following on from other discussions about our pay rise etc, i have seen a lot of posts talking about the "daily life or death decisions" that you guys have to make. i have a couple of questions i would like you to to answer:
Do you really have a decision to make - for instance if you are a bit grumpy one day, do the unlucky crew of the day really have to die? (just kidding)
More seriously though, and this is not a fishing thread, above point excepted, if someone did make a wrong/bad decision and really ****ed up, would they ever or never or sometimes be picked up by the crews pre flight? (and then hence disaster avoided)
Sometimes critical lapses may be picked up pre-flight if a trace is left for the crew / crew chief / see off team to spot. This isnt always the case.
Even if there is a pre-flight check designed to pick up the critical defect, like a control surface check these arent always completed by the crew for whatever reason. Often accidents are the result of more than one lapse in the chain.
The Hawk incident where the (from memory) control rod wasnt reconnected due to a lack of open entry in the paperwork AND failure of the crew to carry out full control surface checks resulted in a fatal crash.
Minor example of day to day decisions. As an SAC I was seeing off a Chinook doing nightflying. I was just about to be waved off by the loadie and I noticed that I kept getting splashed in the face with something. I looked behind me to see an unidentified fluid on the pan spread about 20 feet from one side aft of the aircraft. I pointed it out to the loadie who was desperate to go and gestured thumbs up/ thumbs down to me. "Should we take this" in other words. "No way" I said and told them to shut down. A rigger came out (I'm a fairy) with a big spanner(that wasnt needed) and replaced the filling cap of the pressurised hyd reservoir that had been left open after a servicing.
I say minor incident because if I'd have waved the aircraft off it probably wouldnt have ended up a smoking hole but if the other system had failed who knows?? The point I am making is that its those type of judgements that technicians are making, of all ranks, every day. Some of them are more critical than others. The important thing is to recognise it and recognise the limits of your own knowledge and experience and pass it to someone who does know. All while crews are desperate to make their range slot, tanker slot or casevac or whatever in a noisy environment when its ****ing down with rain and youre hanging out your arse tired from a long shift.
How do we do this? By getting the right people, training them to a high standard and developing their skills and attitude when they arrive on units.
