Crazy Maintenance Story

I have been trying to figure out how to approach this subject without getting people in trouble. When you work out here you hear a lot of crazy stories regarding maintenance or mechanics. I know how the FAA is these days so I as always will not mention any names and I will only relate stories that happened to guys at other airlines. If you have any cool stories let me know and maybe I can include it in my Crazy Maintenance Story posts.

This first story was only told to me a week or two ago and it is really insane. This is the kind of story that can only have happened years ago. These days no one would be man enough to do this kind of thing. I think it is one of the great can do stories I have ever heard. So here we go:

This guy was working for a DC-10 operator. They were using older DC-10s and apparently this one was a real beat up plane. The company was initiating service from the US to England and this was their big night. This was the first revenue flight for this particular service. The guy telling me the story was going along to help set up the required maintenance for the company over in England. He was with another mechanic who I guess was along to help him out or just in case something broke.

So they are flying along at 35,000 feet and they are about 1 hour away from England. The mechanics are in the flight deck with the pilots. The whole flight they notice that the flight deck will not heat up (not that unusual) and that it is louder than normal. I guess they get to talking about this and the mechanic that was with my pal opens the E&E access door in the flight deck floor.

For those of you who are unfamiliar the DC-10 as well as the L-1011 had a hatch in the flight deck floor that allowed access to the Fwd Equipment & Electronics (E&E) bay. Once down there and just about right below the flight deck access hatch is another hatch that leads outside the plane. Many people have fallen through the flight deck hatch down and through the E&E hatch and out to the ground. I have seen this happen at Delta Airlines when our L-1011s were in overhaul.

So when mechanic A opens the flight deck hatch and looks down into the E&E bay he can see sky through the E&E hatch!! The hatch is in the hole but one side of it is open about 3 or 4 inches!! This would be enough for me to close the flight deck hatch and tell the captain to get us down, but not this guy. This guy tells my pal to hold his flashlight, climbs down into the E&E and tries to get the hatch closed! He stomps on it, beats it, nothing is working. Let me also say that the noise from this hole must have been incredible.

The hatch is jammed in the hole and won't move. Mechanic A is in the E&E bay trying to close the hatch. Noise. Cold. (Crazy). He eventually gives up on closing the hatch and tells my pal to go and get a water bottle. I guess they had those really big water bottles that are something like ten or twelve inches and used those to serve water to passengers in cups. My pal gets the bottle and then gives him a bunch of blankets. Mechanic A wraps the water bottle in a couple of blankets an puts in into the gap and THUMP the bottle/blanket gets sucked into the gap and the noise goes away!!

That story is amazing but that's not the end. After about 15 minutes the bottle/blanket gets sucked out through the hole! Mechanic A sticks another one in there every 15 minutes until they land! This guy has got some brass you know whats! First off he climbed down into what must have been a near freezing E&E bay. Then he tries to close that hatch by standing on it at 35000 feet!! Then he stays down there feeding the monster water bottles until they land! I want this guy at my airline! Talk about nuts!

Email me any crazy stories you have at wrightwaynejr@yahoo.com