With all the attention being given to regional airlines and safety recently, especially as it pertains to "crew rest," I thought I would share a story from my days as captain of a regional airliner.

We landed for an overnight in a medium-sized town in middle America and during the post flight inspection, I noticed that one side of the left engine cowling was covered with oil.  They're usually a litte greasy but there was a lot of fresh oil on this one so I "wrote it up" and phoned the discrepancy into maintenance control.  The maintenance controller immediately chided me with "It's a thirty-year-old airplane.  It's supposed to have oil on the cowling!"

When I offered to write up the other engine cowling for not having oil on it, he realized he wasn't going to talk me out of it and the problem wasn't going to go away.  The airplane couldn't be flown until the discrepancy was cleared so they dispatched two mechanics in a pickup truck from the hub to come and repair the aircraft.  Our two rescuers left the hub after working outside in the August sun from 3:00-11:00 PM and arrived on site about 2:00 and quickly confirmed that the suspected DC Generator (fills the same role as the alternator on your car) seal was leaking.  They disconnected and removed the generator, replaced the seal, and reinstalled the generator.

It was then that the adventure really began.  The bolts holding the generator in place are required to be tightened to a specific tightness using a device called a "torque wrench."  I wasn't there but I imagine the conversation went something like this:

The guy leaning inside the engine cowling, having hand-tightened the bolts says to his partner, "Hand me the torque wrench."

To which the reply was, "I thought YOU brought the torque wrench."

"No.  You were supposed to bring the torque wrench."

And so on....

Absent a properly calibrated and certified torque wrench, the repair could not be completed.  They then informed Maintenance "Control" of the problem who began to puzzle over whether they should send a wrench on the next flight, send it by courier such as FEDEX, or send yet another truck with another mechanic on the three-hour trip to effect the rescue of the rescuers.  One of the ladies who worked at the airline's station suggested, "Why not just go buy one at Sears?"  They couldn't do that because it wouldn't be properly calibrated and certified.  "Well how about our local contract maintenance? Surely they have one you can use?"

It turned out the local maintenance contracter did have a certified torque wrench and the bolts were torqued in place in accordance with the manufacturer's requirements.  The procedure then required an engine "run up" and monitoring of the leak.  This process is something like, "start with a clean engine, run for 30 minutes, analyze the amount of leaking, and consult the manual."  The manual tells the mechanics what an "acceptable" amount of leaking is so they may know whether or not the aircraft can be returned to service.

Having passed the "calibrated leak test" with flying colors, the aircraft was still not ready to take passengers to the hub.  In the process of the engine run up, the mechanics discovered that the DC generator they had just installed would not "come on line" and generate electrical energy for the aircraft systems.  They scratched their heads and examined the installation again and couldn't find the source of the problem.

It was then decided, in consultation with Maintenance Control, that the aircraft should be ferried back to the hub for repair.  In the airline world, it's OK to risk the crew to fly a broken aircraft but not passengers so we departed for the hub without our passengers and with half our normal electrical generating capability.  The flight was completed without incident and since it was the last flight of a four-day trip, the first officer and both flight attendants disappeared over the horizon as soon as the door was open.

By the time I finished my paperwork and packed my flight case, the mechanics had a rolling scaffold pushed up to the offending engine.  As I took the first step down the aircraft stairs, I heard the mechanic say, "Found it!" as he looked inside the cowling.  I asked if it was all right if I came up to have a look and he said, "Sure thing, Captain.  You're gonna like this!"

As I got to the top of the scaffolding, he asked, "Can you see the problem?"

As soon as I looked at the generator, I could see that the main cable was not connected.  The loose end of the cable that's supposed to connect the generator to the rest of the aircraft's electrical system was hanging nearby.  Once it was plugged in, they did a run up and the generator worked just fine.

Why couldn't the other mechanics on the rescue mission detect their own error?  It was obvious to me.  After being up for nearly 24 hours, having worked one shift outside in the hot summer sun,  driving three hours, and working for another three or so to change the seal, these guys were exhausted.  It's no wonder their brains didn't work and they couldn't see the obvious problem!

Maintenance personnel are not bound by the same (not conservative enough) rest rules as flight crews are.  I pointed this out to the company in the operational safety report I wrote about the incident and got a nice "attaboy" from the Director of Safety.

Did anything change?

Nope.

That would cost money.



A discussion of this article has been started on The Daily Diatribe Forum at http://www.dailydiatribe.net/index.php/forum/6-the-latest-diatribe/346-regional-airline-anecdote#346.