A spanner in the works

[sitigeltfel]

An easyJet aircraft taxiing out at Geneva returned to the terminal when an alert passenger noticed a spanner in the flap mechanism.

20 Minuten - Halt, da klemmt doch was im Flügel! - Romandie (http://www.20min.ch/schweiz/romandie/story/Halt--da-klemmt-doch-was-im-Fluegel--23256960)

Well spotted!

[Council Van]

It would be a nice gesture to at least offer him a free return ticket.

[rightstuffer]

Flap over fouled fowler flap?

[RAT 5]

Flap over fouled fowler flap?

And if it had been bird damage it could have been:
"flap over fowled fowler flap."

[brakedwell]

He deserves a pat on the back and a free Kit Kat!

EasyJet rewards hero doctor with free coffee - but makes him pay £1.20 for KitKat to go with it | Home News | News | The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/easyjet-passenger-gets-free-coffee-for-saving-persons-life-on-plane-and-preventing-flight-from-a6923541.html)

[Piltdown Man]

These were both marvellous PR opportunities, yet both now show what this company think about those who try and help it. But this company is not unique (a certain foul mouthed CEO certainly springs to mind). Both show how customers are treated with total and utter contempt by large corporations. They don't give a stuff. They will screw you out of as much cash as they can and you will be expected to shut up, fill in a marketing survey and in return, they will screw more cash out of you. What is there to enjoy about the heartless world of modern business?

PM

[PersonFromPorlock]

What is there to enjoy about the heartless world of modern business?Well, the products are pretty good. For love and respect, we all have mothers.

[RAT 5]

I see the Dr. (kit-lat) was offered a free flight after a pressurised after thought. I wonder if it was a return ticket?

The next question is, and this could be aimed at so many companies, is what happened to the purser who charged for the Kit-Kat, and what happened to the heartless unsympathetic customer service agent who responded "we stick to our company policy." ? Only when it reached some higher level and reasonable intelligence did something even close to proper treatment take place. Don't companies realise that customer service departments effect pax future opinions about the company far more than the staff on that day? The C.S. dept is usually involved when there is a complaint or has been a problem. If the pax has the energy and resilience to take the trouble to contact them they expect correct treatment of their issue, not a fob off.
The free coffee was because it doe not appear in the sales computer, the Kit-Kat does, so comes out of the crew's purse. Was the captain involved in that decision? I'd have bought him lunch out my own wallet. Shame we can't have pax up for landing anymore.

[N707ZS]

What happened to the owner of the spanner??

[beamender99]

What happened to the owner of the spanner??

He had to buy a replacement ?

My daughter, a doctor, whenever she has been called to assist on board a flight has always been treated well by the crew.
The duty free has been raided for her and she has always been more than happy with these gestures of thanks.

[Mark in CA]

Too bad I'll never hear an announcement asking if there is a writer on board. ;)

[Herod]

Too bad I'll never hear an announcement asking if there is a writer on board.

They never ask, as in Airplane, "Does anyone know how to fly a plane?"

737 retired, and I'd like the chance to be a hero.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

I believe there was an FOI some years back who used to pop a spanner inside the intake of one of the engines to see if the crew had noticed it.. One day there was some distraction and once airborne he said "Can I have my spanner back please". To which everyone feigned puzzlement and said "What spanner?"

[Tinribs]

Many years ago it was our custom on night flying nights to buy a NAAFI meat pie and take it flying. After landing you put your meat pie in the jet pipe, signed the aircraft in at the line shack and collected your nice warm pie to eat in the crewroom before the next trip
One night a student pilot forgot to collect his pie. The aircraft was checked over by the next pilot and set of down the runway, the caravan controller saw blazing bits falling out of the jet pipe and calls a stop. The pilot tries hard but fails to stop,before the barrier.
We don't do that anymore

[Airbubba]

What happened to the owner of the spanner??

I've always been told that's why aviation mechanics don't put their name on the tools, unlike as with most other technical trades. ;)

[brakedwell]

8 FTS RAF Swinderby, 1956, I watched a Vampire FB5 taxiing ahead of me start the take off roll, rotate normally and then go into a vertical climb until it stalled at a couple of hundred feet, dropped a wing and crashed in the grass about fifty yards from the side of the runway. They found a spanner in the port boom had jammed the elevator fully up. The spanner was traced back to a Maintenance Unit, but not it's owner.

[Chronus]

With all due respects to the good doc, how did he know the spanner shouldn`t have been there. After all how often have we heard on the news that people have been stitched up with all manner of surgical tools left behind here and there in their body.
Now, had it been a stethoscope I`d go along with his concern.

[N707ZS]

Airbubba my tools are all traceable back to me via an engraved code, also just in case someone nicks them!

[ExSp33db1rd]

Tools - count them out, and count them back.

KISS.

'course - some people can't count now without a calculator, or cellphone.

Household tools now inscribed " Stolen from ExS " - as they have been. ( Clean, Green, SAFE New Zealand, Yeah! Right! )

[framer]

The next question is, and this could be aimed at so many companies, is what happened to the purser who charged for the Kit-Kat, and what happened to the heartless unsympathetic customer service agent who responded "we stick to our company policy." ? Only when it reached some higher level and reasonable intelligence did something even close to proper treatment take place.
Rubbish. They work in constant fear of breaking a company policy and facing the wrath of those at the higher level. If those at the higher level created an environment where people could use their head without fear of a written warning you would have seen some common decency well down the chain.

[crewmeal]

These were both marvellous PR opportunities, yet both now show what this company think about those who try and help it. But this company is not unique (a certain foul mouthed CEO certainly springs to mind). Both show how customers are treated with total and utter contempt by large corporations. They don't give a stuff. They will screw you out of as much cash as they can and you will be expected to shut up, fill in a marketing survey and in return, they will screw more cash out of you. What is there to enjoy about the heartless world of modern business?

Never a truer word said - well done!

[ExSimGuy]

I was flying out of USA one night, on board an airline that my daughter used to work for (as "staff" PAX) and noticed ice creeping across the wing as we taxied out. I alerted a Steward to this and one of the Flight Crew came to take a look, with the result that we taxied back for a repeat of the de-ice.

I've since wondered if the crew wee grateful to me for being observant, or if it was a case of "darn - now procedures say we have to go back to get rid of it even though it would have burned off with the friction of the take-off roll".

[funfly]

I recall a number of years ago a Blanic glider fatality caused by a spanner jammed in the control rods that was thought to have been there since the glider was manufactured. Note the Blanic is a highly aerobatic glider.

[dsc810]

That would have been in 1982 at Brize Norton during a display LET 13 Blanik Pilot Andy Gough

[harrryw]

As the doctor was asked to provide the service would it not also be his right to present a bill which could of course include all travel costs and after hours rates for the treatment requested by the airline.

[KNIEVEL77]

Sounds like a Mike Ashley owned company!

[BayBong]

My brother who is a physician has helped a lot of time, but never get anything in return. Only once did he get a thank you letter. Notice that he can be held liable if anything happened to the passenger ! He knows better now: ask the Captain for immunity prior to getting involved.

[IcePack]

Don't believe Capt has that type of authority.

[Max Angle]

In a previous company we had a certificate/letter that could be handed to a doctor answering a PA or assistance. It basically said that any qualified physician helping at the request of the crew was covered by the companies indemnity insurance and would not be held liable.

Very good spot by the passenger involved, more than deserves his free trip.

[Radgirl]

The letter I regret is worthless. The airline cannot protect you from litigation and in the case of treating a US citizen you could have a decade of dozens of court appearances and even the threat of being kept in the US

However most of us don't expect immunity and we carry our own professional indemnity.

Over 30 years I lose count of how often I have paid for a seat only to spend hours sitting on the floor looking after some passenger, missing food and films, sometimes to be required to accompany the patient to the hospital. It was normal practice to receive a letter from the airline offering a refund of my ruined flight or a couple of free business class seats in compensation

Slowly slowly airlines realised they didn't have to and now the norm is not even a thank you. Many doctors nowadays refuse to volunteer and it is hard to blame them. That is how much airlines care about their passengers. True, a number have contracts with telemetry medical services and some are very good, but they will play safe and I muse over how much the resultant diversions and returns cost compared with a free ticket in the old days

[ams6110]

I was flying out of USA one night, on board an airline that my daughter used to work for (as "staff" PAX) and noticed ice creeping across the wing as we taxied out. I alerted a Steward to this and one of the Flight Crew came to take a look, with the result that we taxied back for a repeat of the de-ice.

I once pointed out fuel leaking out of the wing of a Delta MD-80 while in cruise, flight attendant consulted with flight deck and came back with the reply of it being normal, "probably just overfilled."