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> but you can't fly a plan that 'missing a part' It’s a great story, but I assure you there is a pretty high percentage of airplanes flying with missing parts
by sokoloff 15d ago
> but you can't fly a plan that 'missing a part'
It’s a great story, but I assure you there is a pretty high percentage of airplanes flying with missing parts and systems placarded as INOP in both military and civilian aviation.
- m463 15d agoI remember touring the assembly line for military jets. There were posters everywhere about "extra parts" they called FOD.
- dghlsakjg 15d agoFOD applies more broadly than that, as well. Candy wrappers on the runway is also FOD. It stands for foreign object debris, and means any physical thing out of place where it may cause damage or injury. Because of the nature of jet engines, basically anything can be FOD depending on where you put it.
- RobRivera 15d agoThe 'forest for the tree' here is that when it comes to general operations, a crew chief doesnt generally have the authority to signoff a bird as flight-ready for an unaccounted component. That is the authority of a PMO or a Risk Officer or someone else in flightoos, not a frontline maintenance call. Maybe someone in a maintainence squadron?
- buildsjets 15d agoBefore you can placard something as INOP, you must determine whether the manufacturer and certifying authority have included that part in the Minimum Equipment List or Dispatch Deviation List. Mechanics do both get to determine this at their own discretion. Hence the call to the manufacturer for clarification on the necessity of said pin. To reiterate, you CANNOT fly an airplane with an undocumented missing part. If the part is documented in the logbook as removed, and it is acceptable to fly that way, then it is not missing. I have been building and maintaining commercial aircraft for a living for 30 years. What is your experience?
- sokoloff 15d agoThanks for asking for my credentials, even though you don’t seem to disagree that lots of aircraft are dispatched with imperfections, so many in fact that there’s a defined process and CFRs to cover it. Because you asked, I’ve been flying, owning, and overseeing the maintenance of our aircraft for 27 years, including understanding my freedoms and obligations as a pilot and as an operator with regards to the legality of dispatch for imperfect aircraft under both normal operations and under special flight (aka “ferry”) permits. I have spent a lot of time across those three decades both socially and in continuing education courses/seminars with both GA and commercial flight crews and A&P/IAs.
- HeyLaughingBoy 15d agoI don't think you guys are really disagreeing with each other. Just that one is using a colloquial definition of "missing" and the other, a technical one.
- dexen 15d agoAn absent (removed) part might be acceptable depending on circumstances, but a genuinely missing part creates hazards and must be ascertained as to its location. A mechanical jam, an electric short, a hydraulic leak, or a Foreign Object Damage to the engine from a piece of metal on the loose can destroy the plane, endanger people and mission. Same concern with tools & bits, can't have any unaccounted for.