Sorry AA,
Missed your post there. I will bite at Easter Island ? Seems we have this thread all to ourselves. Meanwhile, another Albert on another Airfield, no quiz this, its Ciampino circa 1990;
A bit of a story, we were heading home from places East (from memory a trip to Madagascar) and our last nightstop was Rome. We get to the aircraft the next morning, and duly B/F it. The "front end" were taking their time arriving and we watched as the Thai B747 loaded, taxied, aborted and returned to the pan. Once the pax were offloaded, blimey don't they carry a lot
my fellow AGE and myself sauntered over to see what their problem was. The Flight Engineer was very chatty and explained that they had a hydraulic leak on one of the engines, and would have to wait for engineering support from base. All those passengers in hotels, crikey did they have a problem. Would he mind if we open the cowling ? A quick look showed that the hydraulic pump coupling had vibrated loose, allowing it to leak. Spanners, a clean up and then get the captain back for a quick engine start to prove the fix, were we happy AGE's, you bet. When we got back to Albert, our drivers had arrived, we shared all our illicit spoils with the crew, Thai Airways Card packs, and other marketing paraphernalia. The B747 got away, less than an hour after its abort, the company saved a lot on hotel bills, and I still have my pack of cards. I often wondered if I could have been useful to a civvy airline.
Smudge
