I hate it when this happens! (chock thrown into engine)

[PondLifeMan]

Hello,

You've also got to think about the fact that FAA Mechanics Licences are mostly given away in boxes of Corn Flakes. So no wonder that the guy did this.

[Plastic Bug]

About that dang NAV light

Hey there JAFCon!

Thanks for reminding me that there is FUEL in the wing. I forgot about that. Probably as a result of my getting my license out of a box of Corn Flakes, as PondLifeMan so eloquently pointed out.

The list of things you have pointed out that could possibly go wrong after a lightning strike while possible, are actually improbable. A burnt out NAV light is generally a burnt out NAV light.

In other words: If a frog had wings, he wouldn't slap his ass every time he jumped off a lily pad.

DirtyMach had the right idea. Just don't pull the chocks in the first place.

PB

[411A]

Hmm, corn flakes and mechanics licenses.

Have noticed some of the UK's "finest" LAME's now seem to want pilot pay...can they be this good...?

According to the story, it would appear that the aeroplane had already been inspected.
Think this guy is ready for the rubber room.

[redtail]

Maybe it wasn't inspected. Maybe it was just signed off.

As I mentioned earlier, it will be interesting to see how this story unfolds. Who knows, maybe he thought he was the next John Liotine like at Alaska Airways, the man who found the jack screw worn and told the FAA, to what end?

[AA717driver]

Sounds like a maintenance shack pissing contest taken to the extreme.TC

[Plastic Bug]

There ARE good guys out there...

411A: yeah, we're that good that we deserve to be paid accordingly. You don't leave the ground without our approval.

Sure, there are some schmucks floating around, but that shouldn't diminish the majority of the good guys.

AA717driver, this may seem like a line shack argument, but it affects everybody. Do you trust the guy who hands you the airplane or not?

If not, why not? If not, why do you fly anyway?

PB

[Rob_L]

Reminds me of an incident in the UK not many years ago.
Having grounded two aircraft for an identical serious defect engineering offered to inspect a third aircraft. Operations refused to release the aircraft and it continued to fly and yes it was grounded when it came back. The captain was bullied into taking the aircraft. Maybe sometimes a chock is the only answer.

[Paulf]

Whatever reasons this guy thought he had for preventing the aircraft from flying, I can not believe that throwing a chock down the intake was the best, or only option.

[zerozero]

A quote from the memo

<<The aircraft underwent two lightening strike inspections in Tampa, and was approved for flight and signed off.
Upon arrival in Denver, additional inspections were performed, and all of the mechanics involved in that inspection, with the exception of one, approved the aircraft for flight.>>

I'd like some clarification here. It sounds like there was still more work to do in DEN. Was that a ferry flight from Tampa to DEN? Why additional inspections?

I agree with Dirty Mach: Wheel chocks work best on the wheels.

[Cyclic Hotline]

Block-Tossing Mechanic May Not Face Criminal Charges says the headline
here!

[Onan the Clumsy]

Didn't Jimmy Stewart do something like this in a film once?

An aircraft had crashed and he was the designer. He figured the tail had fallen off due to metal fatigue which wasn't really known about when he designed it. He was in the cockpit of another one telling them not to taxi out, but the flight crew said they were going anyway, so he reached over and sucked up the gear.

Apparently squat switches weren't known about back then either because he disabled the aircraft. Fortunately for him though, it had a happy ending because they discovered that the tail of the second one was about ready to fall off also.

[zalt]

As Lu says above the film was No Highway (based on the Nevil Schute book).