KERMIT12

Does anyone know of any incidents where the auxiliary power and air con provided to an aircraft while on the ground has resulted in actual physical damage to the aircraft or its internal systems?

ernie blackhander

Only by reading ad's. One was raised because the ct (me stinks) let go and imbedded itself in the a/c and a ground handler

ASFKAP

Yes I've seen a couple throw turbine wheels out the back end damaging the A/C on the way. I also remember at one point on with the APUs on BA's B737-400s there was a reliabiltity issue with them where apparently one had blown up (some other operator) injuring a mechanic standing below it, after that event we were forbidden from running APUs with the lower containment shroud removed (as we would do while carrying out leak checks). If we suspected the APU was leaking we just replaced it and Allied Signal picked up the tab because we were unable to safely carry out any leak checks....

ASFKAP

For the second part of your question regarding the 'air con', during the winter the handlers used to plug in air con/heat carts to warm up the A/C (again 737s) before the first flight of the day, one omorning the regulation failed on the heat cart and when the crew got on it was like an oven onboard. They started the APU and cooled the cabin as best they could (the pax were pleasantly surprised stepping on to the A/C with the tropical temperature).
Soon after the A/C departed and shortly after take off the crew encountered a whole series of faults, flags, warnings one after another on almost every system. They called back describing the symptoms and it was a real mess, with flags coming and going, and fault lights comin on then going off again etc.
By the time the A/C landed after its short flight, the engineers went out to meet it and called us to say the E+E bay was like an oven when they went in.
Over the course of the turnround things started to improve as the temperature dropped and gradually all the faults cleared, by the time it returned to base everything was normal....

IFixPlanes

SeldomFixit

I remember a 707 snakepit being pulled to pieces to retrive the moggy that crawled into the GTSU hose. Check valves a yet to be installed accessory in 138 days. Such a stink but one I have fondly revisited in many Chinese Reataurants over the ensueing years

Vortechs Jenerator

There was that famous KC 135 tanker that was blown apart a few years ago after the safety valve gauge spun round a few times unnoticed during a ground pressure test.

I guess you could call that damage by an aircon cart

KC135 Fuselage Pressure Test Explosion