A method of monitoring a location of a component of an aircraft includes acquiring an image of the component during flight by an imaging device disposed at a selected location relative to the aircraft and oriented along a selected direction relative to an aircraft structure, identifying a position of the component within the image, estimating a distance in the image between the component and a reference location depicted in the image, and estimating an actual location of the component based on the distance in the image. Estimating the actual location includes correlating the distance in the image with an actual distance between the component and the reference location.