10-foot Panel Falls Off Aircraft
I like to keep up with industry news (and world news for that matter). From time to time in this blog, I have commented on some strange news items that I have seen come across the newswires.
There was the story of an Air Force staff sergeant who was sentenced to three months in jail and received a bad conduct discharge for his part in an incident where a frog was thrown into a running F-16 engine.
Then there was the blog where I discussed the Turkish aircraft technicians who sacrificed a camel on the tarmac of Istanbul’s Ataturk International Airport.
Well another odd news item came through the wire this week. It didn’t involve the killing or sacrificing of an animal, but it was odd nonetheless.
The Associated Press reports that this past Tuesday, workers at Indonesia’s main airport found “a piece of a wing from a passenger jet on the runway.”
A senior air transportation official at the airport says, “it has been identified as a side engine cover, but we do not yet know which plane it came from.”
The story goes on to say that last month, a similar-sized piece of wing fell from a jetliner minutes after it took off from the same airport.
Are you kidding? How do you recover a 10-foot panel and not know which airplane it came from? A missing screw, I can understand, but a 10-foot panel?
And how the heck can you have two similar panels depart aircraft at the same airport in a month’s time? How are these panels being secured? Bubble gum?
The article closes by noting that the country suffered a series of accidents earlier this year that killed more than 120 people, leading to the European Union banning all the country’s airlines from landing there and the FAA downgrading the nation’s rating to its lowest category. It also notes that experts say the industry is plagued by poor maintenance, rule-bending and a shortage of trained professionals.
Gee, you think?
You can read the entire article here.
Thanks for reading,
Joe Escobar
Gee…these are some of the same countries where the US carriers are sending our jobs to. It doesn’t surprise me at all. You get what you pay for.
I guess they never heard of righty tighty, lefty loosey. I agree with the above statement. Overseas, they are good with sewing and making shoes and toys, but when it comes to saftey and peoples lives, there is no room for error.
Hey, Paula, they can’t even make toys either!!!!
According to Advisory Circular AC140-7N, there are 2 FAA Certificated Repair Stations in Indonesia, both of which are approved for work on transport category airframes - a country that the EU refuses landing rights due to safety concerns. These repair stations work regularly on US Air Carrier aircraft.Sleep well on your holiday cheap fare flights. Your tax dollars at work.
OK, you can bash them but it happened here on a United DC-10 inbound to ORD from the west coast. Maintenance left disconnected several attach rods that held the top panel over the LH wheel well. When the airbrakes were deployed for descent over Iowa, the panel departed and took out cabin window along with the # hydraulic system as it cartwheeled down the side of the center engine. Duh, but it happens to the best of operators. I whole heartedly agree with Howie though. Brings new meaning to the saying, “More bang for the buck”.
because someone probably overlooked it. the airforce doesnt have cdi’s like the navy and marines do.
Jon, as former employee for a Navy contractor, I must say CDI’s are overrated. For those that have never worked on Navy or Marine contracts before, CDI stands for Collateral Duty Inspector, and is similar to RII in the civilian world, though all maintenance action items must be stamped by a CDI. Major repairs must also be stamped by a QAR.
I have seen a towbar sucked up into the wheel well of an aircraft on jacks, an aircraft take off with a de-ice vane disconnected and the bag of hardware tied to the vane, a plane crash killing two pilots because an elt was left disconnected, elevator trim rigged backwards, FOD left in numerous areas of the aircraft, and the list goes on and on. All of those Maintenance Action Forms had CDI stamps on them.
So to assume this would have never happened under the watchful eyes of a CDI is wrong. They are human and can miss things as easily as a “regular” mechanic can.
Dan