Vent: I always thought the FAA's 'no fault' reporting was just for big stuff

I was reading through an old NTSB report from a 2019 incident in Phoenix, just killing time between jobs. It was about a commuter plane that had a weird transponder glitch. The report said the tech who found the initial fault wrote it up, but the next shift signed it off as 'no fault found' after a quick power cycle. The plane flew for three more days before the issue came back worse. What got me was the stat buried in the footnotes: over 60% of 'repeat squawks' in that airline's fleet that year started as an NFF sign-off. I always treated NFF as a 'problem solved' box to check, not a red flag. Now I'm way more careful. If I can't find it, I leave a longer note for the next guy and flag it for a deeper look. How do you guys handle a true 'no fault found' on an intermittent avionics problem?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_holly19d ago

That stat about repeat squawks is wild. It reminds me of a friend who's a mechanic, he says the 'could not duplicate' note on car work orders is basically a curse. Means it's coming back for sure.

felixt319d agoMost Upvoted

Try filming the noise with your phone next time it happens.

patriciareed19d ago

Oh man, that's so true. My old beater had a weird rattle for months, and every time they wrote that down. Finally a different tech found a loose heat shield. It's like they just give up after the first look.