Did a quick preflight on a CRJ700 in Oklahoma City and found a cracked engine mount bracket at 6 AM

I was doing a routine walkaround at sunrise last Tuesday. The bracket had a hairline fracture you could barely see without a flashlight. Ended up grounding the plane for 3 hours while we swapped it out. The pilot was not happy but better than having it fail mid flight. Has anyone else caught something that tiny during preflight that could have been bad?

2 comments

2 Comments

fisher.diana23d ago

Oh come on, you're telling me you actually grounded a plane over a hairline crack you needed a flashlight to see? Half the mechanics I know would've just noted it in the log and sent it on its way.

the_sarah22d agoMost Upvoted

and don't even get me started, @fisher.diana. i once grounded a plane because i found a tiny dent on the wing, and the pilot tried to argue it was just a bird hit from three years ago. i told him "sure, but now it's a bird hit with a stress fracture forming." the shift supervisor said i was being dramatic until i showed him the same crack with a magnifying glass. he signed off on the repair order but grumbled about it for a week. people think you're just being picky until that thing turns into a real problem at 30,000 feet.