ExecuJet MRO Services Belgium Handles Rat-Damaged Falcon 8X, Expands Avionics Capabilities

ExecuJet MRO Services Belgium, operating from Kortrijk with three maintenance bays and 48 employees, has completed repairs on a Dassault Falcon 8X damaged by a rat that had taken up residence in the aircraft. The infestation was first suspected when a crew boarding the 8X at Farnborough found much of the catering had been consumed; security cameras confirmed a rat was responsible.

DABS personnel in Farnborough removed the animal, and initial wiring inspections were carried out there before the aircraft was ferried to Kortrijk for a scheduled 48-month inspection combined with a Starlink installation. Technicians at Kortrijk found the rat had chewed through substantial amounts of wiring insulation. Replacement insulation packets were sourced in coordination with the Teterboro parts team and fabricators in Little Rock. The concurrent Starlink modification simplified repairs, since headliners and portions of the interior already removed for the avionics upgrade allowed technicians to access and inspect the remaining structure more readily. The 48-month inspection is now essentially complete, and the aircraft is expected to leave the Kortrijk hangar shortly, fully repaired and Starlink-equipped.

Kortrijk has also built a broader avionics and upgrade capability: the facility became the first in the Eastern Hemisphere to perform an EASy IV upgrade, carried out on a Falcon 7X, and the team is now prepared to install Gogo Galileo systems while actively fitting Garmin 275 units as backup primary flight displays. The Belgium operation is experimenting with drone-based surface mapping — in one instance a drone rapidly located pinhole lightning-strike entry and exit points, accelerating inspection and repair — and has trialled augmented reality glasses allowing remote specialists to observe live what a technician is troubleshooting on-site. ExecuJet Regional VP Matthijs Hutsebaut and General Manager Nadia Coetzee also oversee line service operations in Brussels, where staff form one of the company's AOG response teams; ExecuJet MRO Services Europe is one of 60 worldwide service locations in the ExecuJet network.

Wildlife intrusion causing wiring damage is a known hazard for parked business jets, but this case shows how an MRO shop can turn a scheduled event into an opportunity to resolve an unplanned one. Because the Falcon 8X was already in for a 48-month inspection paired with a Starlink installation, the interior and headliners were already open, letting technicians trace and replace chewed insulation without a separate teardown.

That overlap is how heavy-check MRO economics actually work: bundling a scheduled inspection with an avionics modification reduces the incremental labor needed to address a defect discovered mid-visit, since access panels and structure are already exposed. It also illustrates how a network with distributed parts and fabrication support — Teterboro for parts, Little Rock for fabrication — can source non-stock items like custom insulation packets quickly enough to keep a single visit from becoming multiple downtime events.

Kortrijk's parallel investment in EASy IV upgrades, Gogo Galileo readiness, Garmin 275 backup displays, drone-based surface mapping and augmented-reality remote support points to where regional MRO stations are competing: not just on turnaround for routine checks, but on the breadth of avionics and inspection technology they can offer without routing aircraft elsewhere. Whether these tools become standard across ExecuJet's other 60 locations, or remain specific to the Kortrijk site, is the next thing to watch.