Darwin Award (Aviation Division) Honourable Mention
The individual has to 'remove himself from the gene pool' to get a Darwin Award.
Survivors are limited to 'Honourable Mention'
Citation as follows:-
A Corporal Electrician had to replace a wing tip light on a C130 Hercules, on a cold and frosty night. There was a serviceable 'cherry picker' in the hangar, and other access equipment.
It could have been -
Pressure of work
Low morale
Peer pressure
Man Utd v Liverpool on telly
Laziness
Stupidity
The previous OC Eng Wing OBE
All of the above
- that affected his judgement that evening. So our hero decides to nip up through the forward escape hatch and have it done in 10 minutes, no problem. With one of his juniors! Who wasn't very happy but went along with it.
As he felt himself slipping down the wing, his oppo grabbed hold of him, but they continued to slide down the wing together.
'SAVE YOURSELF - LET ME GO' cried the Electrician
He fell 20 feet to the sound of breaking bones.
On the way down the wing, the last thing available to grab on to was the wing tip light...which came on as he grabbed for it in vain!!!
Fault fixed, aircraft made slot time.
Would someone care to relate the one about the groundcrew chap who noticed a 40 ton aircraft rolling forward and instinctively put his foot in front of the mainwheel to stop it.
Or the VASF bloke who, when removing chocks from a light aircraft, backed into the propeller and had a slice of his arse chopped off