The Importance of a Proper Passdown

The Importance Proper Passdown of a

By AE3 Robert Dubrasky

We have all heard it before: aircraft was returned to full-misMake sure you get a sion-capable status. proper passdown before It’s common for EA-6B taking the watch or assuming your electricians to change the No. 1 shift. Why else would someone relay box but not the No. 2 box. show up a half hour before a shift? When the electricians saw the A better question is: Do most of us gripe and ordered a replacement, give a proper passdown? I would they incorrectly assumed it was like to think so, but I found out how important it Top-deck relay is found under the turtle back panel. the No. 1 component. Our shop had become really is. complacent, and that lax

It was the perfect winter day attitude was the key factor in the in the North Arabian Gulf as we error. The task was just another neared the end of a six-month routine maintenance discrepancy; deployment. At the end of the fly however, it didn’t turn out to be day, one of our jets came back with routine this time. The cost was a downing discrepancy. After trouhalf a day of missed flights. bleshooting, we determined that How did night-check replace the No. 2, top-deck relay box was the wrong component? The the source of the problem. Mainanswer goes beyond complacency; tenance control gave us the OK to we did not put a detailed passremove and replace the part, and down in the logbook. We use a new one was ordered. No. 1 relay and No. 2 relays are similar. various logbooks throughout

It wasn’t long before the part the Navy and Marine Corps was received, and the night shift began their workday to record important information. Passdown logs are no with the usual passdown, or so it seemed at the time. different. The AEs did a verbal passdown, but we didn’t They removed and replaced the relay box. After doing have a written record. The words and message were lost. an operational check of the system, they discovered that What are the learning points here? Approaching the the downing discrepancy wasn’t fixed. Night-check then end of deployment, maintainers need to sharpen their began to troubleshoot the system to find the problem. focus on seemingly routine tasks so that mistakes are After a closer look at the schematics, we discovered that avoided. Use the passdown log and record all the inforwe had changed the wrong top-deck relay box. We had mation that is crucial to maintenance and safety, includchanged the No. 1 relay box instead of No. 2. ing those items that will help avoid wasted maintenance

The shop removed the No. 2 box and ordered a new man-hours and missed sorties. Too many times when a one. By this time, it was early in the morning, and flight simple log entry is missed, extra work is done that didn’t operations were about to begin. Because of the problem need to occur. Help your shipmates and provide a comwith the wrong box, the jet was not up for flight operaplete passdown. tions. It wasn’t until later in the morning, about 1100, that the new and correct part was replaced, and the Petty Officer Dubrasky works in the AE shop at VAQ-141.