DFW is AA's primary base.Isn't this the airport where AA stores most of their spare aircraft? It looks like a lot of AA tail markings in the background.
Maybe. If they were negligent. Or under the influence.oof, someone losing their job.
I messed this up, mods please removeBack in the day (1996) when ASA was an airline, a ramp guy drove one of those ATV-looking ramp trucks into the prop of an ATR72, breaking the prop hub. The prop penetrated the cab of the truck through the windshield. There was a puddle of fluid underneath the engine, discovered during a walk-around by the first officer. The ramp guy actually backed the truck off the prop and hid it, as if they would never figure out who did it. Naturally....fired, and faced charges relating to his attempt to conceal damage that could've endangered lives. That was low as low gets.
in addition the union would launch a grievance procedure. There are legally binding clauses in the contract, causing one of these is very expensive for the company and no plant manager who expect to remain employed would do this more than once. It can not be laughed off.My buddy and his coworkers use to joke about the Duct Tape they used at work. BTW this stuff cost $2,000 a roll back in the early eighties. They used it to seal leaking pipes in the Nuclear Plant they worked at. Don't worry it was only temporary fix until they could get the Union welders in to make the fix permanent.
He wasn't liked very much at that plant by the electrical workers. He had a EE degree from a top engineering school and he got tired of calling the electricians and waiting until they were good and ready to fix different things. So he would roll out to his car pull out his tool box walk back into the plant and do the work himself. He was making the union guys look really bad. The electrician would show up and find out the electrical issue he was called for, was already fixed. Sometimes it was really stupid simple job such as replacing a bad gauge. Remove four screws and disconnect a couple wires on the back of the gauge. Get a new gauge, reconnect the wires, mount in the panel with four screws.
The Union did complain about his actions but were laughed out of the plant managers office. The electricians had been making him wait for more than an hour sometimes two or three hours and stop all work until they got good and really to show up.
From that day on he became a priority to the union guys. He'd call and they would show up within minutes.
Airbus MEL says plane can be dispatched with LOWER part of “wing fence” missing as long as performance penalties are applied.I'm am over 99% certain that the winglets are not on any MEL.
You left out that the same guy also would fix leaking pipes with duct tape ...i get a picture of homer Simpson inside the containment room throwing a few wraps on a leaky primary coolant line. ...he has no hair for a reason lolI've done electrical work in a nuclear plant and that's not how it works . You don't just grab your tools and go do somebody else's work . If there was a delay it was because job packages had to be created and a ton of people had to review it and sign off . No matter what the task is .If somebody did what you described the plant would receive heavy fines by the NRC and the offender would be escorted out by security . Probably a few others as well .
That holds for the military. There was a crash in San Diego where a USMC Hornet pilot crashed into a neighborhood, killed two people, destroyed a few homes, and “cost a $40 million or so aircraft. He took bad advice from his commanders when he should have landed quickly at an alternate site.
He got in trouble but eventually got back flying again. The commanders were eventually reprimanded where it was the end of their careers. I guess it’s a lot easier to replace a commander than it is to replace a pilot. Isn’t promotion competitive?
As for this mishap with the winglet, who was responsible. Was it a pilot or was it being moved by a tug? I figure a tug is cheaper to train a new operator.
Sounds like between saving some money, and getting the plane on the ground, someone chose poorly.
The coverup is always worse than the deed.
ATC had nothing to do with the decision. They never do. In an emergency, ATC should offer options. The pilot in command is the final authority. ATC, correctly, pointed out that the nearest field was NAS North Island.He was doing carrier qualifications. ATC from both the carrier and civilian were telling him he should land at NAS North Field. His commanders were more concerned with him getting to his home base where they could get him in another plane to continue his training.
A decade later, a San Diego neighborhood is still reeling from a tragic plane crash
The postman had just delivered a Korean-language newspaper to 4416 Cather Ave. when he saw a plane plunging toward him.www.sandiegouniontribune.com
I have never had , or heard on the radio, ATC tell a pilot what to do ( other than with normal ATC separation or trying to radar vector a tight approach ) when they are having a technical or fuel problem with a plane. I also have never had/heard any stories ( except the story in this thread ) of someone on the ground trying to tell a pilot where to land their airplane.
Anyone in civilian flight ops who did that would be charged and face a lawsuit ( fatalities ) and could end up in jail.
Suggestions, advice or recommendations is what you will hear ( ATC, dispatch or maintenance on a radio patch or ACARS ).
O.K.
Civilian ( where I live ) flight operations manuals make it 100% clear that the captain is the person in charge after take off. That said, they can only deviate from standard operating procedures if they feel ( and have to answer for later possibly ) it was safer to not follow them at that time.
No person in flight ops would ever “order” a captain what to do in the air or they would be in huge trouble.
We are even allowed to disobey a direct “order” from ATC in very rare circumstances ( TCAS RA and ATC instructs us to do something the TCAS says is dangerous ...TCAS RA has prior over any ATC instructions ).
Thanks. That’s a good graphic.
“LT” in the USMC is a very junior rank. This was a new guy. This is where reporting gets fuzzy. He would be a 1st LT. Like a LTJG. Not just “LT” as the article states.
A youngster like that is in a tough position - more experienced pilots, senior in rank, are directing his decision making.
They reason they were punished, and frankly, deserved to be, was because they directed an airplane with multiple problems, a complex emergency, to overfly the nearest suitable field.
They did it for expediency in recovering the airplane. They put sortie completion, or other operational metrics, above safety. They, not that kid flying, own the consequences of that decision.
A military witness aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln said he looked overhead and saw the aircraft, radioed the pilot and began directing him to land onboard, JAG documents stated.Unclassified docs track UC jet crash - Officials recently released more than 550 pages of documents — including results from an FAA accident report witness testimony and a Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) investigation — stemming from the Dec. 8 F/A...
Unclassified docs track UC jet crash - Officials recently released more than 550 pages of documents — including results from an FAA accident report witness testimony and a Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) investigation — stemming from the Dec. 8 F/A...www.sdnews.com
“The [USS Abraham officer] overheard this and immediately told me that he would not take ‘an emergency aircraft’ aboard and told me to divert him,” the witness reported. “I got no further input from the [official] as I got back onto the radio and directed [the pilot] to start a Bingo profile to North Island.”
The Navy’s FRS commanding officer aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, hearing the pilot’s first distress call, said that, as a rule, according to documents, officials “are very reluctant to accept student emergencies for shipboard recovery.”
This was during carrier quals. The pilot was a student; new to the airplane and landing shipboard for the first time.Found something else claiming that they saw the issue on the Abraham Lincoln and told him not to attempt an emergency landing on the carrier. Are carrier landings where they can order a pilot not to try to get back on the boat if there are other options?