From An Airline Mechanic's Website

[Guest B1900 Mech]

It seams that Deleted MGT. have resorted to taking hammers to aircraft. A few weeks ago, we had an aircraft with a cracked wingtip nav light lense cover. It was not deferable unless the crack extended to a fastner hole and we had no lense covers in stock. So to avoid having an out of service aircraft, a foreman went out and stood on a ladder and "TAPPED" on the lense cover with a hammer to try to extend the crack to the fastner hole. Needles to say, he shattered the lense cover. Can you say "BEST MAINTENANCE". If an AMT was caught doing that, he or she would be walked out. All our manager said was, "his intentions were good". Yesterday we had a 737 with a dent on the leading edge of #2 engine nose cowl. Didn't meet the depth to width ratio limits, oops, out of service. Once again a couple of foreman, under the direction of the manager and in full view of the passangers in the terminal, procceded to beat on the nose cowl with a 2x4 and a hammer. The theory was to make the dent wider so it would be within limits for deferal. They got LM approval and created a defered item. They were actualy dumb enough to write in the text "enlarged the size of dent" and the manager signed his name and file number. When the pilot who was to fly that airplane found out how the dent was handled, he refused to take the airplane and I've been told he filed a Captain's Report. It just so happens that the pilot was the local president of ALPA. The airplane sits on the ground out of service with no nose cowls available in the system. The manager called in sick today.

[Guest]

Coming from the manufacturing side of things, I can relate. Why is it that management always seems to choose the hammer as the most efficient tool for the job? They do the dumbest things and still get to keep their jobs where if it were you or I, we'd be in the unemployment line.I always get a chill down my spine when I see anyone with a tie on other than the Captain go near an airplane. Especially with anything that could be used as some sort of tool, like a 2x4;)CF-AOA