In the aerospace industry the qualification and certification of personnel for Non-Destructive Inspection (NDI/NDT) is carried out in compliance with specific approved rules. In 2003 The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the essential authority for Civil Aviation Safety in Europe, and the United States Federal Aviation Authorities (FAA) have reached a common agreement to harmonize the requirements of standards EN4179 and NAS410 regarding NDT Personnel Qualification. This recent advancement towards an easier certification in Aerospace NDT qualification procedure is considered as an outstanding example of convergence of European and American standards, pointing out the advantages of enhancing cooperation through harmonization in the American and European aircraft markets. On the other hand, the convergence of EN473 and ISO9712, fully supported by ICNDT, was achieved by mutual agreement. The new ISO/IEC 9712:2005, approved in January 2005, was published in February 2005. Given the above-mentioned harmonization in standards, the present paper discusses several aspects of competition and opportunities for cooperation between the different NDT personnel certification schemes and in various countries.
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