Monumental Stuff Ups!!

[spider]

Anyone here have any stories or links to any "Monumental Stuff Ups"?

I've seen a few, usually after the event, like just last week, I was called in to a clients premisses after they experienced a fire early that day. After having a look at the damage and making some early assessments, I was confronted by the CEO, "Hey, glad your here, what's the story?" I shot back quick as "Well, maybe in future, you should pay your bills on time!" Yes, he did see the humour in it (and I think he knows me a little too well).

Here a video of one though that in all the things I have seen, I recon takes the cake;-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddlrGkeOzsI

I think I've watched that probably a dozen times now, over a few years and it still has that "I just can't believe this' thing about it.

So, anyone here got a yarn to tell?

[4XMOKE]

One of the best I've read was of Trans Air Boeing 707-321C on a flight from Geneva to Lagos. This was a freight aircraft full of mining equipment. On climbing through the Alps to avoid bad weather No3 engine broke it's mounting and departed the wing! Although a bad situation the 707 has three more engines, normally... No3 engine took no4 engine with it !!! Now these aircraft can fly on two engines, just not at all well when the aircraft is overloaded, with a full fuel payload and in bad weather. After some heroic manoeuvres through the Alps they eventually managed to land (I use the term loosely) at Istres military base. They had to come in over speed due to the state of the aircraft which was also now on fire, they were down wind not into wind making matters worse, oh, and the runway was too short for their aircraft type!
Normal landing would involve reverse thrust braking, difficult when your reverse thrust engines are missing on one side..... so they hit the wheel brakes as hard as possible in a vain attempt to stop, this burst the tyres and caused the aircraft to slew off the runway. By luck they managed to stop, and all five crew departed the aircraft by what ever hole was available!
At the debrief, the French explained that had they been in that circumstance, the normal course of action would be to bail out and asked why the crew had not gone for this option. The simple answer came back "We had no parachutes!" Fair comment I suppose....

Roger G

[Robin Jones]

One of the biggest cock-ups of the last century:

http://www.wired.com/2010/11/1110mars-c ... er-report/

[Wally2]

Perhaps not the right section but funny all the same....

There was an engineer who had an exceptional gift for fixing all things mechanical. After serving his company loyally for over 30 years, he happily retired. Several years later his company contacted him regarding a seemingly impossible problem they were having with one of their multi-million dollar machines. They had tried everything and everyone else to get the machine fixed, but to no avail. In desperation, they called on the retired engineer who had solved so many of their problems in the past.
The engineer reluctantly took the challenge. He spent a day studying the huge machine. At the end of the day he marked a small "x" in chalk on a particular component of the machine and proudly stated, "This is where your problem is." The part was replaced and the machine worked perfectly again.
The company received a bill for $50,000 from the engineer for his service. They demanded an itemized accounting of his charges. The engineer responded briefly:
One chalk mark......................$1
Knowing where to put it........$49,999
It was paid in full and the engineer retired in peace.

[spider]

Bhaha, some great yarns there guys.

4X - hey, it's a Boeing mate, it could do that with it's eyes closed, no sweat.

Robin, there have been some really big cock ups because of just that. I rememeber many years ago reading of an aircraft which ran out of fuel because it's systems were calibrated in litres and the pilots were trained in pounds! But yes, that one would have to take the cake on conversions or the lack there of.

Wally, awesome story, loved it - "knowing where to put it" that's just gold. He had them by the short and curlies and they knew it.

[4XMOKE]

Spider,
Boeing or not, at the time I think the crew all had a bit of a sweat on!
As did the crews of several other of the same type that had identical failures!!!
Boeing later changed spec on engine mount inspections. What a relief there then........

I did some work at Filton in the A320 (I think) wing shop, was quite an eye opener, scared the hell out of me to find out what really goes into aircraft production and some of the err... amendments to spec !!!!


Roger G

[chris naish]

Well, in reply to Chris..Wally2.. the 'motto' in my workshop is :'Can you just?'....Is that all it was?..it took 25 years to find out 'that's all it was' experience counts for nothing nowadays....and the end classic......'Do I owe you anything?!!!! Love this site!

[spider]

Here's another I forgot I had, the pictures speak for themselves;-









Ooops!

[Wally2]

Not quite in the same disaster area but good all the same!

Chris

[spider]

Oh no, that's much worse!!

I mean, in that last one I posted up, one would only need to explain themselves to the Insurance Company.

With that one you've posted up Wally, you'd need to explain that to the missus!!

I think I'd rather deal with the Insurance Company!

[Tim]

My eldest did that with nappy rash cream, a goopy castor oil grease with white zinc oxide in it. Not quite to the extent of those kids but all over her bedroom carpet. A commercial carpet cleaner failed miserably but Daddy drew on his extensive experience in cleaning grease off things to get rid of most of it. Five years later and an oily mark is still there!

Tim

[4XMOKE]

Tim,
Poor kid. I hope you get it off before they get to High School...




Roger G

[Tim]