Dare I guess that you have not worked at a line station or two?
There is no point to it. AA has plenty of A&Ps, why would they even risk it? Repairman typically have to have all their work inspected. That has to be under the control of the repair station certificate only! I do not know of any line stations - class II or class I's that have a repair station certificate. A few years back when AA was looking at getting into the MRO business, they talked about some sort of system coverage of the repair station certificate; in fact, we had special training just for it. Anyway, all that has long since went out the door.
In fact, the head of training at DFW just said "there is no way that any un-licensed mechanics are working the line, and especially signing log books off. Closest we come are the IFE guys from Rockwell or Panasonic, and all of them have A&Ps anyway.
When the head of training at DFW said, "There is no way that any un-licensed mechanics are working the line, and especially signing log books off. " did he mean actually working the terminal or working shops and checks at a line station?
I will not name names here, but it happened for years. Don't know for sure if it still is, now, since it is not on my radar. I do know they quit hiring unlicensed mechs at my line station some time ago, but continued to hire avionics techs with FCC licenses for a while longer. Some of the unlicensed mechs and avtechs have retired, though. One Repairman I can remember even went on field trips by himself. Very often, in fact. So yes, he signed off log books. Without anyone inspecting his work.
I think different people had different situations with management. But, it was not uncommon at all for unlicensed mechanics to sign off work cards at a line station.
When license pay became larger, most got licenses, but not all. Never understood why they would not want the license pay. At one time, a 2nd class FCC license was good for single license pay, and a 1st class was good for double license pay. Don't remember what happened to those 1st class FCC license holders when their license was changed to a General license, just like the holders of 2nd class FCC licenses. Most avionics techs just went ahead and got A&Ps, anyway so they could work the terminal and go on lucrative field trips, so it became a non-issue.
Didn't some unlicensed mechs in overhaul get "Skill Pay", at the same rate as license pay, at one time?