A system comprising a computer readable storage device readable by the system, tangibly embodying a program having a set of instructions executable by the system to perform the following steps for detecting a sub-surface defect, the set of instructions comprising an instruction to receive scan data for a part from a transducer; an instruction to collect the scan data; an instruction to determine an indication in the scan data that indicates a distractor, wherein the indication is based on a learning phase module and an inference phase module that the processor uses to self-assess the indication; and an instruction to create a defect indication report.