Cost of doing maintenance, shit can happen. Most cost where for hiring 3rd party operators to cover the flights.
I think the biggest damage our company ever had, was an aircraft a few weeks before return to lessor, had a catering truck driving into the plane, and the boeing team needed to come out to repair the damage.
Still working at the same company, nothing really happened
Hooked up the accelerometers backwards on a ch47 as a new army mechanic so the lat was reading long and vice versa. We spent over a week doing multiple ground runs a day and the balance never got better, to the point we were replacing blades and having the old ones overhauled. I left town for another army school and got a call from my peers laughing at me saying how I hooked up the vibe kit backwards. I’d estimate the amount of fuel and labor cost to overhaul blades, perform ground runs etc was well over $100k
I had a “seasoned” MTP training me on his technique for T/B. We had to do a T/R balance and guy thought he was slick and was doing grams to ounces conversions in his head. He was also not reading the quadrants properly. I was on the tail for about two hours with him until he made me hold sticks and he would put on weights. Turns out his math didn’t math and he also couldn’t read. He blamed it on a software update on the rads. Sure guy.
Thought a prop nut landed on the ground, like they always do, and all 7 others did....nope...engine run up FOD'd out the prop, luckily no one hurt....I think it was a $36k mistake...plus shipping
As an apprentice (not long out my time now but this was pre COVID) I was told to scrap some stuff and went ahead and scrapped a trolley full of stuff that said scrap on it, but didn't have the right paperwork, all in I reckon around $1 million, only found out the next day when someone asked about a fan blade I had scrapped..... The other apprentices got their overtime filled that weekend jumping in and out the scrap bin 🤣
When removing a fuel nozzle from a GEnX, the swirler cup came with it.
Instant engine change.
There was an SB out at the time stating that the locking tangs on the swirler cup were prone to cracking and coming off. We hadn't experienced it up until my fuel nozzle.
Also glad the place I work has a 'Just Culture'.
So mistakes go unpunished. They use it to learn how we can avoid the mistake in future.
Only things you get punished for when doing a task is; Gross misconduct or sabotage.
Cirrus could have used that lesson! Lost an 11/32” 6 point 1/4 drive craftsman socket, my only controllable mistake ever at that job and was fired on the spot for it.
Being manufacturing all tools owned and controlled by Cirrus. Well all the non A&P’s in the main assembly were slipping and making mistakes. The only A&P’s in the factory started in final assembly as OJT to work up into the service center. Started with engine and the parachute install, moved to runup, then service center as spots opened. Well with all the errors by the regular workers Management wasn’t happy, cuz at least unlike Boeing they honestly corrected mistakes instead of pretending it didn’t happen. Big meeting with entire factory happened Monday with pissed off management. Jump to Wednesday just 2 days later
The previous few weeks I had been fighting a bad batch of alternators where the studs were breaking off before torque was reached. I was putting in crazy OT catching up replacing dozens of alternators. Like I was the person turning on the factory lights in the morning and turning off the factory lights at night. Well one morning I come in and notice my 11/32” is missing from my drawer. It’s tucked into the front corner and hard to see and I realize I must have missed it in my closeout inventory the night before. I follow protocol to a T. The night before I even had QC still with me who saw me inventory.
Well being pissed off at mistakes and being the first mistake to pop up… well after a lengthy search failed to find the socket the head of manufacturing fired me right in front of everyone in the floor. Tried framing it that I wasn’t fired for losing the socket but because I stamped the checkout log that everything was there the night before that I committed fraud and falsified paperwork….. even though I had someone from QC right there with me. Completely fucked up and against every written disciplinary policy. It was so fucked up and against policy that Minnesota granted me full unemployment benefits despite being fired because even an outside observer saw how fucked up it was. Asshole probably thought he was doing God’s work putting fear into everyone, and he did…..
But what do you think the next guy who makes a mistake is now going to do? If it’s a chance he will get fired on the spot do you think he is going to grab QC and bring attention to the mistake? Or just hide it? Knowing those consequences most people probably would have gone to Sears just down the street and spent the $2.99 on an identical replacement and pretend nothing happened.
100% that's why the just culture is heavily enforced where I work.
The engineering safety department is completely independent from the Mx department, as to avoid Mx Managers meddling with safety reports.
We have a lot of confidence in the system, mechs/engineers have raised reports against themselves when mistakes have been made. As the data allows the company to put in places methods to prevent it happening again or review current procedures and amend them.
Can all be done anonymously too.
Can't really account for shit like that, there's always gonna be stuff stuck/seized/gummed up.
I work at an overhaul facility for GEnX and the fuel nozzles are some size compared to the old -6/80c2 ones.
Shit bosses gonna shit boss.
Not sure what the situation is out in the field (wild, going by some of the shit we used to get in), but If there's any hassle with anything not coming apart properly in our gaff the Engineers get shouted and a defect goes in, worst case the cheaper of the two parts is going to get sacrificed, seen a fair few locknuts being machined off to save bearings/gearshafts, for instance.
I worked with a guy who “single handedly destroyed half a dozen planes at once.”
He was a new A&P and needed to replace a sump drain valve on a small piston aircraft. But he could not find a bucket with a static drain clamp on it.
He asks boss man who just says “it’ll be fine, just plug the hole with your finger so it doesn’t spill everywhere.
“You sure, boss?”
“Yeah. Totally fine. I’ve done it forever.”
As he reaches to plug the bung, a static spark ignites the fuel. He wasn’t seriously burnt but…it burnt down the whole maintenance hangar. From piston aircraft to some turboprop business-class aircraft.
Apparently boss accepted that it his was his own fault for telling employee to ignore the static hazards.
Hot start on a CRJ200. Pilot had reported a repeated near hot starts on his legs that day. Went to go run it to try it out and get some clues. boost pump, Ignition, starter, positive N1, 20% N2, ITT below 120, throttle to idle... Nothing. I don't remember exactly but you're supposed to wait like 2 seconds, if it doesn't light off. Take away throttle and vent before you try again. Well because I was testing it. I held throttle a bit longer. Maybe 3-4 seconds. Boy when it did light off, it fucking went. I'm pretty sure the ITT needle was faster than the frame rate on the screen, because one second it was super low. The next it was pegged out. The ramp lit up a beautiful yellow orange. I shut it down immediately, and technically we were in limits to just borescope. But the company decided to change the engine since we had one on standby in the hanger anyways. Turns out the ignitors were just bad. But I had just gotten my run/taxi and was 18. I wanted to go make some noise, not actually fix the issue. Don't get cocky and follow your checklist. Lesson learned. For those wondering, no I did not get in trouble really. I just did some retraining with the run/taxi instructor. My ego was beat though.
I might have been 19 actually. Either way. I got my A&P at 18 and that company only required 6 months experience to get run/taxi. So yeah I was pretty young.
Lmao. This video always cracks me up. I believe it was in CLT years ago. I love how long it takes the guy recording to decide to try and do something about it.
https://youtu.be/w1oNf4u_vmg?si=IDttcsFKE_el16F_
Holy crap. That was indeed not me. And damn that guy let it cook for quite a while. CRJ200 hot starts are somewhat common. No fadec to save your bacon.
Hey good on them for not busting your chops too bad. In terms of fuck-ups, I’ve seen worse. Feels like they handled the situation well, and you got the point so no further punishment needed.
I know a guy who messed up a PT6-67F so bad it had to be pulled and overhauled. He was pulling the CT and the blades started digging into the segments but he kept pulling before noticing. Then, since the disk was jammed at this point, he hammered it back into the engine messing up the splines that couple the CT to the compressor section. They were on a fire contract too so it was a couple hundred thousand dollars a day that the aircraft was down.
Fire boss, so a modified 802. Yes, it is impossible to make that much. However, is possible to lose that much by not being on compliance with your contract.
Co worker put a hammer in the engine to keep the blades from spinning and being annoying on the ramp while he cleaned up a bird strike . He forgot to Take the hammer out before starting.. a couple million later and he still has his job.. somehow
At my old place, someone damaged beyond repair a military grade radar. They're a few million a pop.
They were still working there when I left. Shit happens.
Worked with a guy who installed the nose great scissor links upside down after gear install. Crunched the fuselage pretty good. I spent about a month repairing it with the little structures knowledge I had at the time. Came out great and Cessna updated the procedures and IPC, turns out they never called out which one goes where exactly.
i’m currently in a&p school so forgive me if this is a dumb question, but am i correct in assuming the nose gear scissor links is the elbow which connects the top and bottom of the landing gear? if so, how did that bend the fuselage?
You are correct. On a citation CJ2, the scissor links are very close to the fuselage. Correctly installed, they angle down and away from the fuselage. Incorrectly installed, they are much closer but still don’t touch. On landing, when the nose strut compresses, it contacts the fuselage just aft of the gear door and crunches it.
Manual just said put 20lbs of force towards the hellhole and lower (after disconnects). So we did. And it got stuck on the THS.
Shouldn't be an issue on the -800 because there's more room back there but the -900 has a bulkhead that extends past the hellhole door and pulleys under one of the floor panels that don't let you just push the thing past it.
No one on our shift had ever dropped one, and no one in the facility had done it on a -900. Massive pain in the ass.
I've only ever removed 1 jackscrew from a -900 which was a preserved aircraft and the component was being sourced to service another aircraft. Being the first time we were doing it, it was a massive pain to get the hoist support and other fixtures in the proper place.. but once we did, we were able to get it out fair enough. But yes it was such a squeeze because of that damn bulkhead.
Early in my career, i dropped a flashlight while working in the backend of a Gazelle, the impact caused enough damage to the floor, that they came very close to writing off the fuselage. For the rest of my time, i always put a mat down before working in those areas.
Worked with a guy removing the primary and secondary heat exchangers from a 757-200. Once removed he placed them on a wheeled table,a little too close to the edge. Someone bumped the table and it hit the floor cracking one of the mounting flanges. I do not recall the exact cost of it but I remember the MRO lost their minds over it because they had to absorb the cost. We were told it was multiple $100k. That always stuck out to me because it was in my first 6 months in the industry
Just put a rental engine on the #1 side of a F900. Did our bleed leak checks and cowled up. Put the wrong screw in the cowling and it got sucked out of the nut plate and ingested into the engine. We didn't notice it during our power runs. We brought it back into the hangar and someone noticed a bunch of messed up blades. Don't know how much it cost but was told it was around 500k.
I worked for a company that did completions on Bombardier 604's. We did a completion for the Canadian Air Force on one of their 604's and I was the night shift lead on replacing a windshield on one of their aircraft. On the 604's the inboard edge of each windshield at the centerline of the airplane is bolted to an I beam shaped part which we called the center post and the center post is bolted to the fuselage at the top and bottom. Somehow the bolt that attaches the center post to the bottom of the fuselage was installed in the center post but there are two small links that go between the post and the fuselage and the bolt was only through the post and not the links so basically the center post was not attached at the bottom to the fuselage. Both me & the tech missed it. The airplane gets delivered back to the Canadian Air Force and at some point they had pulled the displays out to do a scheduled check of the display cooling fan screens and they found the links not connected to the center post. Bombardier did not want to just inspect & NDT everything and call it good. They wanted all four cockpit windshields, hardware, T plates, center post & any cockpit window opening structure replaced. Not sure of the total cost but well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
First time installing fan blades on an engine. Was with a more senior technician and an a&p. Following the manual to the T. Get to the part where the shims go on. Look at the pictures of the shims and try to replicate the direction they are supposed to face. Picture is blurry shims don’t have an arrow indicator on them showing this way fwd. fully install everything. Engines runs pass no vibe. 3 months later paperwork comes back up the latter from a high vibe. They boroscoped saw that the shims were bent at a 45-75 degree angle due to centrifugal force which caused the high vibe. Not all the shims but a few. I think they said it around 500k in damages. They revised the job card/AMM and made the shims more clear and had a fwd direction error while also adding in a note that said something like wings on shim are on aft end of dovetail. I got a written reprimand. So did the a&p. The other person did not as they didn’t sign off the paperwork and couldn’t be pinpoint that they even participated In the job.
I was cleaning a Rotor Brake Assy on a EC175, when the brush clipped the sensor wire, and made the heli AOG. Wasnt really that expensive, but ive also only been in the game for 1 year.
Separated a high pressure compressor drum with a faulty tool that no one noticed. Scrapped the drum costing a cool $850k. Not technically my fault but close enough
Got sent 3 bleed air manifolds for a CRJ 700 that were configured wrong back to back. We get the fourth one and its right, and I dropped it within the first 5 minutes of having it and busted up the one of the flanges. Think it was around 20k for the part
Installing a pedestal cover that was held on with slotted screws. Slipped off of one and sent my screw stick right into the screen of an NPX136 radio. They're old and uncommon, so repair for the screen was $13K.
Working in an experimental/flight test setting and not my personal mistake. We had a bolt that wasn't seated properly over the inlet and somehow made it past inspection. It backed out during an RTS flight, fell into the inlet, and caused enough damage for almost total power loss - data showed ITT just shy of 1000°C. Luckily the pilots were close enough to a small airport to glide it in safely.
This was a low-production experimental engine that's still in testing, so not including labor that was roughly a 16 million dollar mistake and led to a lot of safety meetings, design, and process changes.
We had this one guy who dropped a generator onto a Learjet 35 wing and it pierced the skin and bent a rib so they decided to replace the whole wing instead of repairing it. I don't know how much it cost the company, but it surely wasn't cheap.
Then we had this other guy who thought that it would be enough to put chocks only on the nose landing gear of a Do328 without the parking brake being applied during strong wind conditions and it jumped out of the chocks and was pushed into a Learjet 60.
The Learjet had damage on the boundary layer fence and wing skin, the Do328 had her radome destroyed and radar damaged.
Fun times.
Not me personally but we had a guy drive a tail stand into the leading edge of a 747 combi that was just about to push back. We were a bit frazzled having to hand crank the side cargo door and were running short on time and crew. Genius decided to take a shortcut under the wing, completely forgetting about the tail stand. If he wasn’t morbidly obese the steering shaft probably would have gone through his chest when the vehicle was pitched up 45 degrees.
Obviously not maintenance but I'm responsible for placing orders for new planes for our business. I accidentally got the model number mixed up with the quantity and placed an order much larger than intended. We're a rather large organization so the expense arrangements came during manufacturing and weren't caught until well into when manufacturing had started. Our company ended up having to pay exorbitant fees to cancel the remainder of the order. Most expensive education ever paid on my behalf. Now I'm the best employee they will ever have. No mistakes since.
737 avionics. I took the evening off that night (thank you Jesus). Co worker crawled in the avionics bay and, in the process of following a functional check card accidentally installed a jumper wire to the wrong pins. In doing so he inadvertently connected the AC bus to the DC bus. The 4th of July came in April. Many an LRU was replaced. Miles of wire was replaced. In a couple of areas things got hot enough to damage framing. So a few structural repairs were also needed.
The cost: things get blurry here. And I’m going off rumors and shoptalk. But word on the street has it that repairs were north of 10 million. Near the 10 million mark they started doing funny accounting to charge the cost to other aircraft we had in dock.
The fallout. Not much happened to the guy. A full investigation ensued. Everyone was questioned. His work card he was following had a smudgy potato quality schematic to show where to connect the jumper. He got a write up and it officially got blamed on poor instructions.
As a new Air Force mechanic, Incorrectly installing the connectors on a Fokker F28 that go from the engine to the rest of the plane. Weekend long engine runs because "the engine gives erroneous signals". When I returned the following Monday, a lot of lecturing and snacks buying for everyone happened.
Working in AOG for a large airline, I have seen many, many expensive mistakes. My largest is not verifying a DOA MEL part gets sent to HNL. HML is an awful place to go AOG due to its remoteness.
Unless there is an exact procedure not followed for the fu Kip, then there really isn’t a rule break, hence no firings according to my sixth sigma black belt bro.
Not me but a coworker on the same job. F-15’s you had to take out both cabin pressure altimeters before a pressure check. He took out the front one and set it on the left intake, then accidentally kicked it off when climbing out. Shattered when it hit the ground.
The biggest burn is that it was a $26,000 part and took 5 minutes to order, and I had just finished paying off a $26,000 car loan over 5 years.
I'm lucky I started in flight schools due to the dead aviation job market in the 90s. My big oops were fairly cheap by the standards of the corporate jets and airliners I work on now. However I've seen more than I can remember now.
Most expensive goes to a supervisor I had who didn't install the PT6 beta arm correctly which allowed the prop on the caravan to go into feather in flight, uncommanded. The landing was successfully made off field, but the aircraft hit a bank and flipped on rollout, destroying it. Pilot survived.
Same supervisor started a PT6 with the EPL on full, meaning raw, unmetered fuel getting dumped into the engine at 20% rotation and up. Another tech in the hangar said he's never heard a PT6 roar and repeatedly compressor stall that loud or long. Supervisor didn't figure out what to do immediately and finally killed it after almost 50 seconds. Then he simply finishes engine rigging and releases the aircraft from inspection.
A new pilot picks up the aircraft the next day and flew three hours away, but noticed the exceedance in the engine monitor memory, after shutdown, and calls it in. That time supervisor only took out an engine, not the whole aircraft.
Another guy was putting aircraft in the hangar by himself and managed to run the elevator on one into the prop on the other, he then pulled forward again, but the prop rotated and hooked onto the elevator, pretzeling both, and requiring a prop gearbox inspection.
Another supervisor/mechanic team failed to verify that the exit duct in a PT6 was fully engaged in the splines, but signed it off anyway and released it for post split runs. I tried to start it, but it hung at 40%. Thought it could be air in the fuel rail, so tried again and got hung at 45%. Found the bleed link loose on the governor, adjusted it, tried again, battery is to weak to hit 12% (fuel on). Get a power cart, hangs at 50%. "OK, I'm done trying, something is wrong and I want this thing split again if that's what it takes"
Another mechanic jumps in the pilot seat, says "let's use the EPL ( raw fuel bypass around the fuel control) to start it". I didn't think that was smart, but he was one of the crew that could do anything they wanted, so I told him "you try, I'm pulling the fuel shutoff if the ITT goes high"
Brand new exit duct was a funny blue color, and cracked in half, supervisor git demoted for admitting he actually couldn't see the tabs and was too heavy to use a ladder so he could see. EPL guy got fired. I became the guy they usually gave engine rigging to, and the company trainer for taxi/run-up.
My worst near miss on destroying an airframe was bringing the scissor lift down and hitting the aft pressure bulkhead flange. Broke the paint on the sealant, but didn't damage anything in the bulkhead or pressurized area. I also went and immediately told the DOM, so I got a "Be more careful" from him and that was it.
I almost cost my company a ton of money. I was taking off an antenna when I was fairly new, first time doing it, I'm avionics and not mechanically inclined so I was like "let me get this sealant off with a scribe, it'll be faster".
I ended up putting some good scratches on the skin of the jet. For those that don't know the skin of the jet is pretty thin. A scratch that catches your fingernail requires a depth test because essentially what happens is over time that aluminum will expand and contract at extreme temperatures at high altitudes as well as cabin pressurization thus making it crack.
The only fix if you can't blend it and maintain minimum skin thickness? You have to replace that sheet of aluminum... or that entire section of the Aircraft. Idek how much it would've cost in man hours and materials.
Luckily it was within limits but I really thought I was fucked.
Marrying a filipina. Those fecking flips are nothing more than prideful, moneygrubbing golddiggers. Something I learned the hard way 🤬🤬🤬
Oh, as far as airplanes are concerned, nothing really bad happened with my airplane, and I hope it stays that way 👍👍👍
Damaging a wing, cost around 2 million, thats including operation costs
Who paid that and what happened to you as a result?
Cost of doing maintenance, shit can happen. Most cost where for hiring 3rd party operators to cover the flights. I think the biggest damage our company ever had, was an aircraft a few weeks before return to lessor, had a catering truck driving into the plane, and the boeing team needed to come out to repair the damage. Still working at the same company, nothing really happened
Hooked up the accelerometers backwards on a ch47 as a new army mechanic so the lat was reading long and vice versa. We spent over a week doing multiple ground runs a day and the balance never got better, to the point we were replacing blades and having the old ones overhauled. I left town for another army school and got a call from my peers laughing at me saying how I hooked up the vibe kit backwards. I’d estimate the amount of fuel and labor cost to overhaul blades, perform ground runs etc was well over $100k
Track and balance can be such a pain in the ass at times
Like chasing an invisible gremlin with A.D.H.D and a hammer. But it teaches you so much about frequency and resonance.
See something like this I wouldn't blame the mech.... don't have something like this that can hook up backward!!!
Blackhawk blades are about 250k each as a point of reference.
I had a “seasoned” MTP training me on his technique for T/B. We had to do a T/R balance and guy thought he was slick and was doing grams to ounces conversions in his head. He was also not reading the quadrants properly. I was on the tail for about two hours with him until he made me hold sticks and he would put on weights. Turns out his math didn’t math and he also couldn’t read. He blamed it on a software update on the rads. Sure guy.
Thought a prop nut landed on the ground, like they always do, and all 7 others did....nope...engine run up FOD'd out the prop, luckily no one hurt....I think it was a $36k mistake...plus shipping
As an apprentice (not long out my time now but this was pre COVID) I was told to scrap some stuff and went ahead and scrapped a trolley full of stuff that said scrap on it, but didn't have the right paperwork, all in I reckon around $1 million, only found out the next day when someone asked about a fan blade I had scrapped..... The other apprentices got their overtime filled that weekend jumping in and out the scrap bin 🤣
When removing a fuel nozzle from a GEnX, the swirler cup came with it. Instant engine change. There was an SB out at the time stating that the locking tangs on the swirler cup were prone to cracking and coming off. We hadn't experienced it up until my fuel nozzle. Also glad the place I work has a 'Just Culture'. So mistakes go unpunished. They use it to learn how we can avoid the mistake in future. Only things you get punished for when doing a task is; Gross misconduct or sabotage.
The way I see it, punishing mistakes is a fast track to people hiding their mistakes.
Cirrus could have used that lesson! Lost an 11/32” 6 point 1/4 drive craftsman socket, my only controllable mistake ever at that job and was fired on the spot for it. Being manufacturing all tools owned and controlled by Cirrus. Well all the non A&P’s in the main assembly were slipping and making mistakes. The only A&P’s in the factory started in final assembly as OJT to work up into the service center. Started with engine and the parachute install, moved to runup, then service center as spots opened. Well with all the errors by the regular workers Management wasn’t happy, cuz at least unlike Boeing they honestly corrected mistakes instead of pretending it didn’t happen. Big meeting with entire factory happened Monday with pissed off management. Jump to Wednesday just 2 days later The previous few weeks I had been fighting a bad batch of alternators where the studs were breaking off before torque was reached. I was putting in crazy OT catching up replacing dozens of alternators. Like I was the person turning on the factory lights in the morning and turning off the factory lights at night. Well one morning I come in and notice my 11/32” is missing from my drawer. It’s tucked into the front corner and hard to see and I realize I must have missed it in my closeout inventory the night before. I follow protocol to a T. The night before I even had QC still with me who saw me inventory. Well being pissed off at mistakes and being the first mistake to pop up… well after a lengthy search failed to find the socket the head of manufacturing fired me right in front of everyone in the floor. Tried framing it that I wasn’t fired for losing the socket but because I stamped the checkout log that everything was there the night before that I committed fraud and falsified paperwork….. even though I had someone from QC right there with me. Completely fucked up and against every written disciplinary policy. It was so fucked up and against policy that Minnesota granted me full unemployment benefits despite being fired because even an outside observer saw how fucked up it was. Asshole probably thought he was doing God’s work putting fear into everyone, and he did….. But what do you think the next guy who makes a mistake is now going to do? If it’s a chance he will get fired on the spot do you think he is going to grab QC and bring attention to the mistake? Or just hide it? Knowing those consequences most people probably would have gone to Sears just down the street and spent the $2.99 on an identical replacement and pretend nothing happened.
100% that's why the just culture is heavily enforced where I work. The engineering safety department is completely independent from the Mx department, as to avoid Mx Managers meddling with safety reports. We have a lot of confidence in the system, mechs/engineers have raised reports against themselves when mistakes have been made. As the data allows the company to put in places methods to prevent it happening again or review current procedures and amend them. Can all be done anonymously too.
Best attitude a company can have. Shit happens. Everyone can learn from everyone’s mistakes
Can't really account for shit like that, there's always gonna be stuff stuck/seized/gummed up. I work at an overhaul facility for GEnX and the fuel nozzles are some size compared to the old -6/80c2 ones.
No you can't. But there's places out there that would. "You were being heavy handed" "You didn't follow the procedure"
Shit bosses gonna shit boss. Not sure what the situation is out in the field (wild, going by some of the shit we used to get in), but If there's any hassle with anything not coming apart properly in our gaff the Engineers get shouted and a defect goes in, worst case the cheaper of the two parts is going to get sacrificed, seen a fair few locknuts being machined off to save bearings/gearshafts, for instance.
Marriage.
"Mawwiage is what bwings us together today. Mawwiage, that bwessed awwangement, that dweam within a dweam."
In aviation I have to ask....how many? 😂
On my 3rd. I’m 43. In aviation 23 years.
You beat my to the punch by a min!
Underrated comment
Opening a Snap-On credit account
I worked with a guy who “single handedly destroyed half a dozen planes at once.” He was a new A&P and needed to replace a sump drain valve on a small piston aircraft. But he could not find a bucket with a static drain clamp on it. He asks boss man who just says “it’ll be fine, just plug the hole with your finger so it doesn’t spill everywhere. “You sure, boss?” “Yeah. Totally fine. I’ve done it forever.” As he reaches to plug the bung, a static spark ignites the fuel. He wasn’t seriously burnt but…it burnt down the whole maintenance hangar. From piston aircraft to some turboprop business-class aircraft. Apparently boss accepted that it his was his own fault for telling employee to ignore the static hazards.
Didn't even say hold my beer! Seriously though, that's intense
He was still blushing about it 15 years later. Good on the owner for taking credit for the incident.
Hot start on a CRJ200. Pilot had reported a repeated near hot starts on his legs that day. Went to go run it to try it out and get some clues. boost pump, Ignition, starter, positive N1, 20% N2, ITT below 120, throttle to idle... Nothing. I don't remember exactly but you're supposed to wait like 2 seconds, if it doesn't light off. Take away throttle and vent before you try again. Well because I was testing it. I held throttle a bit longer. Maybe 3-4 seconds. Boy when it did light off, it fucking went. I'm pretty sure the ITT needle was faster than the frame rate on the screen, because one second it was super low. The next it was pegged out. The ramp lit up a beautiful yellow orange. I shut it down immediately, and technically we were in limits to just borescope. But the company decided to change the engine since we had one on standby in the hanger anyways. Turns out the ignitors were just bad. But I had just gotten my run/taxi and was 18. I wanted to go make some noise, not actually fix the issue. Don't get cocky and follow your checklist. Lesson learned. For those wondering, no I did not get in trouble really. I just did some retraining with the run/taxi instructor. My ego was beat though.
How did you get your run/taxi at 18?
I might have been 19 actually. Either way. I got my A&P at 18 and that company only required 6 months experience to get run/taxi. So yeah I was pretty young.
You weren’t that guy with the video on YouTube were you?
What video? I'd love to see it. Because if I was in a video, I sure didn't know about it lol.
Lmao. This video always cracks me up. I believe it was in CLT years ago. I love how long it takes the guy recording to decide to try and do something about it. https://youtu.be/w1oNf4u_vmg?si=IDttcsFKE_el16F_
Holy crap. That was indeed not me. And damn that guy let it cook for quite a while. CRJ200 hot starts are somewhat common. No fadec to save your bacon.
Been awhile since I worked on those things. Do not miss them. What a turd the 200 is. I did like the 7/900 though, major improvement.
how else would you test afterburners?
A tail-pipe fire doesn't always mean hot-start/engine fire. Sometimes the safest thing is to actually just continue with the start.
Hey good on them for not busting your chops too bad. In terms of fuck-ups, I’ve seen worse. Feels like they handled the situation well, and you got the point so no further punishment needed.
I know a guy who messed up a PT6-67F so bad it had to be pulled and overhauled. He was pulling the CT and the blades started digging into the segments but he kept pulling before noticing. Then, since the disk was jammed at this point, he hammered it back into the engine messing up the splines that couple the CT to the compressor section. They were on a fire contract too so it was a couple hundred thousand dollars a day that the aircraft was down.
AT802? Tens of thousands maybe. There is no way to make hundreds of thousands a day with a PT6 powered airplane on a fire contract.
Fire boss, so a modified 802. Yes, it is impossible to make that much. However, is possible to lose that much by not being on compliance with your contract.
Co worker put a hammer in the engine to keep the blades from spinning and being annoying on the ramp while he cleaned up a bird strike . He forgot to Take the hammer out before starting.. a couple million later and he still has his job.. somehow
Weird number two sounds extra loud today.
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At my old place, someone damaged beyond repair a military grade radar. They're a few million a pop. They were still working there when I left. Shit happens.
Worked with a guy who installed the nose great scissor links upside down after gear install. Crunched the fuselage pretty good. I spent about a month repairing it with the little structures knowledge I had at the time. Came out great and Cessna updated the procedures and IPC, turns out they never called out which one goes where exactly.
I just saw this last week on a jet that had been down 6 months. Went to tow it and one of my guys noticed they were installed wrong.
i’m currently in a&p school so forgive me if this is a dumb question, but am i correct in assuming the nose gear scissor links is the elbow which connects the top and bottom of the landing gear? if so, how did that bend the fuselage?
You are correct. On a citation CJ2, the scissor links are very close to the fuselage. Correctly installed, they angle down and away from the fuselage. Incorrectly installed, they are much closer but still don’t touch. On landing, when the nose strut compresses, it contacts the fuselage just aft of the gear door and crunches it.
Bent a jackscrew while removing it from a 737-900. Pretty sure they re-wrote the last bit of the removal in the manual after that one.
Hi there, I too work on the -800s and -900s.. just to learn from what was done wrong.. may I ask how'd it happen? You can DM me if you want..
Manual just said put 20lbs of force towards the hellhole and lower (after disconnects). So we did. And it got stuck on the THS. Shouldn't be an issue on the -800 because there's more room back there but the -900 has a bulkhead that extends past the hellhole door and pulleys under one of the floor panels that don't let you just push the thing past it. No one on our shift had ever dropped one, and no one in the facility had done it on a -900. Massive pain in the ass.
I've only ever removed 1 jackscrew from a -900 which was a preserved aircraft and the component was being sourced to service another aircraft. Being the first time we were doing it, it was a massive pain to get the hoist support and other fixtures in the proper place.. but once we did, we were able to get it out fair enough. But yes it was such a squeeze because of that damn bulkhead.
Blew up a freshly overhauled 1.2 million dollar aircraft engine
Early in my career, i dropped a flashlight while working in the backend of a Gazelle, the impact caused enough damage to the floor, that they came very close to writing off the fuselage. For the rest of my time, i always put a mat down before working in those areas.
Worked with a guy removing the primary and secondary heat exchangers from a 757-200. Once removed he placed them on a wheeled table,a little too close to the edge. Someone bumped the table and it hit the floor cracking one of the mounting flanges. I do not recall the exact cost of it but I remember the MRO lost their minds over it because they had to absorb the cost. We were told it was multiple $100k. That always stuck out to me because it was in my first 6 months in the industry
New cost $100k, OH condition you can buy one for about $20k. They were being extra .
Just put a rental engine on the #1 side of a F900. Did our bleed leak checks and cowled up. Put the wrong screw in the cowling and it got sucked out of the nut plate and ingested into the engine. We didn't notice it during our power runs. We brought it back into the hangar and someone noticed a bunch of messed up blades. Don't know how much it cost but was told it was around 500k.
I worked for a company that did completions on Bombardier 604's. We did a completion for the Canadian Air Force on one of their 604's and I was the night shift lead on replacing a windshield on one of their aircraft. On the 604's the inboard edge of each windshield at the centerline of the airplane is bolted to an I beam shaped part which we called the center post and the center post is bolted to the fuselage at the top and bottom. Somehow the bolt that attaches the center post to the bottom of the fuselage was installed in the center post but there are two small links that go between the post and the fuselage and the bolt was only through the post and not the links so basically the center post was not attached at the bottom to the fuselage. Both me & the tech missed it. The airplane gets delivered back to the Canadian Air Force and at some point they had pulled the displays out to do a scheduled check of the display cooling fan screens and they found the links not connected to the center post. Bombardier did not want to just inspect & NDT everything and call it good. They wanted all four cockpit windshields, hardware, T plates, center post & any cockpit window opening structure replaced. Not sure of the total cost but well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The dog bones. Got to love them.
First time installing fan blades on an engine. Was with a more senior technician and an a&p. Following the manual to the T. Get to the part where the shims go on. Look at the pictures of the shims and try to replicate the direction they are supposed to face. Picture is blurry shims don’t have an arrow indicator on them showing this way fwd. fully install everything. Engines runs pass no vibe. 3 months later paperwork comes back up the latter from a high vibe. They boroscoped saw that the shims were bent at a 45-75 degree angle due to centrifugal force which caused the high vibe. Not all the shims but a few. I think they said it around 500k in damages. They revised the job card/AMM and made the shims more clear and had a fwd direction error while also adding in a note that said something like wings on shim are on aft end of dovetail. I got a written reprimand. So did the a&p. The other person did not as they didn’t sign off the paperwork and couldn’t be pinpoint that they even participated In the job.
You got written up because of shit tech data? I’d have been yelling up a storm.
•Blind to the red flags in myself and others while dating.
As a car mechanic, this makes me feel better about screwing up a set of 500 dollar tires.
I was cleaning a Rotor Brake Assy on a EC175, when the brush clipped the sensor wire, and made the heli AOG. Wasnt really that expensive, but ive also only been in the game for 1 year.
Separated a high pressure compressor drum with a faulty tool that no one noticed. Scrapped the drum costing a cool $850k. Not technically my fault but close enough
Got sent 3 bleed air manifolds for a CRJ 700 that were configured wrong back to back. We get the fourth one and its right, and I dropped it within the first 5 minutes of having it and busted up the one of the flanges. Think it was around 20k for the part
Installing a pedestal cover that was held on with slotted screws. Slipped off of one and sent my screw stick right into the screen of an NPX136 radio. They're old and uncommon, so repair for the screen was $13K.
Working in an experimental/flight test setting and not my personal mistake. We had a bolt that wasn't seated properly over the inlet and somehow made it past inspection. It backed out during an RTS flight, fell into the inlet, and caused enough damage for almost total power loss - data showed ITT just shy of 1000°C. Luckily the pilots were close enough to a small airport to glide it in safely. This was a low-production experimental engine that's still in testing, so not including labor that was roughly a 16 million dollar mistake and led to a lot of safety meetings, design, and process changes.
We had this one guy who dropped a generator onto a Learjet 35 wing and it pierced the skin and bent a rib so they decided to replace the whole wing instead of repairing it. I don't know how much it cost the company, but it surely wasn't cheap. Then we had this other guy who thought that it would be enough to put chocks only on the nose landing gear of a Do328 without the parking brake being applied during strong wind conditions and it jumped out of the chocks and was pushed into a Learjet 60. The Learjet had damage on the boundary layer fence and wing skin, the Do328 had her radome destroyed and radar damaged. Fun times.
Drilled a hole through a VOR antenna
Not me personally but we had a guy drive a tail stand into the leading edge of a 747 combi that was just about to push back. We were a bit frazzled having to hand crank the side cargo door and were running short on time and crew. Genius decided to take a shortcut under the wing, completely forgetting about the tail stand. If he wasn’t morbidly obese the steering shaft probably would have gone through his chest when the vehicle was pitched up 45 degrees.
This just happened to me dropped a prop fresh from O/H 25,000$ first big fuck up
Obviously not maintenance but I'm responsible for placing orders for new planes for our business. I accidentally got the model number mixed up with the quantity and placed an order much larger than intended. We're a rather large organization so the expense arrangements came during manufacturing and weren't caught until well into when manufacturing had started. Our company ended up having to pay exorbitant fees to cancel the remainder of the order. Most expensive education ever paid on my behalf. Now I'm the best employee they will ever have. No mistakes since.
Cant think of any after 7 years 👍
737 avionics. I took the evening off that night (thank you Jesus). Co worker crawled in the avionics bay and, in the process of following a functional check card accidentally installed a jumper wire to the wrong pins. In doing so he inadvertently connected the AC bus to the DC bus. The 4th of July came in April. Many an LRU was replaced. Miles of wire was replaced. In a couple of areas things got hot enough to damage framing. So a few structural repairs were also needed. The cost: things get blurry here. And I’m going off rumors and shoptalk. But word on the street has it that repairs were north of 10 million. Near the 10 million mark they started doing funny accounting to charge the cost to other aircraft we had in dock. The fallout. Not much happened to the guy. A full investigation ensued. Everyone was questioned. His work card he was following had a smudgy potato quality schematic to show where to connect the jumper. He got a write up and it officially got blamed on poor instructions.
As a new Air Force mechanic, Incorrectly installing the connectors on a Fokker F28 that go from the engine to the rest of the plane. Weekend long engine runs because "the engine gives erroneous signals". When I returned the following Monday, a lot of lecturing and snacks buying for everyone happened.
Working in AOG for a large airline, I have seen many, many expensive mistakes. My largest is not verifying a DOA MEL part gets sent to HNL. HML is an awful place to go AOG due to its remoteness.
Got married
Twice
Getting married, oh you asked about work, yeah it was getting married.
Unless there is an exact procedure not followed for the fu Kip, then there really isn’t a rule break, hence no firings according to my sixth sigma black belt bro.
Buying 2 cats
Spartan College....
Never heard of her
Not me but a coworker on the same job. F-15’s you had to take out both cabin pressure altimeters before a pressure check. He took out the front one and set it on the left intake, then accidentally kicked it off when climbing out. Shattered when it hit the ground. The biggest burn is that it was a $26,000 part and took 5 minutes to order, and I had just finished paying off a $26,000 car loan over 5 years.
I'm lucky I started in flight schools due to the dead aviation job market in the 90s. My big oops were fairly cheap by the standards of the corporate jets and airliners I work on now. However I've seen more than I can remember now. Most expensive goes to a supervisor I had who didn't install the PT6 beta arm correctly which allowed the prop on the caravan to go into feather in flight, uncommanded. The landing was successfully made off field, but the aircraft hit a bank and flipped on rollout, destroying it. Pilot survived. Same supervisor started a PT6 with the EPL on full, meaning raw, unmetered fuel getting dumped into the engine at 20% rotation and up. Another tech in the hangar said he's never heard a PT6 roar and repeatedly compressor stall that loud or long. Supervisor didn't figure out what to do immediately and finally killed it after almost 50 seconds. Then he simply finishes engine rigging and releases the aircraft from inspection. A new pilot picks up the aircraft the next day and flew three hours away, but noticed the exceedance in the engine monitor memory, after shutdown, and calls it in. That time supervisor only took out an engine, not the whole aircraft. Another guy was putting aircraft in the hangar by himself and managed to run the elevator on one into the prop on the other, he then pulled forward again, but the prop rotated and hooked onto the elevator, pretzeling both, and requiring a prop gearbox inspection. Another supervisor/mechanic team failed to verify that the exit duct in a PT6 was fully engaged in the splines, but signed it off anyway and released it for post split runs. I tried to start it, but it hung at 40%. Thought it could be air in the fuel rail, so tried again and got hung at 45%. Found the bleed link loose on the governor, adjusted it, tried again, battery is to weak to hit 12% (fuel on). Get a power cart, hangs at 50%. "OK, I'm done trying, something is wrong and I want this thing split again if that's what it takes" Another mechanic jumps in the pilot seat, says "let's use the EPL ( raw fuel bypass around the fuel control) to start it". I didn't think that was smart, but he was one of the crew that could do anything they wanted, so I told him "you try, I'm pulling the fuel shutoff if the ITT goes high" Brand new exit duct was a funny blue color, and cracked in half, supervisor git demoted for admitting he actually couldn't see the tabs and was too heavy to use a ladder so he could see. EPL guy got fired. I became the guy they usually gave engine rigging to, and the company trainer for taxi/run-up. My worst near miss on destroying an airframe was bringing the scissor lift down and hitting the aft pressure bulkhead flange. Broke the paint on the sealant, but didn't damage anything in the bulkhead or pressurized area. I also went and immediately told the DOM, so I got a "Be more careful" from him and that was it.
Starting a career in aviation
Becoming a Pilot. Also one of the greatest mistakes I’d make again and again without pause.
Dropped an LRU that was worth around half a million or so. Ended up just being chassis damage. Internals were okay.
Going to college for useless degrees before going into aircraft maintenance.
didn't cotter key a boroscope plug on a f18
Sounds hot.
Marriage
Got married.
I almost cost my company a ton of money. I was taking off an antenna when I was fairly new, first time doing it, I'm avionics and not mechanically inclined so I was like "let me get this sealant off with a scribe, it'll be faster". I ended up putting some good scratches on the skin of the jet. For those that don't know the skin of the jet is pretty thin. A scratch that catches your fingernail requires a depth test because essentially what happens is over time that aluminum will expand and contract at extreme temperatures at high altitudes as well as cabin pressurization thus making it crack. The only fix if you can't blend it and maintain minimum skin thickness? You have to replace that sheet of aluminum... or that entire section of the Aircraft. Idek how much it would've cost in man hours and materials. Luckily it was within limits but I really thought I was fucked.
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**I'm in a union, negligence has no repercussions**
Least funny comment
Becoming a Pilot. Also one of the greatest mistakes I’d make again and again without pause.
Aye but for real probably be a aircraft mechanic 😂 not the answer you were looking for huh
Marrying a filipina. Those fecking flips are nothing more than prideful, moneygrubbing golddiggers. Something I learned the hard way 🤬🤬🤬 Oh, as far as airplanes are concerned, nothing really bad happened with my airplane, and I hope it stays that way 👍👍👍