Two Delta Mechanics Killed, one injured

FlyingAccountant said:
I just read an article that interviewed one of the guy's sons and he stated the medical examiner wouldn't let him see the body it was so bad. I guess he ended up unrecognizable and was only identified by his work badge and lanyard.

I can only imagine that must have been like a bomb going off.
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It’s no kidding danger, those tires when they explode either due to not being deflated and being disassembled, or when they burst from other circumstances. Even when we respond to an aircraft having a brake fire, we never approach the landing gear from the sides, only the front and rear, including tires that have fuse plugs in case those deflate the tire.
 
///AMG said:
Never had a tire blow up on me on walk around. That includes carrier pressurized tires, and stomp the brakes chattering to the gate 737 tires. Which makes me wonder WTF happened here. Lives behind a paywall so I’ll never know.
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As many times in a day as the airline industry are splitting wheels for overhaul/tire change, and as rare as this is, says whatever processes are in place to prevent this work really well. Certainly odd to apparently have had this slip through.
 
Although likely (since it’s happened many times before), I have yet to read anywhere that this was the result of splitting inflated rims….
 
I've never worked on an airliner but I have probably changed wheels on jets more than anyone here. The first thing you do after either jacking the axle or the airplane is either install a valve stem deflation tool or remove and discard the valve core and wait for it to stop whistling before you remove the wheel. You might start cutting safety wire and remove the hub cap but you never loosen the axle nut until you know the tire is deflated. Delta has such a sterling reputation that I'm surprised this happened, never mind it's Boeings fault right?
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
Who seriously thought this would be a good idea?

Wow


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I personally know a majority of the airport PR folks in the U.S., and I can tell you that this does not surprise me at all.

There's a good chance I'll one day have airport PR under my direct management, and when I do I won't be hiring anyone with actual PR experience, but rather a team of former high school English teachers, so I don't have to untrain any bad habits. Instead, I'll teach them from my PR bible, which includes passages like "Do we really need to post anything here?"
 
When I was 19 I worked at a tire shop. Was putting air in a wheel barrow tire and the tube popped. It shot the whole wheel assembly off the machine and to the roof of the garage. I was extremely fortunate in that it only grazed my forehead leaving a scratch but if I’d been leaning over a fraction more could have injured or killed me easily.
 
NovemberEcho said:
When I was 19 I worked at a tire shop. Was putting air in a wheel barrow tire and the tube popped. It shot the whole wheel assembly off the machine and to the roof of the garage. I was extremely fortunate in that it only grazed my forehead leaving a scratch but if I’d been leaning over a fraction more could have injured or killed me easily.
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Airplane tire changes can be dangerous, I'll repost this image of a Portland bike rack as a reminder...
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NovemberEcho said:
When I was 19 I worked at a tire shop. Was putting air in a wheel barrow tire and the tube popped. It shot the whole wheel assembly off the machine and to the roof of the garage. I was extremely fortunate in that it only grazed my forehead leaving a scratch but if I’d been leaning over a fraction more could have injured or killed me easily.
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Similar story - there are 19" and 19.5" truck wheels & tires. The difference isn't just the diameter, but also the radius of the lip of the bead and how it seals on the wheel, which makes it is possible to install wrong size tire on a rim. A co-worker at the tire shop I used to work at did a spectacular job of relocating a 19.5 tire onto the roof of the car dealership next door after inflating it on a 19" wheel, luckily missing his head and body in the process.
 
CFI A&P said:
Similar story - there are 19" and 19.5" truck wheels & tires. The difference isn't just the diameter, but also the radius of the lip of the bead and how it seals on the wheel, which makes it is possible to install wrong size tire on a rim. A co-worker at the tire shop I used to work at did a spectacular job of relocating a 19.5 tire onto the roof of the car dealership next door after inflating it on a 19" wheel, luckily missing his head and body in the process.
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Yikes, I could see that being a really easy mistake to make.
 
CFI A&P said:
Similar story - there are 19" and 19.5" truck wheels & tires. The difference isn't just the diameter, but also the radius of the lip of the bead and how it seals on the wheel, which makes it is possible to install wrong size tire on a rim. A co-worker at the tire shop I used to work at did a spectacular job of relocating a 19.5 tire onto the roof of the car dealership next door after inflating it on a 19" wheel, luckily missing his head and body in the process.
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“I’ll give you $10 if you could do that again.”
 
And then there's the story about North Valley Occupational Center kid who didn't know how a high pressure regulator handle worked when he was told to check the tires on a GPU, he blew the wheel up and took off the majority of one of his legs. I knew someone that was there and removed her belt and applied it as a tourniquet and likely saved that young mans life. We often think of 1800 psi of O2 as standard or 3000 psi of nitrogen in the accumulator as normal. I'll relate one story, back in the olden times I worked at a place that didn't supply goosenecks, or fillers, for replenishing nitrogen. We used a lot of nitrogen and even though we'd order bottles pressurized to 3500 psi and we had a multiplier sometimes you'd just barely make it to the minimum required pressure after cranking the regulator all the way in to get every last pound out of the bottle. Sometimes people are in a hurry and forget other people might be coming behind them to use the same equipment so they "forget" to back off the regulator. If you want to see A/Ps dance have them open a nitrogen bottle with a regulator fully cranked in that's attached to a 10 or 12 foot hose that is not appropriately secured. I've seen airplanes damaged from these sorts of shenanigans.
 
Inverted said:
Sorry.

I actually do, do walkarounds but I would be lying if I said that I didn't have a potentially irrational fear of tires and being in the wheel well of the 737.
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Oh man, I feel this. Not to mention a flew with a guy a while ago who actually did have one of the hyd reservoirs burst and splatter him in the face/shirt with hot pressurized hyd fluid. He said that is why he always shuts the electric pumps off now before going under there.
 
///AMG said:
Oh man, I feel this. Not to mention a flew with a guy a while ago who actually did have one of the hyd reservoirs burst and splatter him in the face/shirt with hot pressurized hyd fluid. He said that is why he always shuts the electric pumps off now before going under there.
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Just reinforces my belief the elec hyd pumps should be off, even under 90 minute turn. Yeah, I’ve seen the CP update about either doing all of the secure checklist or not.

But something about keeping that powered just feels a little uneasy. Especially considering normal procedure is FO walks around first, and then comes inside and puts them on. If we do a quick tail swap under 90 mimutes, next flight FO walks around with the pumps on?

Eek
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
Just reinforces my belief the elec hyd pumps should be off, even under 90 minute turn. Yeah, I’ve seen the CP update about either doing all of the secure checklist or not.

But something about keeping that powered just feels a little uneasy. Especially considering normal procedure is FO walks around first, and then comes inside and puts them on. If we do a quick tail swap under 90 mimutes, next flight FO walks around with the pumps on?

Eek
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9/10 times, really unless it is a first start of the day scenario, I'm up in that thing with at least the hyd pumps turning. Most of the time, it is the trifecta of noise (elec hyds, packs, and APU). I'd be very happy if all of them were off. That is peaceful.
 
///AMG said:
9/10 times, really unless it is a first start of the day scenario, I'm up in that thing with at least the hyd pumps turning. Most of the time, it is the trifecta of noise (elec hyds, packs, and APU). I'd be very happy if all of them were off. That is peaceful.
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Fall, and that brief window when we won’t need the APU and packs running on 90% of preflights, is coming. Always a bad day when the CA shows up before I start the walk around and complains about the yoke flapping around so then the hyd pumps get turned on.
 
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