Spinning My Wheels

By AEAN Shawn Myers

The day started like any other day working in the line shack (Workcenter 310). Our LPO entered the shop for pass down, and he told us that we had two flights for the day. It didn’t seem like anything would be different about today’s operations. That soon would change.

I jumped into a tow tractor (MRTT 45) and started to take out the support equipment for the first man-up of the day. On this occasion, there was a FOD problem inside the aircraft, so the airframers removed panels from the port side to investigate.

I was sitting in the driver’s seat of the tow tractor when an airframer asked me for a ride to his shop to get some tools for buttoning up the panels. I had one of our fellow trainees from the line shack unhook the huffer from the tractor but not before I looked back to make sure it was ready to disconnect. I then drove off without another thought, took the airframer to his shop, and returned to the aircraft. I rehooked the huffer and was ready for the launch.

The aircrew walked to the aircraft to do their preflight, and one of the plane-captain trainees stretched the huffer hose toward the aircraft in preparation for engine starts. The panels were secured on the aircraft, while the crew did their pre-flight. After 10 minutes, the same airframer asked for another ride back to his shop. The trainee again hopped out, and the airframer jumped in for the ride.

Instead of looking back to see if someone was there to unhook the tractor, I just drove away...with the huffer still attached. Unfortunately, the chocks still were in place, and the emergency brake still was set on the huffer. To make things worse, the hose had been left out, and it was dragging behind the huffer.

I didn’t even notice the problem until I was about 20 yards away and could hear a faint yelling from outside the tractor. I couldn’t believe what I just had just done. A million thoughts raced through my head when I saw what had happened. The primary thought was, “What if I had hurt or killed anyone?”

Fortunately, no one was injured, and there was no damage to the aircraft or support equipment. Too bad I couldn’t say the same thing about my pride. I knew that I had messed up. By the time I got back to the hangar, two chiefs were waiting for me. I was so shaken by this incident that someone else from my shop had to finish the launch, while I faced my LPO, chief and division officer.

After this incident, my SE license was revoked for all of the tractors I had been qualified to drive, and I had to go back to class for the MRTT 45 to get re-qualified. I learned that when tasks seem to become routine, you become complacent, and that’s when things go wrong. I should have paid a lot more attention to what was going on around me—not how fast I was able to complete a task.

Airman Myers works in the line division at VAW-123.