I had one case where my inattention could have caused a crash. I tanked up an HO3-S 1G for an early morning flight to look for a lost girl. The pilot ran out of gas about ten miles out and made a successful autorotation. It seems that someone siphoned the gas during the night.
However I had several face saving incidents where I prevented a crash. At an air show in Everett, Washington I was strolling about looking at rotorheads with my camera that had a 35-105 lens with a 2X multiplier. I looked very closely at the rotorhead of an UH-60 Blackhawk. I noticed a piece that seemed to be missing and I told the pilot about it. He told me that I was mistaken and what I thought was a missing part was really an accumulation of Mastinox which is a water sealant. I told him what I thought and left. About an hour later I returned to find the pilot standing on the roof of the Blackhawk staring vacantly into the sunset. The helicopter stayed there for several days until a replacement rotorhead could be installed.
On another occasion in Germany I attended a small airshow and doing what I do I was looking at rotorheads and tail rotors. On a brand new B-206 EMS helicopter rotorhead I spotted what I thought was a crack. I found the pilot and I told him about it. He took a look from the ground and he told me it was a streak of grease. I looked again from several different points and told him it was a crack. He climbed on the roof and verified that it was indeed a crack. This helicopter came out of the factory with the crack. The helicopter was trucked back to the home base.
