Worst mishap at an FBO

[shamrock]

I remember back in the mid 90's there was this guy who really wanted to be a pilot so he got a job as a ramper at the FBO near his home. Among other things his job description included fueling the FedEx aircraft that came in to the airport.

Now, as most of you know, large aircraft can hold a lot of fuel and pumping 4000-5000 gallons can take a bit of time (as well as be a little boring) so our ramper takes to bringing along a bit of light reading to pass the time. Flying, AOPA Pilot, that sort of thing. Well one day he's sitting at the back of the truck reading the accident/incident reports in the latest edition of Aviation Safety, waiting patiently for the fuel to pump slowly into the plane. His mind is filled with questions about how the people he is reading about could be so stupid mixed with thoughts of how great it would be to be flying one of the planes he works with instead of fueling them.

His daydreaming is soon interrupted by the screams of a FedEx mechanic telling him to stop fueling. It seems that on this Airbus there are 2 fuel tanks in each wing with the outboard filling first followed by the inboard. In a perfect world the valve to the outboard tank closes when it becomes full allowing the fuel to then fill the inboard. Alas, we are not living in a perfect world. It seems that the valve has stuck open and instead of fuel flowing into the inboard tank it is now cascading out of the fuel vent at the tip of the wing, a fact wasted on our fueler who is busy reading his magazine and cannot see the wing tip from his seat at the rear of the truck anyway. Pandelirium ensues and the clean up begins.

Fat forward a few months. The truth of fuelers actions that fateful night come to light when FedEx refuses to chip in for the cost of the clean up, saying it was the fuelers fault. Our heartbroken fueler is terminated and disappears from sight. Nobody is really sure what has come of him, although there are unconfirmed reports that he is now flying RJ's somewhere down south.

It figures, those regionals will hire anybody.

 

[siucavflight]

Nobody is really sure what has come of him, although there are unconfirmed reports that he is now flying RJ's somewhere down south.

It figures, those regionals will hire anybody.

Maybe he is flying for go jets.

 

[Vector4fun]

An FBO lineman at SDM in San Diego who refueled Bob Hoover's Shrike with Jet-A causing a dual-engine failure and off-airport landing with substantial aircraft damage. The lineman assumed it was a jet because it had a decal on each engine nacelle that said "Turbo."

IIRC from his book, Hoover insisted the same lineman fuel his aircraft the next day. The kid felt so bad about the whole thing. Hoover probably also saved his job. Class act.

 

[kilroy]

Fbo Fubar

Couple of months ago in SRQ a line guys was towing I believe a Citation he had a seizure fell off the tug the tug ran him over then proceeded to push the aircraft into the hanger wall and ramming 2 other aircraft on the way.

A few months prior the pushed Travoltas G3 of the ramp into the mud required a crane to get it back on the ramp

 

[Some guy]

A few years ago at KAPA, (so the story goes), line crew towed a Gulfstream over an excavated hole in the pavement that was covered with plywood, main wheel broke through and crunched the wing.

I used to have pictures of that. They flew that one to SAV and had it checked...Just a couple of scratches and she's been doing well ever since!

Maybe they should have used pressure treated wood!?

 

[Check 6]

In 1999 I was waiting for the boss to show up at a very large and well known FBO at Long Beach for departure in his Lear 35. I had line service hook up a GPU for preflighting. The GPU remained connected to a tug.

The duty lineman asked me if he could use the GPU for a few minutes to start another aircraft; this was not a problem as we were not departing for at least 90 minutes. Lineman turns off the GPU and jumps on the tug and drives off.

Minor problem - he forgot to disconnect the power to the Lear This was a Sunday and the General Manager came in to apologize to me, and to fire the lineman. The damage was not sufficient to ground the aircraft, but the labor involved later was fairly big.

Said FBO then provided us with a chartered Lear 35 for our pending flights while repairs were completed.

Me? I got to ride in the back of the chartered Lear with the boss drinking cocktails and eating their food. Great boss. :beer:

 

[User546]

Couple of months ago in SRQ a line guys was towing I believe a Citation he had a seizure fell off the tug the tug ran him over...

I assume that being ran over by the tug killed the guy having the seizure?

 

[kilroy]

Surprising enough he survived broken leg internal injuries but alive.

I assume that being ran over by the tug killed the guy having the seizure?

 

[TrafficInSight]

IIRC, this resulted in FAA guidance that discouraged, if not prohibited, placing words like "turbo" or "jet" on or near the engines or fuel fillers of gasoline-powered aircraft.

That's why our Aztec says "Charged" on the nacelles.... I just figured it meant we were still paying it off

 

[ultrarunner]

Two little girls, none with a license, took a joy ride into a hangar. They wedged the SUV under a wing of a large jet. Large jet had to have a wing replaced before it flew again. That was bad.

 

[TWA]

My first story occured at the FBO I work at, about 2 weeks after opening. We had a beutiful King Air 300 in our hangar for charter. This was a big deal for us, since at the time our runway was only 3800'ish. Real early on a saturday morning he leaves to go pick up passengers at a nearby airport. It is real foggy at the airport. He has two missed approaches. A guy on the ground is talkin to him with a hand held and tells him not to risk it, that there's another plane they have there that they can take. Third time's a charm. He gets too low on the approach and hits a large cluster of trees. We haven't had such a regular customer since.

Second story happened last year on a Saturday morning. I'm the only one on duty. A guy on the field had built a hummell or some other small VW powered plane. He had only flown it once and scared the sh!t out of himself. His wife had told him to get rid of it the week before. About 1030 a local 911 dispatcher (also one of our part time line guys) calls and asks if I know anything about a crash at a gravel pit on final. I didn't even hear the guy in the pattern, since he wasn't usin his radio. I went to check it out and was gettin there right after the first fire trucks. I talked to the guys who called it in and they said they heard the engine quit and saw if go strait into the ground. The FAA brought the wreckage back to one of our hangars for inspection later in the week (saturday, go figure). It looked like a crushed aluminum pop can, with a little twist in it. The final report hasn't been issued on it yet, but speculation is he ran out of gas on final, tried to glide it in, and stalled it. Kinda creepy, I was the last one to talk to the guy and didn't even realize it until i was asked to go get the plate number off his truck.

 

[81Horse]

IIRC from his book, Hoover insisted the same lineman fuel his aircraft the next day. The kid felt so bad about the whole thing. Hoover probably also saved his job. Class act.

With the invaluable assistance of two Molly McRampers and a vigilant first officer, I once performed a right navlightectomy on a Jetstream. That is to say, I parked it so da*n close to its stablemate on the right, that the wingtips bumped ... just as I was starting to feel hinky about the whole thing, too. <sigh>

The F/O was mortified and ready to fall on his sword; I felt responsible, and ready for a few days on the beach. However, the company -- in its infinite wisdom -- excused me and Biff completely, and fired the two rampers (neither of whom had received more than an hour or two of training before being sent out to marshall airplanes).

I lobbied very hard for the girls who'd been fired; it seemed to me that they were all of a sudden the least likely-to-reoffend rampers at the station (but my argument fell on deaf ears). I guess it's easy for a company to fire people when it has no training costs invested in them; plus, it makes some middle-management suck-up feel good about himself for being pro-active.

Then there's the ramper who, in one night, managed to tweak the nosegear and crush the tail of my brother's King Air 200. Brother didn't ask to have the guy fired or anything -- but they went ahead and thought of it on their own.

 

[HighNightFlyer]

At least a decade and a half ago at an unnamed FBO in SJC a line guy fell asleep watching the porn channel in the pilot's lounge.

Probably not the first time this has happened but he was supposed to be awake and waiting to marshall in the Chief Pilot who was flying the owner of the FBO.

When the line guy never appeared they parked themselves and went in to find him.

Normally line guys at this FBO were fired for even the most trivial offenses but this line guy was the son of a famous aviator so he got promoted to pilot.

HNF

 

[USMCmech]

I forget which airport it was at, but back in 1996 just before I was asigned to my squadron they lost a CH-46.

The ramper marshaled them right into a light pole. The blades on the fwd head sheared off and the resulting torque imbalance twisted the fuselage in two.

A freind was riding as a passenger on that flight. Luckily nobody was killed.

 

[BRIGADEAVIATOR]

adfasd

A while ago a lineservice guy at my FBO refueled the avgas truck with JetA, and ended up refueling over 30 planes with the contaminated fuel. Alot of effort went into notifying every pilot about the fuel problem, luckily no one was hurt.

A lance turned quicly off of the active and the right main went in the dirt. Normally not too big of a problem except the main got stuck.......in a red ant hill. Funny to watch the airport guys and the pilot try and move the aircraft. Looked like they were walking on hot coals jumping. lol

 

[Check 6]

Back in the late 60's I was learning to fly at Watsonville (WVI) Airport in Central California (I was a teenager then). I was at the airport one afternoon and a gentleman was propping his Taylorcraft, but without any assistance. Well, you can guess. He had too much throttle set, and it was not tied down or chalked.

It started alright and proceeded to taxi down the ramp at high speed but not in a straight line. It looked like a drunk student pilot was taxiing it but there was no one on board. The red faced pilot started chasing his tail dragger all over the ramp and fortunately was assisted by other pilots. It looked like a bunch of Keystone Cops. I don't know how but they successfully corralled his steed without it hitting any of the dozens of planes on the ramp or a hangar.

Those were the days when you never saw any FAA types around.

 

[CrimsonEclipse]

I remember a good one that happened at an FBO where I was a CFI...at the end of the day one of the line guys (also the guy who was supposed to close for the night) was filling up the fuel truck at the fuel farm on the airport. The truck was taking a while to fill...and a buddy of his pulled in the drive, knocked on the door and the guy let him in. They got to talking...had a soda...decided to go meet up with a few friends at the nearby beach. He left completely forgetting about the truck which overflowed a ridicuclous amount of fuel. In fact it was a huge deal to the city, the fire department, HAZMAT, environmental types and the FBO owner who was too stunned at the stupidity of the situation to get mad. I think his response to the environmental people was..."well, it's not like anyone is ever gonna grow corn in this soil anyway..."

I forget the dollar amount of the fuel, but I do remember it was a staggering number.

Was that at FXE?

If not, I remember a similar one there. A guy refueling the truck blocked the
deadman switch. Then the power failed, so he went home. I think 5 or 6
thousand gallons were lost. They still have an evaporation tower to try and
decontanimate the water table.

I've seen multiple incidences of Jet A into turbo (charged) aircraft including
a C-421. No one died.

My favorite: While in NJ, I watch a MECHANIC marshal in a Citation II into
a tight ramp. He makes the 'come forward' wave......BONK!!... into a parked
cessna...and he is STILL making the 'come forward' signal!!! Even after they
shut down the engines! What a dolt.

Then there's the giel who walked into the prop of a DHC-8. It was at idle
feather so she merely got a good smack on the noggin (decending blade).
She broke a blade and got lucky with a few (dozen) stitches

Finally, I was a rampie once. I was towing a Merlin, with the crappy towbar,
accross the field and the towbar dropped with the telltale "klink klank klank!!"
just as i was stopping to hold short of an ACTIVE RUNWAY. The taxiway
curved just before the runway. So i watched as a towbarless Merlin passes
my tug slightly off centerline. I floored the tug to get out of the way of the
wing, jammed it in park and grabbed 3 pair of chocks and started throwing
them under the nose gear. It happily hopped the first 2 pair and ALMOST
stopped on the third. I then ran to re-grab the chocks and stopped it on the
forth try. It passed the hold short line by about 10 feet. It was still well out
of danger. Plane safely stopped, I rush back to the tug to advise the tower
of my 'problem'. I am in direct view of the tower only about 400 feet away.
My thoughts at the time were: "jeeze....they are gonna start screaming and
report me to the FAA. "Um, ground, I had a bit of a towing problem and went
one the active, I'm sorry, and I'll need a minute to reconnect.
Ground: BWA HA HA HA HA *sniff* it's *he he he ha* ok, take your time!
There was even laughter in the background!!:erm:

At least they were too busy laughing to write me up.....sigh.


CE

 

[Twotter76]

I was in BED about three weeks ago and saw someone attempt to drive an Expedition under the wing of a Citation X. Didnt really work out for them. But I think they ferried the a/c to ICT later that same day. Amazing the commotion it caused though.

 

[Lilah]

This one requires a little set up. It is also generic to protect all involved.

A person is in a tightly packed hangar washing a truck for their significant other. That's ok until they hop out and don't realize the truck is still in drive. The truck goes forward into a Lear, and the tip tank rides up the hood and t-bones the cab, punching through the windshield. It then tweaks the Lear, and the other tip tank goes forward and hits the stairs/door on a Gulfstream! One mistake, one truck, one Lear, and one Gulfstream OOS.

It was quickly and quietly buried to protect as many as possible, and the repairs were done in house. Doh!

Lilah

 

[Check 6]

Were there logbook entries made for the repairs?