What is a PDA or TOFA ? What is the safety implication ? Who is responsible to limit their occurrences ?
✈A PDA (Parts Departing from Aircraft), also called TFOA ( Things Falling-Off Aircraft ) is any piece of equipment falling from an aircraft, ranging in size from a simple rivet up to a fan cowl.
✈Potential safety risk: A PDA may damage vital parts of the aircraft and/or cause serious or fatal injuries to passengers or people on ground. Preventing PDAs start with aircraft design & follows maintenance, operations & a variety of players.
✈Maintenance Team:
Mechanics may reduce the number of occurrences by complying with the procedures, by identifying all elements during the visual inspections, that could lead to a PDA.
✈Operations:
Flight crews may do their part by performing a thorough walk-around before each flight.
✈Engineering department (CAMO):
By reporting all PDA events to OEM, the CAMO helps in identification of areas where a design/procedure/ training modification would reduce the risk.
✈Manufacturer Responsibility:
👉Investigate all PDA occurrences
👉Develop mitigating solutions.
👉Maintenance procedure change or design enhancement.
👉Monitor the in-service effectiveness of these solutions.
👉Report PDA events to Regulators.
Author – Tanmay Palei
Sr. Aircraft Structure Engineer
Linkedin- https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanmay-palei/
