The IAQG Americas Certification Oversight Team (ACOT) has circulated a memo to AS9100 certification bodies (CBs) that they intend to perform witness audits to verify that the CBs are complying with ISO 17021-1 and AS9104, among other standards and scheme rules. This appears to be limited to CBs in the United States for now, as serious concerns have arisen related to the validity of AS9100 certifications in the country.
ACOT is the Americas-only branch of “IAQG Certification Oversight Team” (ICOT). ICOT had previously been named the Other Party Management Team (OPMT), but was rebranded in 2026 as the scheme converts from “AS” standards to “IA” (International Aerospace) AS9100, for example, is set to be updated as IA9100 and the first edition of that standard is scheduled for release in early 2027.
In the ISO scheme, CBs must undergo annual witness audits by their Accreditation Bodies (ABs.) In those audits, the AB shadows the CB during an audit of a given client, in order to verify that the CB is not violating ISO 17021-1.
For the aerospace scheme, the OPMT used to conduct witness audits in the past, but traditionally did these during the AB’s witness audit. In such cases, a client would have to support a huge cohort of auditors, with representatives from the CB, AB, and IAQG all at once. Clients are forbidden to refuse to participate in witness audits, and can face lifetime certification bans if they do so.
Now, however, the ACOT intends to conduct its own witness audits of CBs without the participation of the applicable AB. This will lessen the burden on the end-user client and decrease any influence the AB might have on ACOT.
It also signals a decreasing level of trust in the ABs, such as ANAB and IAS, to properly oversee the AS9100 certification scheme in the United States.
As reported previously, one US certification body (KSQA) was suspended after the US accreditation body IAS was witnessed by ACOT. While IAS had not cited KSQA for any nonconformities, ACOT found problems and forced IAS to temporarily suspend KSQA’s accreditation. It’s not clear if IAS itself faced any sanctions from the IAQG, however.
Individual companies should not expect to see an increase in witness audits, however. Only a very tiny portion of end-user organizations are selected to be witnessed, and many companies are ISO 9001 or AS9100 certified for decades without ever having undergone an AB or IAQG witness audit.
In such audits, the AB and ACOT members are pledged to remain silent and are not actually participating in the audit of the end-user client. Instead, they are literally “witnessing” the CB’s auditors to confirm they do not take bribes, support findings with objective evidence, and conform to all applicable auditing rules.
The IAQG memo asks CBs to provide ACOT with a list of all their planned aerospace QMS audits for 2026. These would include AS9100, AS9110, and AS9120.
End-user organizations subject to the audits are disallowed from denying ACOT from shadowing their CB auditor. Companies that deny access to ICOT can face a permanent blacklist from the AS9100 certification scheme.
