9 minute read
Tractors Don’t Hurt Airplanes; People Do
“Same day, same two tractors”
By AT2 Adam White
How do you prevent a tractor from driving into the wing of an airplane and causing $1.5 million worth of damage? The obvious answer is, don’t drive a tractor towards an airplane. Now I didn’t directly drive this tractor into an aircraft, but my actions, or lack thereof, directly contributed to this event happening in my command. So let’s dive into this event and see where everything went wrong. It was our first day back at work after having three weeks of post-deployment leave from what many of you have heard was a “not so fun” ten months onboard USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72). After our morning maintenance meeting, we (the line shack) had many airplanes to shuffle around between the line, the hangar and the wash rack. I knew that my work center did not have custody of a tractor, so I went to the shop that always does, airframes. I went to airframes and asked the supervisor if they had a tractor that I could borrow for the plane moves that I needed to complete. I was told that they did, but also that the QA from the squadron next to us had found a spring during their FOD walk down, and once that squadron realized it didn’t belong to them, they came over and brought it to our QA. Now, this wasn’t just any normal spring. This spring was larger than most and resembled one that would be attached to a throttle assembly. Our QA conducted their search of the tractors in our command’s custody and found that it came off of the tractor that belonged to airframes. During this conversation, I was informed that the throttle did not completely return to its idle position. Now, let’s pause right there. When someone tells you that the throttle, an essential part of a tow tractor does not come back to its idle position, I believe that nowadays, the majority of the people would say, “OK, your tractor is broken. Got it.” But this did not cross into my mind. My immediate thought was, “OK, so I’m going to have to use the side of my boot to return the throttle to idle.”
And I also believe that many people have been there. I did not slow down and take the time to think about the what if’s in this scenario. I was still in the mindset of ‘go, go, go’! Had I stopped and taken the time to ask the next question that most people would now ask, “Does your tractor pass preop?” the story would stop here, but it doesn’t. So let’s continue.
So since I never asked the question, I was never told that the tractor could not be operated. So I proceeded out to the flight line, where I was told the tractor would be since the ATs checked it out from them earlier. Why was the tractor checked out to the AT’s, you ask? I can’t answer that at this juncture of the story. Upon walking outside of the hangar, I found myself standing next to the tractor that was “checked out” by the ATs. There were no ATs present because they had a different tractor hooked up to the power cart on the line working on one of our jets.
The assistant crew chief helps align the tractor on the flightline.
I conducted my walk around the tractor that I was now standing next to. When I got to the point where I was verifying the throttle, which is at the end of the pre-op, I noticed that it did not fully return to its idle position.
So, here is the second step where I failed that day. I’m willing to bet that many people in the military have driven or operated GSE that did not FULLY pass a pre-operational inspection. This is not the right way to do business. So why didn’t I stop when the throttle didn’t fully retract? Because my first thought was, “I need to get the job done.” I was not rushed; I repeat, no one, not even Maintenance Control rushed me. Surprising, isn’t it?
At this point in the story, most people are like, “No way maintenance wasn’t rushing them!” But I can assure you; they were not. I simply just wanted to get the job done so that no one was waiting on us (the line shack) to be able to do their job. This was my second opportunity to stop what I was doing and find a tractor that passed its pre-op. From here, I hopped in the tractor and went to the first aircraft that I needed to move. But wait! I didn’t sign a pre-op card! Well, this is because it was signed out to the ATs that were using a different tractor. And since I was never told that the tractor was in a “down” status, I put trust in the others in front of me that performed the pre-op before my using it. Let’s think about that.
Think about how many times we had put our trust, or faith, in that someone before us and did what they were supposed to do. Why do you think we do that? Is it because we are friends with that person, and we don’t want to question them, or do we just get so used to the same routine that we think “they” must’ve done it? Why don’t we question this when it comes up? I mean, it’s our job right, to question the things that sound a little off?!
So, I got in the tractor and slowly made my way into the hangar to conduct our first move. I had to park it and get out to move some SE out of the way when I realized I’m not comfortable driving this tractor close to everything that was in our hangar. I told our hangar bay Chief what was going on and that I would swap it out with the tractor on the line. Hold on! I’m going to drive this tractor to the line now? It never crossed my mind.
I took it out to the line, so I wasn’t leaving my fellow teammates without the SE they were using to put the power cart back when they were finished with their work. Looking back on this, I could’ve easily parked this “down” tractor outside the hangar, walked out to the flight line, borrowed the tractor, and picked up the power cart later when I was done moving jets. But I didn’t, so the story must go on. I parked on the flight line in front of the jet that the ATs were working on. I spoke with their supervisor, who is also a friend of mine, and told him what was wrong with the tractor.
After our conversation, he let me take his tractor to make the plane moves and leave the “down” tractor with him. I disconnected his tractor, which was parked in between two of our jets, hopped in and took off. Remember, I told you at the beginning that I did not personally drive into the jet. I moved my jet out of the hangar, took it to wash rack, grabbed another jet off of the line and backed it safely/masterfully into our hangar. This is when the ATs, my friend, came walking through the hangar “with a purpose.” You could see it in his face that something was wrong.
As he was walking towards the door to Maintenance Control, he looked at me and said, “I just crashed into a jet.” I could’ve heard a pin drop after he told me that. It wasn’t just a “hit the wing” kind of crash. He hit the launcher on station 11, driving under the outer wing and into the trailing edge flap. In short, a Class B mishap totaling around $1.5 million worth of damage on our first day back at work. Welcome home, right?! As I mentioned throughout this story, I failed on multiple levels during this evolution. I could have spoken up and asked the simple question at the beginning, “does this pass preop?” I could have parked the tractor after conducting my personal inspection when I noticed that the throttle didn’t fully retract. After all that transpired, here is what I knew:
The ATs checked out the tractor from airframes and were given the pre-op card first thing. While this was happening, QA had been given the spring from our neighboring squadron and told the ATs not to use it. QA then went to airframes and told “someone” that their tractor was down and not to operate it. The ATs got another tractor and went to do their job but did not check that one out. I was never told not to use the tractor from airframes because the individual that QA had told prior to that was not in there and the information was not passed on. When I swapped out the tractor on the line, it was with the AT that QA told not to use the tractor that I had driven out there. All in all, it was a complete mess and a reason why everyone in the Navy says “communicate.” It was not his fault that day. We all failed him, as we all failed ourselves.
Had any of us stopped and took the time to do the right thing (put a sign on it, complete a proper pre-op, etc.), all of this would’ve been prevented. I failed as a leader and a friend. It’s easy to overlook this with everything that transpired that day, but in the end, I simply failed. I have been in the Navy long enough and sat through more than plenty of ORM and safety briefs to know that I should’ve slowed down and been methodical in my processes. As leaders, we need to remember that our junior Sailors are looking to us to set the example. Even when we don’t think that they are watching, they are. They want to see what we do, how we do it and emulate that to be successful.
I sat down and spoke with one of our pilots after this event. I’ve always been able to talk to him, and even vent to him. Regardless of rank, he has always been one to ask, “How are you doing?” And not just because that’s what everyone says in passing, but because he would genuinely want to know how you were doing. He’s always listened and gave feedback, which to me felt more like guidance (even if he didn’t realize it). At the end of our conversation that day, he left me with this: “I think we often get too ahead of ourselves in life. We often forget to take the time to sit back and think about what we’re doing.” Hit the head on the nail! Many of us have done these tasks so many times that it now feels like second nature.
So this is not a HE story; this is a “we” story. We caused a Class B mishap, the first day back from leave, after what ended up being a successful ten-month deployment simply because we failed as leaders. Mistakes are going to happen. “To err is to be human.” All I ask is this: please take the time to learn from our mistakes this day; please take the time to “do it right.” Don’t just do it for yourself, but also for the others that may be looking to you for guidance, even when you don’t realize it. They will be the ones that replace us in the future, so let’s make sure we leave this place better than we found it.
