This was published 6 years ago
World's longest-serving airline mechanic, Guinness World Records: American Airlines' Azriel Blackman
Mechanic Azriel Blackman, 91, at work aboard a jet in an American Airlines hangar at Kennedy International Airport in New York.Credit: The New York Times
Azriel Blackman, an airline mechanic for American Airlines, is not allowed to climb ladders, drive on the airfield at Kennedy International Airport or even use any tools.
That's understandable - Blackman turns 92 next month.
But those constraints have not stopped him from showing up to work at a job he started in an era when trans-Atlantic commercial flights were novel feats.
Blackman, who has been a mechanic with American Airlines for 75 years, was 16 when he started his career, earning 50 cents an hour as an apprentice in the sheet metal shop. Credit: The New York Times
"He loves coming to work," said Robert Needham, Blackman's boss and the station manager for the airline's New York maintenance base. "His work ethic is something I'd love every one of my 368 mechanics here to have."
Five days a week, Blackman drives himself from his home in Queens Village to the airport long before sun-up and well before his 5am start time. His job as crew chief is to review paperwork detailing what maintenance has been completed and what remains to be done on 17 jetliners that are kept overnight at the airport. Then, wearing a lime-green vest and clutching a paper containing a list of planes and service requests, he starts his walk through a massive hangar, often passing below an enormous mural on the wall featuring his portrait surrounded by four types of aircraft flown by American.
Lunch is at 10 am, followed by more walking and more consulting until it is time to go home at 1pm.
Blackman's job as crew chief is to review paperwork detailing what maintenance has been completed and what remains to be done on 17 jetliners that are kept overnight at the airport. Credit: The New York Times
"Every day the job is different," Blackman said. "You're not doing the same thing repetitively, and that's good. If in my journey around the hangar I see something I can help on, I do that."
When Blackman started his career in 1942, he was 16 and a recent graduate of Aviation High School, which at the time was in Manhattan. According to the airline, after a teacher sent a note explaining his aptitude for metal fabrication, he earned 50 cents an hour as an apprentice in the sheet metal shop.
In his long career, Blackman has worked on planes that are now part of airline lore, including a Sikorsky flying boat, which, in 1942 - when American Airlines was called American Export Airlines - inaugurated the company's trans-Atlantic routes. He was already celebrating 25 years with the company when the world's first jumbo jet, the futuristic-looking Boeing 747, became part of American's fleet.
'The first airplane I worked on was very crude; it had none of the systems modern airplanes have': Blackman.Credit: The New York Times
"The first airplane I worked on was very crude; it had none of the systems modern airplanes have," Blackman said of the flying boat. "Through the years they learned - better regulations, better inspections. And the people who work in this business are, for the most part, very competent people."
On Tuesday, American Airlines will hold a celebration for Blackman, during which he will be presented with a plaque from Guinness World Records for the longest career as an airline mechanic. Blackman's 75-year loyalty to one employer and a single career exceeds by more than a decade a similar record set in 2012 by Ronald Byrd Akana, who joined United Airlines in 1949 and had the longest career as a flight attendant.
As part of its tribute to Blackman, airline officials promise to top the event American held five years ago for him when the mural was unveiled and a vintage Douglas DC-3 took Blackman and his family for a flight over New York City.
Some details cannot be revealed so as not to spoil a big surprise that has been months in the making. But American passengers, usually oblivious to the mechanics who help ensure a safe flight, will soon learn about Blackman and his accomplishments.
As the airline shines a spotlight on its longest-tenured employee, officials are careful to note that for his safety and the well-being of others there are limitations to what Blackman can do. Besides no longer being allowed to perform physical tasks that might harm him, his work is carefully supervised by a crew co-chief.
"With the airline sensitive to maintenance and FAA guidelines and everything else, we always have to be careful what he's doing," Needham said, referring to the Federal Aviation Administration.
When the restrictions on his activities were first put in place years ago, Blackman attributed them to office politics and specifically to a supervisor who "didn't cotton to him." Now, he acknowledges they are more appropriate.
"I'd like to do more if I was allowed to, but that's a thing of the past," Blackman said. "At this point in the game I don't think it would be good to go back to doing manual work. I don't think I'm capable of it." Nevertheless, Blackman said he did not have any plans to retire.
The New York Times
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