarianReplace worn, damaged, or defective mechanical parts.covers part of this task · Repairing and Maintaining Mechanical Equipment · O*NET 31.0Repair worn, damaged, or defective mechanical parts.covers part of this task · Repairing and Maintaining Mechanical Equipment · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Auto mechanic
- Signing off and return to serviceInspect completed work to ensure proper functioning.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Materials · O*NET 31.0
- Records and maintenance planningMaintain repair or maintenance records.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Documenting/Recording Information · O*NET 31.0Order materials, supplies, or equipment.covers part of this task · Monitoring and Controlling Resources · O*NET 31.0
Rules that bind this work#
Laws, regulations, court rules, regulators' guidance and collective agreements that this page's verified records read — each with the verb that matters and whom it binds. Read from each record by this site's AI agent (Claude) on 2026-09-26. Official names stay in their own language.
14 CFR 43.7
§ 43.7(a)–(g): who may approve return to service after maintenance · may · binds a person (licensed or not) · requires a person to do, decide or answer for it → Signing off and return to service
1964-04-23 · the record →14 CFR 43.9
§ 43.9(a)(4): signature, certificate number and kind of certificate of the approving person · must · binds a person (licensed or not) · requires a person to do, decide or answer for it → Signing off and return to service · Records and maintenance planning
1964-04-23 · the record →14 CFR 145.213
§ 145.213(d): sign-off on final inspections and maintenance releases · may · binds a person (licensed or not) · requires a person to do, decide or answer for it → Signing off and return to service
2001-08-06 · the record →Our task judgements#
O*NET says what this job demands. It does not say what automation is doing to it — that is what this site's 5 task judgements are for: 3 backed by a verified event, 2 platform inference. VOLO judgement
Sources and rules#
- Each block says where it comes from: this site's own judgements, O*NET, the U.S. Department of Education's CIP–SOC crosswalk, the European ESCO classification and its official crosswalk to O*NET, the ILO's ISCO-08, Singapore's SSOC 2024, or something computed mechanically from those. Nothing on this page is a rating we made up.
- O*NET's importance ratings are used only to order and shorten the lists. They are never combined with this site's impact index or evidence counts.
- The fit between our page and an O*NET occupation is our judgement and is stated per code: same job, broader, part of it, or only the closest there is.
- The ESCO and ISCO-08 fits are derived mechanically from the official ESCO–O*NET crosswalk; where we override it, we say why in our data (for example, the crosswalk pairs radiologists with radiographers, which is a different job). The SSOC 2024 fit is our reading of the Singapore Department of Statistics' own titles and definitions. Official names are shown as their publishers write them; we do not translate them.
- Each task is matched only against the detailed work activities O*NET lists for the codes this page maps to. Where nothing fits, the page says why instead of forcing a match: work O*NET does not describe yet (used only for tasks we judge to be emerging), or nothing in O*NET's list for this occupation. An alignment never changes a task's direction, its basis or the impact index.
- Rules are read only from this site's verified records. A rule's official name must appear word for word in a record that reads it, so no name is made up; a policy mandate is read only as 'must', 'must not' or 'funds', because 'should' and 'in principle' are not a mandate. Reading a rule never changes a task's direction, its basis or the impact index.
- How these pieces fit together — objects, links and the actions that change them — is drawn as one diagram: The VOLO ontology
- ESCO (European Commission), occupation records from the ESCO API; CC BY 4.0. ESCO–O*NET crosswalk, ESCO Secretariat with the U.S. Department of Labor/ETA, version 1 (Sep 2022), O*NET-SOC 2019 ↔ ESCO v1.1.0; CC BY 4.0. Singapore Department of Statistics, Singapore Standard Occupational Classification 2024 and its correspondence with ISCO-08.
- O*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026 release, U.S. Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration, CC BY 4.0. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The translations of O*NET descriptors on this page are ours, not O*NET's.