By AME1(AW) Buddy Thompson
I
’m an avid fan of Mech magazine. I find myself reading each new issue from cover-to-cover, becoming engrossed in the numerous accounts of maintenance “near-misses.” Never in a thousand years did I think I ever would become the subject of a safety-related article. It was a pleasant, cool and rainy day at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, home of the EA-6B Prowler. I had completed the chief’s exam earlier that morning and arrived at work prepared to resume my duties as VAQ142’s AME work center leading petty officer. I read the shop pass-down log to see what was on the schedule for my team of eight Sailors. On this particular morning, the airframes shop was removing a number of flight-control rods from Gray Wolf 520. To assist them with this job, the AME shop would remove the pilot’s ejection seat from the aircraft. The necessary steps began immediately. Shop personnel gathered the required tools, while I set up
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the hangar deck crane. An AME2 and one of the shop’s junior airmen already were on top of the aircraft, getting ready to remove the forward canopy. The AME2 was doing some on-the-job training for the younger Sailor, showing him step-by-step procedures on the correct method of removing a canopy. Using the crane, the canopy was hoisted clear of the airplane and placed on the hangar deck. During this time, I made my way onto the aircraft and sat down behind the aft cockpit to complete some last-minute tool and checklist checks. Everything up to this point had gone smoothly, and it had been by-the-book maintenance. According to procedure, our next step called for us to “complete the checklist” for safely de-arming and removing the ejection seat. I planned on reading the checklist aloud, while my fellow AME2 completed each required action in turn. Having completed this procedure many times, we were both comfortable and familiar
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