Another Kingair story
When we got our first B200C with the big cargo door, some of our pilots complained that the big door was dificult to close and latch properly. I had had no trouble with it and wondered what they were doing wrong.
I was soon to find out.
Late one afternoon I had loaded two stretcher patients aboard for an interhospital transfer, and the ambos and medics watched as I closed the big door and tried to latch it. It absolutely refused to latch, so I opened it again to the stares of all the medics, and checked that the mechanism was working ok. It was and the locks appeared when and where they should. I checked the door frame,and found nothing unuasal. So I tried again and it still refused to latch. I repeated the procedure, always with the same result. By this time the medics were getting quite concerned.
Finally I won. By peering inside the lower part of the door I spied a socket, that should have been in some LAME's toolbox.
It was rolling around in the botton of the door.
When the door was opened the socket rolled clear of the locking mechanism, so it all worked fine. But when the door was closed it rolled right back into place and prevented the locking mechanism from working properly.
I borrowed a pair of forceps from the medics, and was able to remove it, and everything worked fine from then on.
All the LAMES who had worked on the aircraft claimed that it was an inferior socket, and would not possibly find space in their toolbox.
I wonder how long it had been there.