07/27/2026
What a long career. Can you imagine all the changes he experienced during his time?
We are sad to announce that the aviation world has lost one of its legends. American Airlines' Azriel "Al" Blackman, the world's longest-serving aircraft mechanic ever, has passed away at the age of 100. According to an announcement shared within the aircraft maintenance community, he passed on the evening of Friday, July 24.
His story is almost impossible to believe.
Blackman started work with American Airlines, then called American Export Airlines, on July 17, 1942. He was 16 years old, fresh out of Aviation High School in Manhattan, and his mother had to give him permission to take the job. He was paid 50 cents an hour in the sheet metal shop.
He never left. Blackman worked for American for more than eight decades, holding the Guinness World Record for the longest career as an aircraft mechanic, a record he set, then broke again himself.
He began on flying boats. In the 1940s, he waded into Flushing Bay at the LaGuardia Marine Air Terminal to tie lines to Sikorsky seaplanes so they could be hauled up the ramp into the hangar. From there he worked on nearly every aircraft American ever flew, all the way to the Boeing 777.
In 2017, to mark his 75 years, American did something it had never done for a mechanic. It dedicated a Boeing 777 to him, registration N751AN, with a plaque calling it the largest career in aviation history as an Aviation Maintenance Technician. Mechanics still call that jet "7BK," for Blackie. Guinness was there. A flag was flown over the US Capitol in his honor. In 2022, he celebrated 80 years.
Even near the end, his shift began at 5 a.m., but he arrived at the hangar before 3 a.m. most days. His late wife Delores, married to him for decades, used to tell him, "Go to work, bum. Go play with your friends."
He always said the same thing about the work he loved. "If you like what you do, it's not work."
Rest in peace, Blackie.
