Plain English Meaning

The MMEL is the FAA's master list, for a particular aircraft type, of which broken items the airplane can still legally fly with and under what limits. Operators use it as the starting point to write their own approved list for their specific airplane.

Full Definition

An FAA-issued document, developed for a specific aircraft make and model, that identifies the items of equipment that may be inoperative while the aircraft is still considered airworthy for flight under specified conditions. The MMEL is the regulatory baseline from which an operator builds its own approved Minimum Equipment List (MEL); the operator's MEL may be equally or more restrictive than the MMEL but never less restrictive.

Context Anchor

You encounter MMELs when deciding whether an aircraft with inoperative equipment can be flown, especially before or during .