There is an old adage: When a pilot makes a mistake, the pilot dies. When maintenance makes a mistake, the pilot dies. All too often, so does everyone with him or her and the maintainer as well, except he is going to take longer to die. Read: “The Price of a Mistake” video storyline on our website
www.system-safety.com — Safety Videos to understand what I mean. I have one more “war story” in which my working partner
was about one foot from death. Luck was all that saved him (or perhaps it was divine intervention). We had seven old DC8s that were getting “long in the tooth.” With about 50,000 hours each of hard flying, they had a tendency to leak fuel. Our crew had the job of stopping the leaks. The problem with integral fuel tanks is it would drip fuel out at one place, but the leak could start many feet away in the tank sealant. The fuel would be cross fed to another tank and circuit breakers pulled and tagged. A venturi device was attached to one of the tank panel openings and a low pressure was created in the tank. Red penetrant dye was sprayed where the leak dripped out and on entering the tank you would find where the leak started from the red dye that had been sucked in. A strong magnet was held on the outside where the leak exited, and a small handheld magnet found that location inside the tank. The job now was to replace the sealant between those two points. All panels were opened up and air was pumped into the tank. As I was the smallest of the crew, I was “volunteered” to go into the tank to do the job while a crewmate stayed by the nearest panel opening to hand down tools and keep watch. These were the good ol’ days, so you went in in wearing special no pocket coveralls only because there were little pools of fuel everywhere and you were going to get soaked in JP4 before you crawled out. I remember thinking that they should have a Safety rope around my ankle in case I got stuck. As I was working, I suddenly heard a loud “J____s C___t,” and a lot of commotion outside the tank. I got myself turned around and popped my head out of the hole. There was my work mate as pale as a ghost and right beside him was a ground spoiler sticking straight up. He had been on that panel moments earlier getting a can of sealant for me from the tool tray with the counted tools we needed. The tool tray was gone. When the panel came up it threw that tool tray over the wing and onto a support pillar about 20 feet in front of the wing. Tools, sealant and the tray came raining down on a portable table with the task card stand on it. Again, moments earlier there had been a couple of crew there signing off completed cards and picking up new task cards. No one was hurt but the potential for a fatality was very high. It seems that they were working on the spoiler’s mate on the left wing and that crew member was looking out the captain’s window never thinking to check the right wing before pulling the spoiler lever. We never thought to
keeping you in the air ...
As the industry’s leading independent aero- engine MRO provider, StandardAero is trusted by airline, governmental and business aviation operators worldwide for responsive, tailored support solutions.
Our global Airlines & Fleets team provides OEM-authorized support for your engine and APU needs:
• AE 3007 • APS2300 • CF34-3/-8 • CFM56-7B • GTCP36 • JT15D • PT6A • PW100 • PW150 • RB211-535 • RE220
BIGGER. BETTER. BOLDER.
www.standardaero.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
