There is a special bond that exists between an owner of a vehicle and their mechanic. It’s all about trust. People that own high-end sports cars particularly understand this relationship, they want to know that their baby is being handled with the utmost care. Most us don’t go to this extreme, we just want to be safe. We want to know we can start, stop and turn the car when we want to. We want to know that our loved ones are safe… trust is about safety.
There is an even deeper bond between an aircraft owner and their mechanic. There is no pulling over on the side of the road when the engine stops running. Take that a step even deeper when you are talking about a helicopter. There are so many moving parts in the machine that people describe it as having the ability at beat the air into submission. Helicopters have components moving in every different direction, every bolt and wire needs to be perfect. There is no room for error . A pilot has been trained in the basics, but we put our lives in the hands of our mechanic.
A couple days ago I got a phone call from my friend and professional pilot who helps keep me safe in the sky. His voice sounded unusually serious. We were discussing his last flight where he repositioned the helicopter after some routine service appointment. He told me that on his preflight inspection, he found a tool that was left inside the engine compartment, it was dangerously near the rotor shaft (see pic above – notice white trust band). Our mechanic had left the tool after working on the helicopter. This is the equivalent of a surgeon leaving his scalpel in the patient after surgery.
Specifically, it was a magnetic tool that could be extended and less likely to bounce around and get into the rotor system. That fact however, did not make me any less angry. This slip up had the ability to kill, not only myself but people I care about, and people I don’t even know. It’s totally unacceptable. Yes, we are human beings who make errors, but an aircraft mechanic needs to double check, triple check, quadruple check…
I am upset and have started the process of communicating with the people that need to know that and I have a question for you. What would you do if this happened to you? What would you do if someone you trusted made an error of this significance? Give them a second chance? Punish them? Humiliate them in public? Make them pay… or forgive and forget. What is the right thing to do? Your thoughts please.
