Tales from an Aviation Legend: Duane Cornella

Downtime isn’t just an operational inconvenience—it’s a product of decisions made upstream. Systems, people, and priorities converge in real time, and when they don’t align, aircraft don’t leave the gate.

Duane Cornella has spent over four decades ensuring they do. From his early days watching jets at Stapleton Airport to releasing aircraft for flight at United Airlines, Cornella’s experience across heavy maintenance, line operations, and leadership offers rare insight into how tech ops actually work—and what happens when they don’t.

“You fly. I fly. My family flies. Your family flies. That one person who signs the logbook makes sure it’s good to go.” (06:50)

His story is a blueprint for how airline tech ops leaders can design for reliability—not just react to problems after the fact.

Why the Work Starts Long Before the Aircraft Arrives

The job begins well before the aircraft reaches the gate.

In his role managing midnight maintenance at United, Cornella lived by three priorities: parts, people, and process.

“Do I have the right parts at the right location? Do I have the qualified people—borescope, taxi run, sheet metal? And does the team have the right paperwork and plan?” (07:00)

This wasn’t theory. The 6:00 AM departure depended on whether those questions were answered by 10:00 PM the night before. If not, the schedule slipped—and kept slipping.

Cornella frames it plainly: when maintenance fails to deliver airworthiness on time, it’s not just a delay. It’s a breakdown in preparation.

And that costs far more than a missed flight.

The Hidden Cost of Poor Communication

Not every delay is caused by missing parts or unavailable personnel. Many begin with something smaller—and harder to measure.

Miscommunication.

Cornella recounts a 787 that landed in Lagos with 42 maintenance messages. The on-site support? A single non-United mechanic unfamiliar with the aircraft’s systems. What followed was a multi-day orchestration involving faxed manuals, remote oversight, and repeated phone calls just to confirm understanding.

“We had to repeat instructions three, four times—just to make sure we were aligned. And even then, something else would pop up.” (35:00)

The problem wasn’t skill. It was clarity. The lack of it drained hours, increased risk, and eroded trust with everyone involved—from local operations to global headquarters.

“I'd rather take the time to do it right the first time. Otherwise, you’re back on the phone again hours later.” (35:00)

When airline maintenance is built around tribal knowledge and verbal relay, you don’t just lose efficiency. You lose confidence.

Documentation Isn’t Enough. Execution Lives in the Gaps.

Every technician is trained to follow the Aircraft Maintenance Manual. But Cornella emphasizes that’s just the start.

“We all know how to fix airplanes. The challenge is executing the plan.” (25:00)

In tech ops, decisions are layered. Operations wants an aircraft routed differently. Maintenance needs to comply with regulatory limits. Customers expect uptime.

You can’t defer an engine inspection because routing asks for a swap. But if your team doesn’t understand why that work matters now—not later—your aircraft sits longer than it should.

“The manual tells you what to do. But it doesn’t help you explain it to the router, or the dispatcher, or the ops manager.” (30:00)

The real risk? Misalignment between technical execution and organizational understanding.

Why Soft Skills Are a Hard Requirement

At multiple points in his career, Cornella was asked to lead teams—not just turn wrenches. What he learned is this: people don’t naturally know how to communicate under pressure. And most technical programs don’t teach them.

“Not a lick of it was about dealing with people. That came later, when I had to lead.” (21:50)

He began coaching supervisors on conflict resolution and communication strategies—sometimes through simple exercises like roleplaying or paraphrasing.

“If you master listening, the customer feels heard. The tech feels heard. And suddenly recovery opens up with clarity.” (22:30)

This is where airline tech ops breaks from the myth of rugged, individual effort. Collaboration isn’t optional. It's infrastructure.

If your most qualified technician can’t relay what they did—or why—it doesn’t matter how well they did it.

Mentorship, Not Just Maintenance

Cornella’s leadership also shows up in how he mentors the next generation.

He speaks at A&P school graduations. Not to inspire them with platitudes—but to prepare them for reality.

“It’s 24/7. All kinds of weather. You might get a call at 2:00 AM. And you have to go.” (13:30)

He tells young techs to get their families on board. Not because it’s romantic—but because it’s necessary.

“If your family isn’t committed to this lifestyle, it doesn’t work.” (14:50)

This is what makes good tech ops sustainable. Not perks or branding, but culture, clarity, and commitment.

Lessons Tech Ops Leaders Should Be Asking Today

Cornella’s framing isn’t nostalgic. It’s urgent. Because the conditions that caused downtime 30 years ago—miscommunication, siloed teams, unclear roles—still exist.

What’s changed is the cost of getting it wrong.

Every hour of delay hits harder. Every disconnect between systems becomes more visible. Every misunderstanding travels faster.

So what should tech ops leaders ask?

• Do your teams understand the "why" behind tasks—not just the steps?
• Can your communication scale across roles, time zones, and crises?
• Are your systems built to support both accuracy and understanding?

This is where tools like AireXpert create leverage.

They don’t just track progress. They coordinate people.
They don’t just standardize the work. They make understanding portable.
Across functions. Across contractors. Across continents.

At the Center of It All: Accountability That Scales

When Cornella signed that 727 off for flight in San Francisco, he watched it climb through the morning fog—and felt something he never forgot.

“That moment... to hand the logbook to the crew and watch it lift off... that’s what it’s about.” (11:00)

For him, airline tech ops has always been about one thing:

“Fixing the airplane—safely and compliantly—so your family and my family can get where they need to be.” (44:50)

That’s not a nice-to-have. That’s the mission.
Every system. Every shift. Every conversation should point back to it.

If it doesn’t, you don’t just risk downtime.

You risk trust.

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