For 75 Years, a Mechanic Has Helped Keep Planes Aloft

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 — Mr. 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.

“He loves coming to work,” said Robert Needham, Mr. 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, Mr. Blackman drives himself from his home in Queens Village to the airport long before sunup and well before his 5 a.m. 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 a.m., followed by more walking and more consulting until it is time to go home at 1 p.m.

“Every day the job is different,” Mr. 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 Mr. 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, Mr. 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,” Mr. 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 Mr. Blackman, during which he will be presented with a plaque from Guinness World Records for the longest career as an airline mechanic. Mr. 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, and Robert Reardon, who was the oldest active flight attendant when he retired from Delta Air Lines at the age of 90 in 2014.

As part of its tribute to Mr. 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 Mr. 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 Mr. 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 Mr. 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 F.A.A. guidelines and everything else, we always have to be careful what he’s doing,” Mr. Needham said.

When the restrictions on his activities were first put in place years ago, Mr. 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.” Mr. 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, Mr. Blackman said he did not have any plans to retire.

While Mr. Blackman does not turn a wrench the way he once could, what he has to offer is incalculable, said Robert L. Crandall, who was president of American from 1980 to 1998. He, along with Doug Parker, the current chief executive, will be on hand for the ceremony.

“He represents a valuable institutional memory that says, ‘This is how we do it at American. This is our commitment to quality,’” Mr. Crandall said. “This is how you pass it on to the next generation. He’s the guy who sits with the new kids at lunch and passes it on.”