Covering the Aerospace Level III Role When You Do Not Employ One
An aerospace NDT programme built on ASNT SNT-TC-1A needs an NDT Level III to approve the written practice, the procedures and the examinations, and that Level III may be an outside agency rather than an employee. Aerospace written practices usually name the individual in writing, often as the Responsible Level III, stating the methods covered and the authority granted. The employer still certifies its own personnel; the Level III qualifies them and approves the programme.
This is where an aerospace programme asks more of the paperwork than the SNT-TC-1A baseline. SNT-TC-1A requires the written practice to be approved by an NDT Level III, ties the examination question bank to that Level III's approval, and accepts an outside agency in the role, which is why a firm with no Level III on staff routinely engages one. Aerospace customers add an expectation of traceable authority: one identified person who speaks for the company's NDT programme to primes and Nadcap assessors, approves the written practice and every procedure and technique sheet, and stands behind the qualification of every certified technician on the list. Because SNT-TC-1A accepts an outside agency Level III, a shop with no Level III on payroll can run an aerospace programme that holds up at audit, provided the written practice is aligned to its purchase-order flow-down, its prime specifications and Nadcap AC7114. What it cannot outsource is the certification signature itself.
Source: ASNT Recommended Practice No. SNT-TC-1A (2024), with the addendum effective May 2025: written practice approval by the employer's NDT Level III, the outside agency Level III, examinations, vision and recertification; PRI Nadcap audit criteria AC7114 for nondestructive testing, which recognises an applicable Level III who is internal, external, or qualified and approved by the Nadcap user, and assesses personnel qualification records and internal NDT audits.
| Duty in the written practice | Employed Level III | Outside agency Level III | Record the auditor asks for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Being identified in writing | Named in the written practice and in a management memo | Named identically; the service contract does not substitute for the designation | Signed designation naming the individual, the methods covered and the effective date |
| Approving the written practice | Signs and dates the controlled document | Signs and dates the same document; the employer controls the revision and holds the master | Approval page carrying name, certification level, methods and date |
| Approving procedures and technique sheets | Approves each document in the methods they are certified in | Same restriction; methods outside their certification require a second Level III | Approval block on every procedure and technique sheet in the audited scope |
| Preparing, approving and grading examinations | Prepares and approves questions; trained proctors may administer written examinations | Same, and the subordinate-administration conflict disappears by construction | Question bank, answer keys, graded answer sheets, part scores and the composite calculation |
| Setting the vision examination requirements | Defines the near-vision and colour contrast tests the written practice requires and checks they are current | Same; the examinations are performed and recorded at the employer, with copies in each personnel file | Dated vision records for every certified individual: near-vision acuity and colour contrast differentiation |
| Speaking for the programme to primes and Nadcap assessors | Present as an employee | Present under contracted availability; audit dates must be named in the contract | Audit attendance record, approval correspondence, the service agreement itself |
| Signing the certification record | Signs where the employer's written practice authorises it | Does not sign; an officer of the employer signs | Certification record signed by employer personnel, not by the agency |
| Holding their own qualification evidence | Kept in the employer's personnel files | Copies kept in the employer's files, not only at the consultancy | Certification in each method, examination evidence, and a current vision record |
Where the Aerospace Programme Asks More Than SNT-TC-1A
ASNT SNT-TC-1A tells an employer to establish a written practice and to have an NDT Level III approve it, and it ties the examination question bank and the procedures to that Level III's approval. It accepts an outside agency Level III in the role, which is why firms with no Level III on staff routinely engage one. Aerospace programmes take one further step. The written practice identifies the Level III in writing, often under the title Responsible Level III. That is a named individual, not a job title, not a department, and not a rotating duty shared between two senior technicians who each cover part of the scope.
The reason aerospace insists on a name is traceability of authority. When a prime contractor asks who approved the technique sheet that inspected their turbine disc, or when a Nadcap assessor asks who decides that a candidate is qualified, the answer resolves to a person with a certification file, a vision record and an examination history. A role title cannot hold a certification. A named individual can, and the entire aerospace qualification chain is built on being able to walk backwards from a part to a person.
The outside agency route is what makes this commercially workable. A shop of twelve people performing penetrant and magnetic particle on aerospace parts does not need a full-time Level III salary to run a programme that holds up at audit. The employer remains responsible for the programme and still signs and issues the certificates, which is a different obligation from performing every technical act personally. Whether a given customer accepts an SNT-TC-1A-based programme is set by its purchase order and specifications, so the written practice records, line by line, which document governs.
Who Qualifies to Hold the Role
The holder is qualified as a Level III in each method they will cover, with the qualification supported by records rather than reputation. The auditor expects ASNT NDT Level III certificates in the covered methods or, for an outside agency, the agreement plus that person's credentials, and the employer's written practice defines what else is required. Prime specifications can add their own conditions on who approves aerospace procedures, so read the flow-down before naming anyone. Either way, the file must show the evidence behind the certificate, not only the certificate itself, because the assessor tests the route your written practice claims against what is in the folder.
Method coverage is the constraint shops trip over. A Level III certified in PT and MT is unable to approve UT procedures, unable to approve UT examination questions, and unable to stand behind a UT certification, regardless of how experienced they are with the method in practice. Where a shop performs four or five methods, the designation splits: one name covering the methods they hold, another name covering the rest. The designation document lists methods against each name so the coverage is visible on one page.
The holder also needs the standing to act. In an aerospace programme the named Level III is in charge of the NDT programme and answers for it to primes, Nadcap assessors and other auditors on the company's behalf. A contracted holder therefore needs a contract that grants that standing explicitly, and an internal reporting line that does not allow a production manager to override a technical decision. Where the designation exists on paper but the authority does not, the arrangement fails on the first disagreement about a rejected part.
What the Written Designation Must State
Four elements make a designation auditable. The individual's full name and their Level III certification credentials. The methods covered, listed explicitly rather than implied by the scope of the business. The authority granted, written as verbs the assessor can test: approves the written practice, approves procedures and technique sheets, prepares and approves examination material, designates examination administrators and proctors, performs or oversees internal NDT audits. And an effective date, with the signature of a company officer who has the standing to grant that authority.
The designation belongs in two places. It is stated in the written practice, which is the controlled document the assessor reads first, and it exists as a separately signed management memo or contract schedule that can be produced on its own. Keeping both aligned is the maintenance task shops fail. When the written practice is revised for an unrelated reason and the Level III name is carried forward from the previous revision without checking, the document quietly asserts something that stopped being true.
What the designation must not do is assign the certification signature to the contracted holder. Under SNT-TC-1A the employer, not ASNT and not a third party, issues the certificate. A designation that grants the outside Level III authority to sign certification records creates a nonconformance in the document itself, before a single technician has been certified under it. The full authority boundary is set out in what an outside NDT Level III can and cannot do.
What the Level III Is Accountable For
The written practice comes first, because customers audit the firm against its own written practice rather than against the standard directly. The Level III approves it, and that approval means the document describes a programme they will defend: the training hours, the experience hours, the examination structure, the recertification interval, the vision requirements, and the designated administrators. Where the written practice promises more than the SNT-TC-1A recommended minimums, or a prime flows down a higher figure, the company is committed to the higher figure, and that is the figure the assessor uses.
Procedures and technique sheets come next, one approval per document, per method, per revision. This is the highest-volume obligation and the one that generates the most findings, because engineering issues revisions and the re-approval lags. A contracted arrangement handles this by defining a response time for approvals in the agreement, so a revision cannot go into production while waiting. Periodic technique review, where the written practice promises it, is a scheduled event with a record, not a background intention.
Examinations are the third pillar: preparing or approving the General, Specific and Practical material, approving every question, designating who administers and grades, and standing behind the result. SNT-TC-1A recommends a composite grade of at least 80% with no single examination below 70%, and states that no certification examination is administered by the candidate or by a subordinate. The full structure of that oversight is set out in NDT Level III examination oversight. The fourth pillar is surveillance: internal NDT audits, technician performance monitoring, and the proficiency checks your written practice commits to.
The Outside-Agency Route, Written as a Contract
A contracted arrangement succeeds or fails on the agreement behind it. Name the methods covered. List the delegated activities individually rather than as "Level III services": written practice approval, procedure and technique sheet approval, examination preparation, administration and grading, proctor training, vision examination arrangements, internal NDT audits, technique review. State a response time for approvals in business days. And name the availability commitment for scheduled events, including your Nadcap audit dates, which are published well in advance and therefore contractible.
Records custody is the clause shops forget and assessors ask about first. The examination bank, answer keys, marked papers, qualification files and approved procedure set are the employer's property, held at the employer's premises or in a system the employer controls, with the agency holding working copies. Write it that way. The alternative is the failure mode that turns a routine contract change into a rebuild: the agency departs, and the examination material and half the qualification evidence depart with them.
Copies of the Level III's own qualification evidence live in your personnel files, not at the consultancy. Certification in each covered method, the examination evidence behind it, a current vision record, and the signed designation naming them for your facility. Assessors ask for this file early in an AC7114 audit and "our consultant keeps those" is written up, because the employer carries the responsibility for the programme. The audit-readiness detail sits under Nadcap AC7114 audit readiness.
The One Authority the Contract Cannot Move
Certification is an act of the employer. Under SNT-TC-1A the employer, not ASNT and not a third party, issues the certificate. A contracted Level III qualifies your people: they approve the training, verify the experience, approve and grade the examinations, confirm the vision status and recommend certification. An officer of your company then signs the certification record stating that this employee is certified to this level in this method under your written practice. Two signatures, two different parties, and the distinction survives every audit.
Shops collapse this because the qualification work is the substantive part and the signature feels administrative. It is the reverse. The signature is what makes the certification yours, which is what makes it valid when the outside agency's contract ends. Certification records signed by a consultancy have to be reissued, and reissuing them means revisiting every file to confirm the underlying qualification evidence still supports the claim. Getting the signature right at the outset costs nothing; getting it wrong costs a full records remediation.
One Name, Several Methods and Several Sites
Multi-method shops split the designation by method, and multi-site companies face a harder question: whether one name can cover every location. The written practice decides, and the test is whether the named person is genuinely in charge of the programme they are named for. A single name across four sites works where one written practice governs all four, records are held in one controlled system, and the person actually reaches each site for examinations and audits. It fails where sites run local variants of the procedures and the name on the document has not visited in two years.
The practical test is whether the named person can answer for any file pulled at any site without a phone call. Where they cannot, split the designation and write the split into the written practice explicitly, with each name carrying its own site and method list. Assessors accept a distributed structure that is documented. They write up a centralised structure that is fictional, because the finding is not about the geography, it is about the authority being nominal.
Replacing the Level III Without a Gap
Certifications already issued stay valid when the Level III changes. The approving authority is what lapses, and it lapses on the effective date rather than when the paperwork catches up. From that moment nobody can certify a new technician, approve a procedure revision, approve or grade an examination, or approve a written practice change until a new designation exists in writing. Shops discover this when a technique sheet needs a revision on day three of the gap and there is nobody empowered to sign it.
Overlap the two holders wherever the timing permits. Issue the incoming designation before the outgoing last day, transfer custody of the examination bank, answer keys, qualification files and the approved procedure set as a documented handover, and have the incoming Level III review and re-approve the written practice under their own name rather than inheriting an approval. Where an overlap is impossible, interim Level III cover closes the gap. The full recovery sequence is set out in what to do when your Level 3 resigns.
How Atlantis Supports the Level III Role
Atlantis provides the ASNT NDT Level III consulting behind the role, for aerospace and aviation suppliers that have no Level III on payroll and for shops whose employed Level III does not cover every method they perform. The work is led by Anoop Rayavarapu, ASNT NDT Level III in UT, RT, MT, PT and VT with 11+ years of field experience, and Atlantis can act as the outside agency Level III for your SNT-TC-1A written practice within those five methods. Atlantis builds the aerospace written practice on ASNT SNT-TC-1A and aligns it to your purchase-order flow-down requirements, prime specifications and Nadcap AC7114. The engagement starts by reading your written practice against SNT-TC-1A and against what your primes flowed down, then rewriting the designation, the authority statement and the records custody terms so the arrangement is auditable on its face rather than defensible only in conversation.
From there Atlantis approves procedures and technique sheets in the covered methods, prepares and approves examination material as a controlled bank, administers and grades examinations on scheduled site visits, runs the internal NDT audit and prepares you for Nadcap AC7114, customer and FAA Part 145 audits, with attendance booked against dates in the agreement. The designation remains your document, and your company signs the certification records. Technicians train through ASNT SNT-TC-1A-based aerospace NDT training or aviation NDT training, with ASNT Level III exam preparation for those moving up, and aerospace NDT inspection adds capacity where you need it. The retainer structure is described under outsourced ASNT Level III consulting and the wider service under aerospace NDT consulting. Quote on request: request a consultation and we will scope it against your methods, headcount and audit calendar.
Can our aerospace Level III be an employee of another company?
Yes. SNT-TC-1A accepts an outside agency Level III, and firms with no Level III on staff routinely engage one to write and approve the written practice, approve procedures, and build and grade examinations. Nadcap AC7114 recognises an applicable Level III who is internal, external, or qualified and approved by the Nadcap user. The employer remains responsible for the programme, holds the written designation, holds copies of the Level III's qualification records, and signs its own employees' certification records.
Must the Level III be certified in every method we perform?
Yes, for every method they approve. A Level III qualified in ultrasonics cannot sign for radiography: they cannot approve radiographic procedures, cannot approve radiographic examination questions, and cannot stand behind a radiographic certification. Shops covering four or five methods commonly split the role: one Level III named for the methods they hold, a second named for the remainder. The designation document lists the methods against each name, which is exactly what the assessor reads when the personnel list shows a method neither name covers.
How often must the Level III be on site?
The obligations set the frequency, not a visit count. Practical examinations require the examiner present with the candidate and the specimens. Internal NDT audits and technique reviews require observation of work as performed. Nadcap job audits require the Level III available during the assessment. Working backwards from those, most contracted arrangements land on scheduled site visits for examination cycles and audits, with procedure and technique approvals handled remotely against a contracted response time.
Can our aerospace NDT programme run on an SNT-TC-1A written practice?
Yes, where your customers accept it and the written practice shows how each of their requirements is met. SNT-TC-1A supplies the framework, covering training, experience, General, Specific and Practical examinations, vision and recertification, and your own written practice makes it binding. The aerospace layer comes from the purchase order: prime specifications and what they flow down, Nadcap AC7114 where the customer requires accreditation, and the training programme of an FAA Part 145 repair station. Atlantis builds the written practice on SNT-TC-1A and aligns it to those flow-downs, recording which document governs each line.
What does the auditor check in the Level III's own file?
Certification in each covered method, as ASNT NDT Level III certificates or, for an outside agency, the agreement plus that person's credentials; the examination evidence behind them; a current vision record; and the signed designation naming them for your facility. What the audit examines is consistency: the qualification route your written practice describes must be the route the Level III's own file documents, with the evidence present rather than assumed from the certificate.
What happens to our certifications if the Level III changes?
Existing certifications stay valid. The approving authority does not transfer automatically. Issue a new written designation before the outgoing Level III's last day, transfer custody of the examination bank, answer keys, qualification files and approved procedure set, and have the incoming Level III review and re-approve the written practice. The detailed sequence, including what stops the moment the departure takes effect, is at /consulting/ndt-level-3-resigned-what-to-do.
Frequently asked questions
Does SNT-TC-1A require a named Responsible Level III?
SNT-TC-1A requires a written practice approved by the employer's NDT Level III, with that Level III approving the examination question bank and the procedures, and it accepts an outside agency in the role. The title Responsible Level III, and the practice of naming the holder in a signed designation, come from aerospace programmes, where primes and Nadcap assessors trace authority to a person. A shop moving from general industry into aerospace usually already has the substance and lacks the written designation, which is a one-document fix.
Can one person be the Level III for two different companies?
Yes. Outside agency Level IIIs routinely serve several employers at once, because the designation is an employer-side document rather than an exclusivity arrangement. Each employer still issues its own certificates; one employer does not certify another employer's people. The practical limit is availability: each designation carries examination cycles, audit attendance and approval turnaround, and a Level III holding more designations than their calendar supports produces late approvals, which produce findings.
Does the Level III approve our internal NDT audits?
Yes, where your written practice assigns internal NDT audits to the role, which most aerospace written practices do. AC7114 assesses internal NDT audits as a subject area, so the audit plan, the completed audit records, the findings raised and their closure all become audit evidence in their own right. A contracted holder performing your internal audit brings an advantage: they are auditing a programme they approved but did not operate, so the observations are genuinely independent of daily production pressure.
Do we need a separate written practice for aerospace work?
No. One written practice built on SNT-TC-1A can cover general-industry and aerospace work where your customers accept it, with the aerospace sections recording what each prime flows down, what Nadcap AC7114 assesses and, at a repair station, what the Part 145 training programme requires. Where two requirements differ, write the stricter one. You will not get to present a different document to each auditor, so one programme that meets every customer's flow-down is easier to defend than two that drift apart.
What does Atlantis need to start supporting our Level III role?
Your current written practice, your procedure and technique sheet set, your personnel list with methods and levels, the qualification files as they stand, and the specification flow-down from your primes. From those we produce a gap report, a redrafted designation and authority statement, and a schedule of what needs rebuilding before your next audit. Request a scoping call and a quote, and the scope is set by your methods, your headcount and your audit date rather than by a standard package.