Hole in the Hand

avoid mishaps

Hole in the hand

By AMCS Thomas Matthew Fain

Each member of a move crew is armed with a weapon to prevent accidents, a whistle. Just blow the whistle and the move will stop. Well, that’s the way it’s supposed to work. Recently, a squadron’s night shift Maintenance Control told a move crew, which consists of a move director, brake rider, two wing walkers and a tail walker, to come to maintenance and conduct a move brief to tow an aircraft to the paint hangar. After going over the move brief sheet with everyone, the line checked out their cranials and whistles and headed out to hook up the aircraft and tow it down to the hangar.

It is squadron policy to have an E-7 or above to move aircraft in and out of hangar bays. Well, this squadron only had one E-7 or above on this particular night. The maintenance Chief told QA to sit at the maintenance desk so he could watch the move. The hangar already had one aircraft in it, so it would be a tight fit to squeeze two inside.

The maintenance Chief was on the right side of the aircraft to ensure the aircraft already inside wasn’t going to be hit. The move crew had whistles in their mouths ready to blow them if something wasn’t going right, or if the aircraft got too close to anything else. The tow tractor driver slowly started to back the aircraft into the hangar bay. The aircraft had to come in at an angle and then be swung around to the left to straighten it out once it was inside the hangar. A faint sound of a whistle was heard and the tow tractor driver hit the brakes as soon as he heard it. Then the whistle became loud and frequent after the aircraft had come to a stop. The Chief ran over to the sound and saw what had happened.

The wing walker on the aircraft’s left side had his hand pinned between the horizontal stab and the wall brace of the hangar. The Chief immediately told the driver to pull forward to free the injured Sailor’s hand. The two then ran into the maintenance hangar and called an ambulance because the hand was bleeding profusely and was mangled pretty bad.

Another wing walker took action and wrapped the Sailor’s hand in a rag and put a belt around his upper arm to slow the bleeding. The wing walker’s hand was able to be saved because of this quick action. It is a standing policy for this squadron to blow the whistle if within three feet of another object. If the personnel had followed this policy, a Sailor wouldn’t have nearly lost his hand. TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS ACCIDENT:

The squadron should have more than one E-7 or above on every shift. The Chief needed to return to the maintenance desk, so he was in a hurry to get the aircraft into place. People should blow their whistles as loud as they can so everyone can hear them. If the Sailor had blown the whistle loudly, the tow tractor driver might have stomped on the brakes and stopped short of crushing his hand. If you are moving an aircraft into a space that is out of the normal, have another meeting at the space in question to go over the plan and to ensure everyone is on the same page. Do not put any body part between the aircraft and another object!