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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?
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the_holly6mo 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.
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felixt316mo ago
Try filming the noise with your phone next time it happens.
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patriciareed6mo 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.
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