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Old 12th Jun 2013, 12:41
  #650 (permalink)  
Mainsail
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Liverpool UK
Age: 71
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Lashing and Securing

I am not in the aviation industry, but I am a Marine Cargo Surveyor and am a senior partner in a UK cargo lashing and securing company.

Looking at the pictures of the vehicle lashings (I know not in the crash aircraft) I would be very concerned for the following reasons.
1. There are chain lashings and webbing lashings pulling in the same direction, that is a no no, chain and webbing have different stretch coefficients so all the loading is on the chains.
2. No protection on the vehicle front lashing eyes so heavy loading will cause failure, as you tighten the Ratchet the webbing pulls over the sharp edge of the eye and gets damaged.
3. Cargo should be loop lashed with pairs of lashings, ie.fixed to right side attached to left side and pulled back to right side with another lashing fitted the other way round, most just appear to be fed through the eyes.
4. I assume that lashing points on aircraft are lower strength than on ships so you need more lashings to achieve the total lashing strength, but there are so many lashings that it is difficult to tell in what direction each lashing pulls.
5. Wooden chocking appears to be made of planks all one way (transverse) so cargo will fall forward or backwards if lashings fail, chocking planks should be built up in opposite directions to make a square box.

It is always difficult to to make definitive comments from a photograph but this is just my thoughts.

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