Narrative:

I was working aircraft with fellow airframe and powerplant technician. Aircraft was a redelivery brought on the gate by the ramp crew. After I completed my walk around I asked the ramp crew lead if they were going to put ground power on the aircraft. He told me they were going to leave the APU on. I informed him that the APU was off and that once they hooked up ground power I would start the APU. Several minutes later; I heard the APU start. We went on board and found the flight crew onboard. I asked the captain if he started the APU and he said yes; the mechanics told him its fine. When I informed him that we were the mechanics and it was the ramp crew he had talked to; he got very upset and said they told him they were mechanics.the flight crew commented that they were not familiar with bringing power onto a dead aircraft and relied on the fact they thought they were talking to mechanics. It`s confusing enough that the ramp team is wearing orange vests with 'aircraft maintenance technicians (amt) ' logos on them and going into the cockpits; but when they identify themselves as 'mechanics' to the flight crews; that`s crossing a very dangerous line.[my] suggestion [is that] ramp crew needs to stop wearing amt [orange vests] as their designation. Aircraft ramp team is confusing to flight crews. They think they are talking to aircraft maintenance technicians. There should also be serious penalties for ramp personal who lie to flight crews. This could have serious flight safety implications.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Maintenance Technician reported the flight crew mistakenly identified the ramp personnel as maintenance technicians.

Narrative: I was working aircraft with fellow Airframe and Powerplant technician. Aircraft was a redelivery brought on the gate by the ramp crew. After I completed my walk around I asked the ramp crew lead if they were going to put ground power on the aircraft. He told me they were going to leave the APU on. I informed him that the APU was off and that once they hooked up ground power I would start the APU. Several minutes later; I heard the APU start. We went on board and found the flight crew onboard. I asked the captain if he started the APU and he said Yes; the MECHANICS told him its fine. When I informed him that we were the mechanics and it was the RAMP crew he had talked to; he got very upset and said they told him they were mechanics.The flight crew commented that they were not familiar with bringing power onto a dead aircraft and relied on the fact they thought they were talking to mechanics. It`s confusing enough that the ramp team is wearing orange vests with 'Aircraft Maintenance Technicians (AMT) ' logos on them and going into the cockpits; but when they identify themselves as 'Mechanics' to the flight crews; that`s crossing a very dangerous line.[My] suggestion [is that] Ramp crew needs to stop wearing AMT [orange vests] as their designation. Aircraft Ramp Team is confusing to flight crews. They think they are talking to Aircraft Maintenance Technicians. There should also be serious penalties for ramp personal who lie to flight crews. This could have serious flight safety implications.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.