A crew of three sitting on the ground in K Falls. They call and tell us their #2 is pouring out red fluid. The captain is 20 year military, most of it in type. The F/O is also a mechanic, with experience flying, and supposedly working on type. The F/E is a mechanic turned F/E, with experience on type and a military maintenance background in a very high profile unit.
Have you looked for the cause, we ask? Yes, of course. Have you checked the pressurized sump? Of course...do you think we're stupid? Have you started pulling panels? We did that...no idea what's happening. We think we need another engine and/or prop.
No problem, we say. We get a truck headed that way with a fresh T-56A-9 and a fresh prop, misc. gear, supplies, etc. We pull three mechanics with tools and throw them in a light support airplane, and head them that way. Now we're unavailable at the cost of thousands of dollars, and missing thousands of dollars revenue an hour. We've also tied up an engine and prop, driver, and truck, a support aircraft, and three mechanics that are needed in the shop. It's getting more expensive by the minute...but gotta do what ya gotta do.
The support airplane lands at K Falls. One mechanic begins talking to the crew while another mech sets up a ladder by #2. He climbs up, removes the cover to the pressurized sump (4 fasteners), notes that the "toilet bowl" lid to the pressurized sump is open. He closes it (flip!), puts in the tractor pin that holds it secure, closes the cover, and puts away the ladder. Done. Ninety seconds of work...work the crew said they'd done. Work the crew with some combined nearly 40 years experience on type should have had pegged the moment it happened. Work to fix what the crew themselves had caused...the F/E mighty presidential mechanic himself...when they'd left the lid off the sump during a routine check.
The mechanics got back in the light support aircraft and returned home. The truck, engine, and prop assy got nearly to K falls before being turned back...and made record time doing it. A lot of effort for a stupid act on the part of the crew...a crew I worked with and flew with regularly, all of which could have been avoided by A) them simply paying attention, B) honestly replying that they hadn't really verified the toilet bowl cover was shut, and C) doing their jobs and checking it out before they shut down an aircraft and made an incident over nothing...they could have fixed it themselves in ninety seconds and saved the tens of thousands it cost the company. It was, after all, part of their job description.
I suppose when the mechanics got home and the DoM found out what had occured, as did everyone else on the shop floor, that everyone was just, how do you put it...spouting drivel. After all, those poor pilots couldn't be expected to lift a finger to help themselves now, could they?
Or another crew that failed to shut off the GTC, and due to a chain of acts on their part, ended up with an aircraft full of dense smoke and multiple problems on one flight...and who blamed maintenance for their folly. Or the copilot on that trip that called his wife on a cell phone and told her it was the last time he would speak to her. When he could have been fighting fire, pulling breakers, running checklists, or doing almost anything but yacking like a yuppie scum vermin on his yap box.
Or the crew that smiled sheepishly when I discovered they'd field-repaired a broken APU exhaust duct with beer cans and safety wire. I didn't find it sheepish at all; I was next to the APU when it was started during an inspection and it caught fire. In fact, I was a little put out. When I was done, it had a proper repair and signoff, but I never had much good to say about the crew, after that.
Bearing in mind, of course that I was a regular crewmember on the same aircraft. I had a right to make observations, I worked both sides of the fence, knew the positions and responsibilities and trials of each...and what I had to say about any of it at the time wasn't drivel. It may have been painful to some, but it was direct, to the point, didn't mince words, and was spoken by someone who had two legs to stand on in the matter.
Most folks I've worked alongside on the line, in the shop, or elsewhere, who truly understand what it means to work, felt and feel exactly the same.
90% of the pilots out there aren't aviators, and aren't worth much...and more than a few mechanics fall in the same boat.
