Hi there,
Having witnessed an incident at a UK airport where a foreign carrier was guilty of gross engineering misconduct..........Where do you stand with MOR reporting?
How much clout does the CAA have in such incidents?
Here is the incident which I filed an ASR and an MOR along with another engineer who witnessed the incident.
Positioned the company van on a stand at EGXX whilst waiting for our company aircraft to arrive. The stand was occupied by a foreign carrier Airbus A330-200 waiting to push back with tug attached.
Two foreign engineers were by the nose. One on the headset and another close by. Both myself and a colleague witnessed a torrent of water coming from the rear toilet service panel which was running down the fuse onto the ground. Concerned by this, I ran over to the engineers and told them what I had seen and indicated that they should take a look before pushback.
Minutes past and neither of them took any action. The aircraft was pushed back and engine start took place. Concerned by the lack of action, a ground ops vehicle was flagged down and the driver was asks to contact ATC to inform the Captain of the aircraft. By this time the engineer on the headset had disconnected and was walking away back to his van.
The Captain must have received the info from ATC as he indicated to the engineers he had a problem. The engineer walked back to the aircraft and plugged his headset in. Very little time passed before he disconnected once again and walked away. We could only assume he had told the Captain there was no problem.
As the aircraft taxied away, water was still streaming from the rear of the aircraft.
Concerned by the lack of action we drove over to the engineers van and voiced our concern. We said that the aircraft should be contacted and brought back to stand. There seem to be some reaction from them of agreement so we left as our company aircraft was coming on stand.
Minutes later I saw the aircraft take off!
The main concern over this is the lack of action. In itself the leak was of reasonable concern. Icing could have taken place inside behind the toilet service panel door possibly causing detachment. Also the water may have streamed into the airflow over the horizontal stab causing ice to form on the leading edge. The main thing though is it could have been anything causing the problem and for an engineer to ignore the advice of others is in my mind criminal.
I do hope something will come of the reporting action as the carrier should be taken to task over it.
Your comments please.
Coop & Bear
