Had a wake up call from an old FAA inspector yesterday

I was talking to this guy who used to work avionics back in the 80s and he told me about a crash he investigated that was caused by a single loose ground wire. Said the logs showed three different techs signed off on that plane before the failure. It hit different because I realized how easy it is to rush through a sign off without double checking everything. Anyone else ever catch a mistake that could have been bad if someone else looked the other way?

2 comments

2 Comments

riverp3720d ago

Catch yourself a dozen times doing what @miles_grant35 described - running on autopilot when you're beat. Make it a rule to step back for ten seconds and breathe before signing anything off late.

miles_grant3520d ago

Yeah "it hit different" is exactly right. I was working on a small commuter plane a few years back and found a bolt that was finger tight on the rudder cable bracket. The logbook showed a sign off from two weeks before where a guy claimed he did a full control surface check. I almost didn't look twice at it myself because it was late and I wanted to go home. Scared me straight honestly. You think about how that one loose bolt could have just vibrated out mid flight and it's a whole different level of waking up.