Getting your AS9102 First Article Inspection Report rejected is frustrating, costly, and delays shipments to customers. Whether you're submitting to a prime contractor like Lockheed Martin or a commercial aerospace customer, FAIR rejections follow predictable patterns. Understanding the most common errors—and how to prevent them—improves first-pass acceptance rates and keeps your production schedule on track.
A rejected FAIR means no shipments until you complete corrective actions, manufacture new parts, and resubmit for approval. The downstream impact includes:
Most rejections stem from documentation errors rather than actual part nonconformance. The hardware might be perfectly compliant, but incomplete or inaccurate paperwork leads to rejection just as quickly as dimensional discrepancies. The good news? These errors are preventable with proper planning and the right quality management tools.
Based on industry guidance from major aerospace primes, here are the most common reasons First Article Inspection Reports get rejected:
Every dimension, note, and requirement on the engineering drawing must appear in your FAIR with a recorded measurement. Using "accept" or "OK" without actual measurement data is unacceptable.
This includes dimensions embedded in specifications for commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware. If your assembly drawing calls out a connector per MIL-DTL-38999, the hole dimensions specified in that standard must be measured and documented even though they don't appear on your drawing.
Special processes—heat treating, plating, welding, NDT—require certifications from approved suppliers. Common errors include:
Customers maintain approved supplier databases (often accessible through Exostar or similar portals). Verify your special process suppliers are approved before starting production, not after completing inspection.
Working to outdated engineering is one of the fastest ways to fail a FAIR. Ensure your purchase order revision matches released engineering for the part number, including:
Always verify you're working to the latest released engineering before starting production. That "R" symbol in the upper right corner of most drawings indicates released status—if you don't see it, contact the customer to confirm.
Form errors are surprisingly common and completely preventable:
These administrative errors don't reflect hardware quality, but they indicate poor attention to detail and trigger rejections just like actual nonconformances.
Your FAIR package requires complete supporting evidence:
Submitting incomplete packages forces the customer's quality engineer to request additional documentation, delays approval, and increases rejection risk. Ensure every measurement, material, and process has objective evidence before submission.
GroundControl's AS9102 software is designed specifically to catch common FAIR errors before submission:
These built-in safeguards act like a quality engineer reviewing your work before customer submission, catching errors that cause rejections and allowing corrections while hardware is still in-house.
First Article Inspection rejection rates should approach zero with proper planning, attention to detail, and effective quality management tools. Most rejections result from preventable documentation errors, not actual part nonconformance.
By understanding common pitfalls and implementing systematic checks before submission, aerospace suppliers improve acceptance rates, reduce cycle times, and strengthen customer relationships. The best FAIRs are ones customers approve on first review—because you've already caught and corrected any issues before they click "submit."
Want to eliminate errors in your AS9102 FAIRs? Try GroundControl and see how we help aerospace manufacturers achieve first-pass FAIR acceptance.
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