Chinese aircraft maintenance

DPApilot

GUYSH! GUYSH! GUYSH!
Ok, so this has probably been posted before, but WOW

http://iagblog.blogspot.com/2007/01/chinese-aircraft-maintenance.html

They say don't ask and don't tell. But you have to see this. Don't ask where we got this. "For anybody who is not familiar with a jet engine, a jet fan blade should be perfectly smooth. You might want to think twice the next time you fly on a Chinese Airline.
A pilot for a Chinese carrier requested permission and landed at FRA, (Germany) for an unscheduled refueling stop. The reason became soon apparent to the ground crew: The Number 3 engine had been shutdown previously because of excessive vibration, and because it didn't look too good. It had apparently been no problem for the tough guys back in China: as they took some sturdy straps and wrapped them around two of the fan blades and the structures behind, thus stopping any unwanted windmilling (engine spinning by itself due to airflow passing through the blades during flight) and associated uncomfortable vibration caused by the suboptimal fan.
Note that the straps are seat belts....how resourceful! After making the "repairs", off they went into the wild blue yonder with another revenue-making flight on only three engines! With the increased fuel consumption, they got a bit low on fuel, and just set it down at the closest airport (FRA) for a quick refill.
That's when the problems started: The Germans, who are kind of picky about this stuff, inspected the malfunctioning engine and immediately grounded the aircraft. Besides the seat belts, notice the appalling condition of the fan blades. The airline operator had to send a chunk of money to get the first engine replaced (took about 10 days).
The repair contractor decided to do some impromptu inspection work on the other engines, none of which looked all that great either. The result: a total of 3 engines were eventually changed on this plane before it was permitted to fly again."
 
What's worse is that some US airlines are beginning to contract maintenance overseas...often performed (according to one USAF investigation) by known Al-Qaeda operatives and as many as 100 unlicensed, unskilled workers assigned to one licensed technician.
 
Yeah, kind of sounds like someone saw the pictures and made up a story to go along with them. :panic:
 
Did anybody else notice that those straps extend through the fan and the stators? Ain't no way that rotor be spinnin' ;)
 
Did anybody else notice that those straps extend through the fan and the stators? Ain't no way that rotor be spinnin' ;)


hey you're right it does...if you look at the middle photo you can clearly see that strap wrapped all the way through...there is no way that thing even spun...this story might be bunk if you ask me...
 
What's worse is that some US airlines are beginning to contract maintenance overseas...often performed (according to one USAF investigation) by known Al-Qaeda operatives and as many as 100 unlicensed, unskilled workers assigned to one licensed technician.


Beginning?

Delta has been sending their 767's to China for a 2-3 years now.

The MD-88's go south of the border to Guadalajara. I guess Avborne (aka Sabre-Tech) wasn't cheap enough. I could go on and on with the stories but I value my job. Don't need Delta firing me for an erroneous belief that I'm not a team player.

FedEx, UPS, World, United also have overhauls done overseas. I'm sure there are more.
 
To me it seems a bit weird that the crew would not see that during the preflight inspection, but if it's a chinese crew there could be a slight possibility but still i got doubts on that. I used to work in China (not for an airline though, for a flight academy) and I've seen some crazy stuff but this one is really big, a bit too big to be true as per the story. That's only my personal opinion though.

cheers and keep the blue side up !
 
To me it seems a bit weird that the crew would not see that during the preflight inspection, but if it's a chinese crew there could be a slight possibility but still i got doubts on that. I used to work in China (not for an airline though, for a flight academy) and I've seen some crazy stuff but this one is really big, a bit too big to be true as per the story. That's only my personal opinion though.

cheers and keep the blue side up !

what I come to after reading this is that they ingested something in flight, landed, made this fix, took off and flew on three engines and then had to make a fuel stop because of an increase in fuel consumption, that's when the Germans grounded it?
 
Some fun facts:

The 747 does have the ability to do a three-engine ferry if the inoperative (damaged) engine is strapped so it won't rotate.

The Boeing Company chose to have the LCF conversion done in Taiwan.

Xaimen China does alot of heavy checks for 747s from many operators all over the world (including ours)

HAICO (hong kong) is renowned for it's MRO capabilities.

Just like everywhere else in the world, there are crap MX shops and great ones. Nothing like flying an airplane that got signed off from the company's own C-checkline and you use alot of pages of the logbook in the 2 days you fly the plane.

This begs to ask: What the hell did that engine eat?

Also, until you see the pictures of the DragonAir 747-400 that struck all four pods, this is amazing. ;) I ran across the graph yesterday that showed the pitch/bank envelope for various contact points (tail/elevator - pods - nose gear) and it's quite a feat to get all 4.
 
744PitchRoll.gif
 

I think that might be the classic one (I say this because it looks familiar, but I haven't seen this iteration in a 400 book). the -400 one I have (from the Boeing training manual) is a little different
 
The 747 does have the ability to do a three-engine ferry if the inoperative (damaged) engine is strapped so it won't rotate.

Didn't you have to do something like that not too long ago? I know it's different from what's being talked about now, but something with the fire warning not working so you flew the 747 minus the one engine? ;)
 
Didn't you have to do something like that not too long ago? I know it's different from what's being talked about now, but something with the fire warning not working so you flew the 747 minus the one engine?

If you mean the time we shut one down on a lightly loaded airplane and I was working the radios, then yes. :yup:
 
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