A passenger jet flew for two days and carried hundreds of people after a mechanic's work light was accidentally left inside of its wing, Australian investigators reported Monday.
The Qantas Airways Airbus A380 underwent air-conditioning maintenance on January 7 before flying from Sydney to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, the Australian Transportation Safety Board said. It was only after the aircraft returned to Sydney, two days later, the 13-inch-tall work light was discovered.
"The maintainers did not identify that a work light had remained in the left wing during their foreign object clearance inspections," the ATSB said in the report. "In addition, while returning the tools, the maintainer did not identify that the work light had not been returned and the unreturned tool check at the end of the shift also did not identify the unreturned light."
At the start of the work, a maintenance engineer signed out the light, along with other tools, by scanning its bar code, according to investigators. When two workers were changing an air conditioning sensor, they placed the battery-operated light inside the wing and eventually turned it off but forgot to retrieve it. Another engineer inspected the work and later did a foreign object search but didn't see the light was left behind, the report said.
After the plane had returned from Dallas, an employee reviewing an "unreturned tool report" discovered it was missing.
#unreturned
The Qantas Airways Airbus A380 underwent air-conditioning maintenance on January 7 before flying from Sydney to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, the Australian Transportation Safety Board said. It was only after the aircraft returned to Sydney, two days later, the 13-inch-tall work light was discovered.
"The maintainers did not identify that a work light had remained in the left wing during their foreign object clearance inspections," the ATSB said in the report. "In addition, while returning the tools, the maintainer did not identify that the work light had not been returned and the unreturned tool check at the end of the shift also did not identify the unreturned light."
At the start of the work, a maintenance engineer signed out the light, along with other tools, by scanning its bar code, according to investigators. When two workers were changing an air conditioning sensor, they placed the battery-operated light inside the wing and eventually turned it off but forgot to retrieve it. Another engineer inspected the work and later did a foreign object search but didn't see the light was left behind, the report said.
After the plane had returned from Dallas, an employee reviewing an "unreturned tool report" discovered it was missing.
#unreturned
3 months ago
