Pre-purchase inspection for a commercial aircraft: scope, records and limits

A typical scope has three parts.

• +Records: airworthiness directive status, life limited part status and history, check status, modification status, repairs and their approvals, and component status with certificates.
• +Physical inspection: structure and corrosion in the zones that can be opened, repairs compared with their records, landing gear, cabin and cargo compartments, and general condition.
• +Engines: borescope inspection, records and recent performance data.

Function checks and a demonstration flight are added where the parties agree. Life limited parts are checked for back to birth traceability, because a gap there can change the value of the aircraft more than any visible defect.

A pre-purchase inspection is not a heavy check. Panels stay closed unless opening them was agreed. Areas that cannot be reached without major access are not seen. The inspector works within the time and access the seller allows.

It is also a snapshot. It describes the aircraft on the days it was inspected. It does not certify airworthiness and it is not a warranty.

In writing, before the inspection. The scope should say which records will be made available, which panels and zones will be opened, whether engines will be borescoped and by whom, whether there will be engine runs or a flight, and how long the inspector will have.

A clear scope protects both sides. The buyer knows what the report can be relied on for. The seller knows what was and was not looked at. When a defect is found after the sale, the first question asked is whether it fell inside the agreed scope, which is why scope is central to pre-purchase inspection disputes.

A useful report lets the buyer make a decision and negotiate. It should set out:

• +The scope as carried out, including anything agreed that could not be done and why.
• +Each finding, with its evidence: photograph, document reference or measurement.
• +The maintenance status: checks, engines, landing gear and life limited parts.
• +Open items in the records, and what would be needed to close them.
• +The findings that carry a material cost, so they can be priced.

A pre-purchase inspection supports a decision to buy. A lease acceptance confirms that an aircraft meets the delivery conditions of a lease that is already agreed. A mid-lease inspection checks how an operator is keeping an aircraft during the lease. The skills overlap. The question being answered is different each time.

Jet Research carries out pre-purchase inspections for buyers, lessors and lenders, singly and as part of aircraft acquisition programs.