Southwest Airlines - Team Herb Crowned Again at The Competition Presented by Snap-on

    April 18, 2025
    Southwest Airlines - Team Herb bested over 80 teams across 27 events.
    Snap-on Industrial
    68028deb63c18cea69bf0848 Southwest Airlines Team Herb

    Southwest Airlines - Team Herb bested over 80 teams across 27 events to capture the William F. “Bill” O’Brien Award for Excellence in Aircraft Maintenance for the second year in a row last week at The Competition Presented by Snap-on in Atlanta.

    “Hard work pays off,” said Chad Rhyne, coach of Southwest Airlines - Team Herb, “I have the same team with me as we did last year. We work well as a group, we challenge each other. The old saying is iron sharpens iron; that’s the secret of our success.”

    The crowning of Southwest Airlines - Team Herb, named after its founder Herb Kelleher, and one of two teams from Southwest in the field, capped off two days at The Competition, an aviation maintenance skills event held at the MRO Americas convention last week in Atlanta.

    As winners of the O’Brien Award, Rhyne and his team, including Blake Fulton, David Swisher, Matt Lehner, Chase Lehner, Kevin Shaw and Chris Grover, get to take the five-foot tall traveling trophy back to their headquarters at Love Field in Dallas for the year. The trophy features a bust of Charles E. Taylor, an aviation pioneer who built and maintained the first aircraft engine used by the Wright Brothers.

    Sponsorship of the award is part of Snap-on’s continued commitment to The Competition and aviation maintenance technicians around the world.

    “Teams like Southwest Airlines - Team Herb represent the best in the industry and continue to inspire those around them to be even better,” said Bill Willetts, vice president of Snap-on Industrial and Aerospace Maintenance Council board member.

    Willetts added, “We hope they are enjoying their well-earned victory and ready to defend their title once again at next year’s event in Orlando. We are sure the playing field will be even more competitive than ever.”

    Southwest Airlines was not the only champion to repeat. Students from Tarrant County College bested more than 40 other academic teams to win the School category as the top aviation school at The Competition.

    “Especially after watching the bulk of the awards ceremony, I was really surprised (that we won),” said Mike Vitek, coach of Tarrant County College, a skilled trades school located in Fort Worth, Texas.

    Vitek continued, “We did well in several of the events, we did not do so well in some of the events. But when they announced second place, I thought we might have this, and we did. We are very proud and happy for our students.”

    The Competition Presented by Snap-on, and hosted by the Aerospace Maintenance Council gives teams of licensed AMTs, AMEs, international military personnel and qualified aviation maintenance students the chance to test their aviation maintenance skills against their peers.

    The competition included 27 challenges in areas such as avionics, safety wiring, fiber optics/flight control rigging, hydraulics, jet engine troubleshooting, workplace safety SMS and other tasks.

    Teams had 15 minutes to accurately complete each task; teams that finished their tasks up to safety standards in less than the allotted time received higher scores with points deducted for any errors.

    “The energy at The Competition is always electric. Everywhere you look, technicians are performing at their best and demonstrating their incredible knowledge, skills and integrity,” said Ken MacTiernan, chairman of The Competition.

    MacTiernan added, “That excitement carries over into awards too. Everyone applauds every winner, even if they themselves did not place. The camaraderie of the aviation industry is really on full display.”

    Major Category Winners

    William O’Brien Award

    • Southwest Airlines - Team Herb

    MRO/OEM Category

    • 1st place: United Airlines - Base
    • 2nd place: Southwest Airlines - Team Colleen
    • 3rd place: FedEx Express - Team Indy

    School Category

    • 1st place: Tarrant County College
    • 2nd place: Lewis University
    • 3rd place: Tulsa Tech - Adult Students

    Military Category

    • 1st place: United States Army - 128th Aviation Brigade - Team Chinook
    • 2nd place: United States Army - 128th Aviation Brigade - Team Blackhawk
    • 3rd place: Royal Canadian Air Force - 12 Air Maintenance Squadron

    Commercial Category

    • 1st place: Southwest Airlines - Team Herb
    • 2nd place: Alaska Airlines - Team Seattle
    • 3rd place: United Airlines - Line

    General Aviation Category

    • 1st place: Aircraft Engineers International
    • 2nd place: Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association
    • 3rd place: Victory Lane Aviation

    Peer Team Award

    • Centennial College

    Dream Team Award

    • Embry-Riddle University - Team 1

    Professionalism Award

    • SFC Curtis Parker - US Army - Team Blackhawk

    Professionalism Award (student)

    • Hugo Hernandez - West Los Angeles College

    United’s John Goglia Competing with Professionalism Awards:

    • 1st place: Aviation Institute of Maintenance - Atlanta
    • 2nd place: Indian Hills Community College

    In addition to the William F. “Bill” O’Brien Award for Excellence in Aircraft Maintenance, Snap-on provided all the tools and equipment used by the participants during The Competition and donated tools and equipment prizes to top finishers.

    More than 50 other companies, educational institutions, community organizers and countless individual volunteers contributed time, resources, prizes, product and airline miles to make The Competition a success. Other top-tier sponsors include American Airlines, Pratt & Whitney, United Airlines and Teamsters.