MAINTENANCE & ENGINEERING

It takes one person to fly a plane, but it takes a whole village to make that flight enjoyable, safe and on time. Maintenance and engineering plays a huge part to reach that goal. Technicians and engineers make sure that our planes stay in tiptop shape. And when we say tiptop, we literally mean from the tip of the nose to the top of the tail.

To ensure that absolutely every part of the plane receives regular check-ups, our M&E department is divided into dedicated teams, who are each responsible for different parts of the aircraft. There are teams that focus on the engines, on structural components (such as the wings), on the interior, and so on. The colleagues at Maintenance & Engineering meticulously note every change, repair and maintenance, however minor. You can’t even change the soap dispenser in the lavatory without someone at M&E keeping a record of it. 

Our planes get regular check-ups and certain parts need to be replaced as a preventive measure or inspected on a regular basis to ensure airworthiness. For example, the wheels need to be replaced every 500 flight hours, the landing gear every 10 years, the engine parts every 1500 landings, the emergency slides every 3 years and so on.  

Some of these changes can be quite a spectacular sight. An engine change, for example, is no easy feat. The entire engine block is lifted out of the wing in one piece and replaced by another one, fresh from revision. It takes a team of mechanics 24 hours to complete the task. Have a look at one of our A330’s getting an engine change:

By preventively replacing and inspecting parts, we ensure the safety and airworthiness of our planes. All plane parts are subject to these regular check-ups, from the most obvious parts such as the wheels, to the most overlooked parts such as the soap dispenser in the lavatory. 

We replace: 

Did you know that most Brussels Airlines operated flights to Africa have an engineer on board?  

Usually, if our planes need unscheduled maintenance outside of our Brussels hub, we can always count on our colleagues from other airlines to help us out. But in Africa the materials and tools needed are not always available. That’s why we always send an engineer of our own (a Flying Station Engineer or FSE) to handle or prevent any mishaps. Decades of experience in Africa have given our M&E’ers some of their strongest assets: out of the box thinking, quick reactions and a can-do-attitude. 

One of the most peculiar repairs was when a landing gear malfunction occurred while taxiing in Ouagadougou Airport and the entire landing gear had to be replaced. The FSE wasted no time and got everything ready to fly the required gear and a team of mechanics to Ouagadougou. Problem: the jacks needed to lift the plane and replace the landing gear are about 2 metres tall and need to be transported upright. The only planes capable of transporting such tools are the largest cargo planes in the world, such as the Ilyushin Il-76. But thanks to good collaboration and our untiring superheroes at M&E, our plane in Ouagadougou was airworthy again and heading back home to Brussels in no time.  

So if on one of your flights with us, you see a uniformed passenger sitting next to you, you might be sitting next to a Maintenance hero on his way to save the day somewhere in Africa.