The Takeaway Flying anything much more complicated than a kite requires a willingness to place faith in things the flight crew can’t verify directly, from installation of the correct grade of hardware to the accuracy of charts and third-party navigation databases. The assumption of continuity can assuage some potential worries: if the main-rotor blades installed at the factory haven’t been removed, they’re probably still the right parts. Preflight inspections and run-up checks are therefore directed at compo- nents that might have been damaged or fluids that could have been compromised during or since the last flight. Notably, the AS350 B3 preflight checklist, as demon- strated by a factory test pilot in an Airbus Helicopters video, doesn’t call for opening any of the engine cowlings but merely making sure their latches are securely closed.
Not surprisingly, the National
Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found the probable cause of the accident to have been “maintenance personnel’s fail- ure to properly reinstall and secure a fuel line, which resulted in a total loss of engine power.” It’s also not surprising that the techni- cian who connected the line felt sure he’d torqued and safety-wired it as required. Perhaps he did—all the operator’s other helicopters were found to be airworthy. It’s also possible he simply couldn’t imag- ine, much less remember, having missed such a crucial step. The aviation industry has put immense
effort into reducing the risk of single-point failures, but they haven’t been eliminated and may never be. Some large operators require that another (usually more senior) maintenance technician inspect and sign off on crucial maintenance tasks, but even that safeguard has occasionally fallen short: the failure in October 2019 of a Hawker 800XP jet’s nose gear to extend was traced to the heavy-check mainte- nance provider’s failure to install the washer, nut, and cotter pin on the drag stay during overhaul, although a
quality-assurance inspector had signed off on the work. The well-known tendency to see what
one expects to see has proven hard to dis- rupt, particularly when similar assemblies are inspected in quick succession. Because the oversights are so rare, imposing further layers of scrutiny risks increasing overhead more than it improves safety. The near-universal availability of digital photography at least offers maintenance
personnel an option for rebutting accusa- tions. Clear photos of the finished assem- bly from whatever angles are needed to document essential details, tagged with date and time, could settle the kind of question raised by the Texas accident—and just taking the picture might prompt a fresh look at the work. Cell phones have cam- eras, and almost everyone in aviation car- ries one. Taking a few quick snaps might not be a bad idea.
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AlphaMetalcraft.com MARCH 2023 ROTOR 71
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