21
That 747 freighter I worked on last Tuesday had a cracked fan blade I almost missed during a quick walkaround.
The lead caught it on the second look and said, 'Slow down, kid, that blade's got a hairline fracture you can see if you tilt your head right,' so has anyone else had a near-miss on a routine inspection that made you double-check everything from then on?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
rowan9691mo ago
Figure out what your eyes are actually trained on. I used to scan for obvious damage, big cracks, missing parts. But after spending a shift watching a senior guy show me how he reads reflections off the oil film on a fan blade, I realized I was basically speed-reading the surface and missing the fine details. Now I make myself look at the blade edge from three different angles, tilting my head like you mentioned, because the fracture that kills the engine doesn't announce itself with a big gaping split. It hides in the light.
3
rowan_thomas841mo ago
Oh man, I feel that one. It's the kind of thing that sticks with you for a long time. I had a similar scare once, not with a plane but a piece of industrial equipment, and I still get a little knot in my stomach thinking about what could have happened if I didn't catch it. That senior guy sounds like a real pro, and it's good you had someone to slow you down before you learned the hard way. It's humbling, isn't it, how much there is to see if you just take the time to look right?
1
emerym361mo ago
You ever have a buddy who missed a cracked weld on a trailer hitch because he was in a hurry... and it cost him?
3