View Full Version : Have you ever broken an aeroplane ?
As aircrews spend a lot of time in the aircraft, there is plenty of potential for damaging those not-quite-so-rugged-as-they-should-be components. Have you ever broken a switch, detached a door , cracked a panel ? I am not talking major incidents here simply accelerating the wear-and-tear process...
tornado
Shagmeister
04-02-2008, 23:11
My first jet was a Citation, hardly built to withstand the rigours of commercial use so we soon developed sexy finger syndrome. Everything we touched was f***ed :D
The only time I ever dinged an aircraft was when it had just come from maintenance where it had been up on jacks (important point, pay attention) while they cycled the gear etc. It was towed out and left facing the hangar despite my protests that I wanted it facing AWAY. Nobody around with a tug so we reluctantly started the engines and asked for the chocks to be removed whereupon it began to roll forward. Brakes would not respond, steering was by assymetric braking so basically we were screwed. The marshaller who removed the chocks ignored my pleas for him to re-insert them instead choosing to run away.
All we could do was cut the engines and watch the hangar door move inexorably toward us. The slowest incident of my life was over in 20 seconds that felt like 20 years.
Despite my insistence that the maintenance facility who had just worked on it should not be allowed within five miles the company allowed them to tow it away and inspect the braking system. Their conclusion? "No fault found":rolleyes: