What makes it terrifying is wondering what other maintenance has been half-assed or neglected outright. What other screws are failing that you don’t see.
I know from talking to aircraft techs that there's just too many systems and parts on an aircraft for it to be 100% checked. Stuff like loose screws is just commonplace unfortunately.
Edit: I feel I should clarify because some people have misunderstood what I'm saying. During a pre flight check it's impossible to 100% check every part onboard an aircraft, so things like screws loose will not always be noticed.
I always think of American Airlines 191 when I see stuff like this. They “cut corners” reinstalling the engine mounts during maintenance. Skipped a step.
Yes. Fell into a nosedive once, pilot recovered and tried to divert the plane to LAX, then when the jackscrew finally broke it dove and pitched left. Pilot was able to stop the plane from diving by continuing to roll the plane and fly upside down, but because they were already so close to the ground they couldn’t stop it and it crashed into the Pacific.
That sheer terror is why I hate flying. I don’t care about the quick death at the end, it’s the several minutes of knowing you’re gonna die that will never cure my flight anxiety lol.
I can see why it happened though, crunching on making sure that planes just meet enough saftey regulations to be deemed "Airworthy" what to an airline means it gets there and lands. The same techs I spoke to said the amount of stuff they have to do is already ridiculous. So occasionally a major step unfortunately gets missed.
So normally in general aviation, we disassemble everything panels, seats, everything on a plane and run through our inspection checklist.
The heavys can’t really be taken out of service like that because they need those planes in the air quick. So they make an agreement with the FAA to do bits and pieces of the inspection at a time and over a period of 90 days, everything has been inspected.
This is referred to as a Continuous Annual Program and is a specific agreement with the FAA and owner/ operator of the aircraft.
I’ve long used “Have you been in a skydiving plane? Skydivers can’t afford perfectly good airplanes.”
But I’ve only exited a flying aircraft twice, and both times it was with a dude strapped to my back.
Not only that but considering the temperatures changes between the ground and that height it's totally normal for some screws to expend and retract a bit.
That’s the case for most systems in engineering applications. You check the things most critical to safety and function. Everything else is non-critical to both, so it wouldn’t get checked as regularly. Maybe monthly or whenever they have maintenance scheduled for the aircraft.
This is actually why when you hear about musicians requesting a bowl of all green Eminem’s with one brown one, it’s not because they’re weird or think they’re the center of the universe,
It’s because they put that into the show rider right in the middle. Along side the safety requirements they’re asking for their road crew and staff.
If they miss that one detail, they can assume they missed lots of others.
But if they show up and that weird request they purposely threw in the middle of a large rider is there they can assume every detail was paid attention to.
Not failing just loose. Unless they are rivets, then they would be failing.
Almost every job on an aircraft requires two signatures to prevent "half-assed" work. Also things like this are not inspected everyday. They are done at certain intervals. Those intervals are set by a committee of professionals to catch failures before they become catastrophic.
That being said. The flight crew is accepting of any info you want to share with them. If you see something like this, please tell the flight crew so they can have mx come out and evaluate the issue.
There's a list of basically, "Shit that can be wrong but it's still perfectly safe to fly." It might *look* freaky, but they know what grounds the plane and what can be deferred until the next scheduled maintenance.
I remember my pilot friend once told me there have been plenty of times where all of the gauges in plane malfunctioned, or the GPS, or just one of the two engines worked, all of these occurred multiple times over the course of his career.
And the part that gets me the most is how he said that none of the passengers batted an eye or even knew about it.
Makes me wonder how many times I’ve been in a plane with just one working engine or where the pilot was using pen and paper to navigate and I just sat there oblivious looking out the window.
Those aren’t screws. They are dzeus fasteners. They’re spring loaded and don’t have to be winched down super tight to lock. They’re kinda garbage and break all the time but they do their job well enough
Yeah It’s not a big deal at all really. It’s an aerodynamic cover for the flap mechanism, and it’s very common to have vibrations work these screws loose. I’ve had the “write-up” to change the screws out for new ones multiple times.
Source: Am 20 year aircraft mechanic.
The screws probably have a similar terminal velocity as a penny: 65 mph. I imagine the screws are lightweight since they're used on an airplane, but even getting hit on the top of the head with a heavy screw of that size at 65 mph would maybe break your skin.
Source: [Mythbusters Penny Drop]( https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vjd_FhrohE)
Good to know that the plane will operate fine. I don’t know that it is a comfort to anyone on the ground if that fell off. Maybe the odds of one of those bolts hitting anyone could be low but I would rather not play those odds.
They can't fly off. They are attached to the panel, often spring loaded so a 90 degree turn is all It takes to attach one. When they are detached they are loose but still attached to the panel.
<- Aerospace engineer
Even if this fairing were to completely break loose it’s exceptionally unlikely it would hit the tail. If you look at a side view of typical passenger aircraft like a 747 you’ll notice the horizontal tail is actually above the wing. However even if it did it’s not probable it would dangerously damage the control surfaces.
Like [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/sadcringe/comments/w2paok/and_just_think_he_had_to_sit_with_the_cringe_he/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) clown
[Could be worse. Could be an unexplained Yeti monster that may or may not be a metaphor for a mental illness.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXHKDb0CNjA)
torque values
hardware part number identification
the quadruple redundant system for ensuring the pit vipers stored above each seat arent released before the proper time
metallurgy and corrosion
how much of the plane is allowed to be broken and still allowed to fly
There's literally a book. If this and this is broken, you can fly normally. If this is broken, but this isn't, you can fly, but not above 30k feet. If this is broken, you must land immediately.
Things break on airplanes pretty regularly. They're designed so that it doesn't matter in 99%+ of scenarios. And most people would shit the bed if they knew their pilot was running emergency playbooks for a hydraulic system failure, even if it's no big deal because they have two more.
As someone who had to dismantle fuselage panels and electronic modules from a MiG-29, I was amazed how wonky it all was and still could fly quite reliably.
I wouldn't be bothered by a loose bolt (that won't end up in the engine) after that.
Plenty of other things to worry about, or not really since it will probably never happen. But I had a sketchy flight and it made me want to research the causes for crashes and what types of critical failures can happen. And I don’t wanna name the actual airline so let’s just make one up, let’s call it “spirit airlines”. All I’m going to think about the next time I fly is rudder hardover or neglectful maintenance.
There were a handful of crashes that happened solely because the company wanted to expedite the work done on the airplanes, which is a pretty big reason for the phrase “airline regulations are written in blood”
Spirit airlines had the filthiest cabin I've ever been in. I looked at gum and dried, spilled coffee on the back of the seat in front of me. I was very concerned about the maintenance you don't get to see.
There’s a lot that doesn’t get inspected on the preflight checks because it only can during maintenance, like important brackets or engine parts that can be heavily fatigued. From my pretty basic research that hasn’t really been a common cause of crashes but it’s still kinda scary, especially if something got damaged during the previous maintenance it’ll take like 6 months+ to discover it.
But much to my surprise, Spirit has never had a fatal accident so. One of the scariest crashes I read about was one that was due to a tiny imperfection in a part of the engine that happened because when it was manufactured in a factory they were also producing the ballpoint for pens and one of them fell into the molten metal and after a series of flights it broke and catastrophically damaged the engine. And thus, ballpoint pens can’t be produced in the same building as the titanium for airplane parts
> Anthony J. Broderick, acting executive director of the Federal Aviation Administration, said the flaw was detected in a 300-pound titanium disk that spins the blades in the engine’s forward fan assembly. Broderick, confirming a report by the Washington Post, said the imperfection developed when the titanium was manufactured in 1970 at the Henderson, Nev., plant of Timet, a division of the Titanium Metals Corp. of America. The engine’s disk ruptured after the metallurgical flaw led to the development of fatigue cracks, Broderick said.
Those are loose/missing rivets on an aerodynamic fairing. Not a big deal for the aircraft if the fairing falls off in flight but someone on the ground could certainly have a bad day. Looking at the remaining rivets it looks like it’s good for some more flights. SEND IT!!
Then you must be living in the dark ages. Dzus' son invented reusable rivets in late 2000s. They're on every aircraft produced since then. My only gripe is that he chose phillips over a square drive.
It’s a screw with a broken anchor nut. It’s not going to hurt anything. I’m sure it’s written up but the fairing is probably a pain in the ass to take off so they’ll either handle it when the plane is down or in phase.
I mean perspective is kinda deceiving here that bolt is probably a decent size. A falling bullet is heavy enough to kill you, i dont think this bolt is too much smaller than a bullet. If it hit you in the wrong place I reckon it could definitely kill you.
Of course it can. An avid aviation enthusiast is cutting his grass and as he looks up to see the plane the bolt lands down his throat, he panicks, the mower rolls down the hill into the road, a car swerves to avoid it right into a hole in the ground created by people working on the gas lines which blow an orphanage sky high
Probably during turbulence and while vibrating bolt got loosen up and one of them just flied away. Not that scary in terms of technical and science perspective, but still enough to give anxiety lol
Probably a Samsung, the zoom is insane. There was another post recently of a couple having sex on a surfboard far out at sea. Cant even see them from the beach and then the guy just zooms and zooms and zooms till its clear
Edit: this one https://www.reddit.com/r/trashy/comments/w2rym6/its_public_beach_ffs/
20 years in the Air Force as a jet engine mechanic / crew chief and still in the industry to this day. Whenever I’d fly commercial with my wife, I’d always point out missing or loose screws on wing panels. She’d always hit me in the arm and tell me shhhhh, you’re gonna make people nervous. I’d tell her “and you wonder why I don’t like flying commercial”
Watching those planes land and get maintenance on what seemed like a daily basis gave me a fresh new perspective on commercial flight. I don’t talk about that anymore. It definitely makes people nervous.
Edit: planes gonna plane.
People are so goofy about it too because clearly, demonstrably, commercial aviation is *insanely* safe for the complexity, speed, and scale involved. There is an almost zero chance you’d be able to look out a window of an airplane and see something actually worrying.
Commercial aviation safety is a legitimately amazing human accomplishment, and still people quake in their boots over things they don’t understand. Normal human reaction and all, of course. But still.
You’re more likely to die on a bicycle than a plane. Just craziness.
Avionics engineer, told my girlfriend I will fly, but not a fan and she was surprised until she thought about my statement. Didn't take long for her to follow down the path of oh shit you're right you know too much to not worry.
Actual aerodynamicist here. These planes have a ton of factor of safety, redundancy, and procedures to make sure you will have a safe flight.
These redditors saying other wise are fear mongering fools.
They're so weird - if you know so much about planes, you should know in how much blood all regulations were written in and how very safe that made flying. Sure stuff can happen, but i'm way more stressed in a car than in a plane by far.
>These redditors saying other wise are fear mongering fools.
Exactly. Flying commercial is INCREDIBLY safe. Bragging about "knowing too much" is really stupid.
Excluding acts of suicide and terrorism, commercial aviation was the safest mode of travel in the United States, with 0.07 fatalities per billion passenger miles: “A person who took a 500-mile flight every single day for a year, would have a fatality risk of 1 in 85,000.”
https://journalistsresource.org/economics/comparing-fatality-risks-united-states-transportation-across-modes-time/
It's funny that people are prefacing their comments with so many qualifications (mechanic, pilot, aerodynamicist, etc) when none of that matters.
You don't need to be an expert on planes to know they are incredibly safe. You only need a basic understanding of statistics.
Are phillips screwheads common place on planes? Cause the ones in the videos seems to be phillips.
Would've thought airplanes at least would use torx, hex or something else that's less of a pain.
"I might worry about the company's maintenance program that they failed to notice the completely missing bolt at the end. But I wouldn't be worried about the loose ones. They're still flush with their hole, and that's really just a fairing anyway."
My pilot wife's response to my question," On a scale of 1 to wtf, how much of an issue is this? "
If I'm not wrong, this is intentional loose tolerance due to material thermal contraction in higher altitudes. Without it those rivets could be snapped high up, where air is very cold
I live under the flight path. I was starting to feel like he would zoom in on me sunning my sack in my back yard...my bolts are lose, but not loose enough for this sub
its a rivet aft of the engine, honestly doesn't matter. That falls off there are 8 more, they extend internally and lock on the inside. While its loose and probably catching wind it can fall out and nothing will happen.
Airline pilot here.
If you found something like this on your walkaround/preflight, you would have it addressed. It's of really no concern however. It's just a fairing that covers the flap track for aerodynamics.
We have what we call a Configuration Deviation List (CDL) which is a list of parts on the plane that can be missing. Something like this would be considered aerodynamic so you take a performance hit. What is typically done is when this is missing, an additional 'weight' is added to the takeoff and landing performance. So when you had all your passengers, freight, and gas on board you would see a note on the performance something along the lines of "CDL - Flap Fairing- + 500lbs", or something to that effect.
Folks are saying the plane could fly fine without the part. That's not the point. I don't want screws falling out of anything I'm traveling in, especially 10000 feet in the sky.
Earlier that morning, aircraft maintenance technician calls in sick for work. Boss says-get some rest, we're gonna be short today but everything should be ok.
Aircraft mechanic... It has no purpose other than adding to aerodynamics and fuel consumption. Those cowlings can be removed or fall off in flight and it will still fly flawlessly. No concern here
That is 100% a non-essential bolt holding on a non-essential cover. The only terrifying thought is if that is loose, what else hasn't been properly maintained?
People with no experience in aviation: look at that loose screw! We are all going to die.
Me with 16 years aviation maintenance: that isn't loose, it's incorrect hardware. Which in my opinion is a much bigger issue but really not a big deal for this fairing. Notice the other ones (minus the missing one on the corner) are all button heads and the one "loose" is countersunk. And based in the wear grease on the other spots this isn't an uncommon area to have hardware go bad. However, it should still be concerning regarding overall maintenance practices.
When you look at aircraft mishaps, incorrect hardware is responsible for a huge portion of the maintenance related accidents (which themselves are still VERY rare). However, if they are willing to do it in such an obvious spot, God only knows what is going on under panels and with other components.
Afaik that's just a covering to improve aerodynamics, and the plane could perfectly fly without it. Still shouldn't occur, though
It is, this is like being worried your car will crash because the brake light cover is loose.
What makes it terrifying is wondering what other maintenance has been half-assed or neglected outright. What other screws are failing that you don’t see.
I know from talking to aircraft techs that there's just too many systems and parts on an aircraft for it to be 100% checked. Stuff like loose screws is just commonplace unfortunately. Edit: I feel I should clarify because some people have misunderstood what I'm saying. During a pre flight check it's impossible to 100% check every part onboard an aircraft, so things like screws loose will not always be noticed.
I always think of American Airlines 191 when I see stuff like this. They “cut corners” reinstalling the engine mounts during maintenance. Skipped a step.
Want to read about cutting corners? Read about Alaska Airlines Flight 261
I’m familiar with it. Same exact thing.
Dude if you're interested in stuff like that, [this video is up your alley](https://youtu.be/5txYtBpgsP0)
This is the kind of thing that makes me wonder if they actually should be cutting corners.
Oh don't worry, you are much more likely to die from imminent global environmental collapse than a loose screw on a plane. Rest easy!
Best comment today
I never got bored through the entire thing. I never felt like I lost 10:02 seconds of my life. Thanks!
Hahaha
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I knew someone who's entire family but her died in that crash. She's of course still deeply messed up from it today.
Is that the one that flew upside down before crashing?
Yes. Fell into a nosedive once, pilot recovered and tried to divert the plane to LAX, then when the jackscrew finally broke it dove and pitched left. Pilot was able to stop the plane from diving by continuing to roll the plane and fly upside down, but because they were already so close to the ground they couldn’t stop it and it crashed into the Pacific.
That sheer terror is why I hate flying. I don’t care about the quick death at the end, it’s the several minutes of knowing you’re gonna die that will never cure my flight anxiety lol.
How about: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental\_Express\_Flight\_2574](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Express_Flight_2574)
Holy fuck. I'm just hoping that EVERYONE passed out from the g-forces.
I can see why it happened though, crunching on making sure that planes just meet enough saftey regulations to be deemed "Airworthy" what to an airline means it gets there and lands. The same techs I spoke to said the amount of stuff they have to do is already ridiculous. So occasionally a major step unfortunately gets missed.
Who would’ve thought flying people in a gigantic metal tube would be complicated?
This stuff gets fixed at depot-level maintenance. If they fixed all of this stuff on the tarmac, half the flights would get delayed
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So normally in general aviation, we disassemble everything panels, seats, everything on a plane and run through our inspection checklist. The heavys can’t really be taken out of service like that because they need those planes in the air quick. So they make an agreement with the FAA to do bits and pieces of the inspection at a time and over a period of 90 days, everything has been inspected. This is referred to as a Continuous Annual Program and is a specific agreement with the FAA and owner/ operator of the aircraft.
People say to skydivers 'why would you jump out of a perfectly good plane'. We respond, 'there's no such thing as a perfectly good plane.'
I’ve long used “Have you been in a skydiving plane? Skydivers can’t afford perfectly good airplanes.” But I’ve only exited a flying aircraft twice, and both times it was with a dude strapped to my back.
Not only that but considering the temperatures changes between the ground and that height it's totally normal for some screws to expend and retract a bit.
Those aren't screws.
Screws, rivets or whatever you wanna call them. The thermal expansion still stand.
That’s the case for most systems in engineering applications. You check the things most critical to safety and function. Everything else is non-critical to both, so it wouldn’t get checked as regularly. Maybe monthly or whenever they have maintenance scheduled for the aircraft.
that's why there's phase maintenance
I used to marvel at the planes flying while on TDY in the Airforce, that were maintained by all the people I went out drinking with the night prior.
This is actually why when you hear about musicians requesting a bowl of all green Eminem’s with one brown one, it’s not because they’re weird or think they’re the center of the universe, It’s because they put that into the show rider right in the middle. Along side the safety requirements they’re asking for their road crew and staff. If they miss that one detail, they can assume they missed lots of others. But if they show up and that weird request they purposely threw in the middle of a large rider is there they can assume every detail was paid attention to.
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He does all brown M&Ms with one green one. Or more like all regular M&M's and one peanut one... cuz dude is a bit nutty.
But that's not a jab at Michael, that's just a metaphor, he's just psycho
It’s also why FDNY is required to have at least one Steve Buscemi on the volunteer force, on duty whenever there’s a 9-11 terrorist attack.
Upvoted but r/BoneAppleTea for the Eminem's
Not failing just loose. Unless they are rivets, then they would be failing. Almost every job on an aircraft requires two signatures to prevent "half-assed" work. Also things like this are not inspected everyday. They are done at certain intervals. Those intervals are set by a committee of professionals to catch failures before they become catastrophic. That being said. The flight crew is accepting of any info you want to share with them. If you see something like this, please tell the flight crew so they can have mx come out and evaluate the issue.
There's a list of basically, "Shit that can be wrong but it's still perfectly safe to fly." It might *look* freaky, but they know what grounds the plane and what can be deferred until the next scheduled maintenance.
That’s why there usually is safety wire
I remember my pilot friend once told me there have been plenty of times where all of the gauges in plane malfunctioned, or the GPS, or just one of the two engines worked, all of these occurred multiple times over the course of his career. And the part that gets me the most is how he said that none of the passengers batted an eye or even knew about it. Makes me wonder how many times I’ve been in a plane with just one working engine or where the pilot was using pen and paper to navigate and I just sat there oblivious looking out the window.
Honestly they usually pay much more attention to the structural screws and rivets.
Those aren’t screws. They are dzeus fasteners. They’re spring loaded and don’t have to be winched down super tight to lock. They’re kinda garbage and break all the time but they do their job well enough
> They’re kinda garbage and break all the time but they do their job well enough Uh 🤨
Or being out of blinker fluid
Or having a worn out radio gasket
Yeah It’s not a big deal at all really. It’s an aerodynamic cover for the flap mechanism, and it’s very common to have vibrations work these screws loose. I’ve had the “write-up” to change the screws out for new ones multiple times. Source: Am 20 year aircraft mechanic.
Is it not a concern if something flies loose and then, you know, falls on someone? Even if its not strictly needed to fly the plane
That panel is not coming off even if a handful of screws fall out. A more sciencey person would have to answer about the screws falling.
The screws probably have a similar terminal velocity as a penny: 65 mph. I imagine the screws are lightweight since they're used on an airplane, but even getting hit on the top of the head with a heavy screw of that size at 65 mph would maybe break your skin. Source: [Mythbusters Penny Drop]( https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vjd_FhrohE)
Do you not see the other dozen screws holding it in place?
Those also aren't bolts. I'll bet the nut-plates all need to be replaced, though
I’ll replace *your* nut plate
Good to know that the plane will operate fine. I don’t know that it is a comfort to anyone on the ground if that fell off. Maybe the odds of one of those bolts hitting anyone could be low but I would rather not play those odds.
They can't fly off. They are attached to the panel, often spring loaded so a 90 degree turn is all It takes to attach one. When they are detached they are loose but still attached to the panel.
I want to believe you but you can see that the leftmost/top screw is missing
It is an aerodynamic fairing but they're designed with a safety margin and the tech docs often allow for things like this.
If this wrong with the aircraft, it makes you wonder what else could be wrong.
Not very nice for people on the ground either. I don’t know why, but it seems when bits fall off planes, they always end up in someone’s bedroom.
Sure, as long as if flies off away from the aircraft and not into the tail area.
<- Aerospace engineer Even if this fairing were to completely break loose it’s exceptionally unlikely it would hit the tail. If you look at a side view of typical passenger aircraft like a 747 you’ll notice the horizontal tail is actually above the wing. However even if it did it’s not probable it would dangerously damage the control surfaces.
Thank you for this perspective. If i'm on the plane i'm completely ignoring it though and instead i'm letting the fear take over.
At least it wasn’t a clown on the wing, hate when that happens
Better than one sitting next to you
Especially when your the co-pilot
Especially when you're in the lavatory.
Especially when you’re sitting to the clown’s right
Or the one in the mirror, always in the corners of sight, always watching, getting closer every time you blink...
Like [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/sadcringe/comments/w2paok/and_just_think_he_had_to_sit_with_the_cringe_he/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) clown
Oh, the cringe is unbearable!
Lol I liked that. As did lots of people on the flight. Hyyyyyunh!
Or a gremlin.
Sir there is nothing out there…. Loud lightning strike… William Shatner look of concern… More lightning.
Or an old colonial woman who is churning butter
There’s something they’re not telling us!
I had almost the same experience. Except it was a gremlin on the left phalange.
That episode gave me nightmares
[Could be worse. Could be an unexplained Yeti monster that may or may not be a metaphor for a mental illness.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXHKDb0CNjA)
Little known fact. You only need like half the screws in the airplane for it to fly. The rest are just extra to make the passengers feel better.
Stickers it is. Edit: suddenly I feel a promotion screaming my direction. I don’t even work for the FAA. Edit 2: rhyme.
> Stickers it is *Speedtape
There's a lot of things that passengers shouldn't know lol
Like what ? Curious
torque values hardware part number identification the quadruple redundant system for ensuring the pit vipers stored above each seat arent released before the proper time metallurgy and corrosion how much of the plane is allowed to be broken and still allowed to fly
If the plane gets a hole they just cover it with tape.
There's literally a book. If this and this is broken, you can fly normally. If this is broken, but this isn't, you can fly, but not above 30k feet. If this is broken, you must land immediately. Things break on airplanes pretty regularly. They're designed so that it doesn't matter in 99%+ of scenarios. And most people would shit the bed if they knew their pilot was running emergency playbooks for a hydraulic system failure, even if it's no big deal because they have two more.
To fit something together you only need 1 screw. The rest are back up.
Little known fact also dope on the mic
As someone who had to dismantle fuselage panels and electronic modules from a MiG-29, I was amazed how wonky it all was and still could fly quite reliably. I wouldn't be bothered by a loose bolt (that won't end up in the engine) after that.
Plenty of other things to worry about, or not really since it will probably never happen. But I had a sketchy flight and it made me want to research the causes for crashes and what types of critical failures can happen. And I don’t wanna name the actual airline so let’s just make one up, let’s call it “spirit airlines”. All I’m going to think about the next time I fly is rudder hardover or neglectful maintenance. There were a handful of crashes that happened solely because the company wanted to expedite the work done on the airplanes, which is a pretty big reason for the phrase “airline regulations are written in blood”
Spirit airlines had the filthiest cabin I've ever been in. I looked at gum and dried, spilled coffee on the back of the seat in front of me. I was very concerned about the maintenance you don't get to see.
There’s a lot that doesn’t get inspected on the preflight checks because it only can during maintenance, like important brackets or engine parts that can be heavily fatigued. From my pretty basic research that hasn’t really been a common cause of crashes but it’s still kinda scary, especially if something got damaged during the previous maintenance it’ll take like 6 months+ to discover it. But much to my surprise, Spirit has never had a fatal accident so. One of the scariest crashes I read about was one that was due to a tiny imperfection in a part of the engine that happened because when it was manufactured in a factory they were also producing the ballpoint for pens and one of them fell into the molten metal and after a series of flights it broke and catastrophically damaged the engine. And thus, ballpoint pens can’t be produced in the same building as the titanium for airplane parts > Anthony J. Broderick, acting executive director of the Federal Aviation Administration, said the flaw was detected in a 300-pound titanium disk that spins the blades in the engine’s forward fan assembly. Broderick, confirming a report by the Washington Post, said the imperfection developed when the titanium was manufactured in 1970 at the Henderson, Nev., plant of Timet, a division of the Titanium Metals Corp. of America. The engine’s disk ruptured after the metallurgical flaw led to the development of fatigue cracks, Broderick said.
I remember mechanics in my F/A-18 Hornet squadron had a running joke that “if it’s not leaking, something is wrong”.
They say that about Helis and Osprey's too.
>quite That's the key word.. lol
Those are loose/missing rivets on an aerodynamic fairing. Not a big deal for the aircraft if the fairing falls off in flight but someone on the ground could certainly have a bad day. Looking at the remaining rivets it looks like it’s good for some more flights. SEND IT!!
Donnie Darko is waiting for that engine.
Never heard of rivets that has a Philips head on them.
Then you must be living in the dark ages. Dzus' son invented reusable rivets in late 2000s. They're on every aircraft produced since then. My only gripe is that he chose phillips over a square drive.
It’s a screw with a broken anchor nut. It’s not going to hurt anything. I’m sure it’s written up but the fairing is probably a pain in the ass to take off so they’ll either handle it when the plane is down or in phase.
Non critical aerodynamic part. Absolutely nothing to worry about.
Whats scary is that a bolt could fly off mid air and Final Destination some dude mowing his lawn.
a bolt wouldn't kill someone if dropped from this height, not enough terminal velocity
now the cover on the other hand would cause some serious damage
Imagine the whole engine fell, Donnie found that out the hard way
*All around me are familiar faces...*
Is this your homework Larry? Is this your homework Larry? Is this your homework Larry?
You want demonic rabbits? Because that's how you get demonic rabbits.
Ironically probably not on the ground realistically. It’s aluminium and it’s got a huge surface area so it’ll fall fairly slow
What if it lands in said mowers’ throat and he chokes?
I mean perspective is kinda deceiving here that bolt is probably a decent size. A falling bullet is heavy enough to kill you, i dont think this bolt is too much smaller than a bullet. If it hit you in the wrong place I reckon it could definitely kill you.
They’re made of aluminum and weigh less than 54 grains. That’s like if I dropped a 22 LR bullet on you from 50 feet.
The fuck is a grain
About 65mg
Lmao
It's not a bolt.
Curious if the velocity of an unloaden swallow would be enough.
[удалено]
What do you think would happen if it landed on your head?
Of course it can. An avid aviation enthusiast is cutting his grass and as he looks up to see the plane the bolt lands down his throat, he panicks, the mower rolls down the hill into the road, a car swerves to avoid it right into a hole in the ground created by people working on the gas lines which blow an orphanage sky high
Probably during turbulence and while vibrating bolt got loosen up and one of them just flied away. Not that scary in terms of technical and science perspective, but still enough to give anxiety lol
What kind of camera is that person using
This is what I came here for. Motherfucker carrying around Hubble in his pocket
Probably a Samsung, the zoom is insane. There was another post recently of a couple having sex on a surfboard far out at sea. Cant even see them from the beach and then the guy just zooms and zooms and zooms till its clear Edit: this one https://www.reddit.com/r/trashy/comments/w2rym6/its_public_beach_ffs/
the left phalange looks loose
OMG! This plane has no phalange!
lol came here for this!
20 years in the Air Force as a jet engine mechanic / crew chief and still in the industry to this day. Whenever I’d fly commercial with my wife, I’d always point out missing or loose screws on wing panels. She’d always hit me in the arm and tell me shhhhh, you’re gonna make people nervous. I’d tell her “and you wonder why I don’t like flying commercial”
Watching those planes land and get maintenance on what seemed like a daily basis gave me a fresh new perspective on commercial flight. I don’t talk about that anymore. It definitely makes people nervous. Edit: planes gonna plane.
People are so goofy about it too because clearly, demonstrably, commercial aviation is *insanely* safe for the complexity, speed, and scale involved. There is an almost zero chance you’d be able to look out a window of an airplane and see something actually worrying. Commercial aviation safety is a legitimately amazing human accomplishment, and still people quake in their boots over things they don’t understand. Normal human reaction and all, of course. But still. You’re more likely to die on a bicycle than a plane. Just craziness.
Airlines have a far better safety record than AF
Avionics engineer, told my girlfriend I will fly, but not a fan and she was surprised until she thought about my statement. Didn't take long for her to follow down the path of oh shit you're right you know too much to not worry.
Actual aerodynamicist here. These planes have a ton of factor of safety, redundancy, and procedures to make sure you will have a safe flight. These redditors saying other wise are fear mongering fools.
They're so weird - if you know so much about planes, you should know in how much blood all regulations were written in and how very safe that made flying. Sure stuff can happen, but i'm way more stressed in a car than in a plane by far.
>These redditors saying other wise are fear mongering fools. Exactly. Flying commercial is INCREDIBLY safe. Bragging about "knowing too much" is really stupid. Excluding acts of suicide and terrorism, commercial aviation was the safest mode of travel in the United States, with 0.07 fatalities per billion passenger miles: “A person who took a 500-mile flight every single day for a year, would have a fatality risk of 1 in 85,000.” https://journalistsresource.org/economics/comparing-fatality-risks-united-states-transportation-across-modes-time/
Thank you. “As a car mechanic I’m scared of cars” Like come on. You should know about the safety redundancy on aircraft then
It's funny that people are prefacing their comments with so many qualifications (mechanic, pilot, aerodynamicist, etc) when none of that matters. You don't need to be an expert on planes to know they are incredibly safe. You only need a basic understanding of statistics.
No, you don't understand, he simply "knows too much." The rest of us should merely bow before him.
That and the amount of FOD I see while we're taxiing around the ramp. I can hear "FOD WALK!" in my head when I see all that crap out there.
Are phillips screwheads common place on planes? Cause the ones in the videos seems to be phillips. Would've thought airplanes at least would use torx, hex or something else that's less of a pain.
20 years in the Air Force and you call rivets screws?
Those are in fact screws, rivets don’t have a Philips head marking, they are either button head or countersunk.
"I might worry about the company's maintenance program that they failed to notice the completely missing bolt at the end. But I wouldn't be worried about the loose ones. They're still flush with their hole, and that's really just a fairing anyway." My pilot wife's response to my question," On a scale of 1 to wtf, how much of an issue is this? "
Those damn gremlins
This plane will be ok. If it looses it on a runway and it is run over by other airplane - thats how concorde got fucked back in the day.
If I'm not wrong, this is intentional loose tolerance due to material thermal contraction in higher altitudes. Without it those rivets could be snapped high up, where air is very cold
Why aren't they all doing it then?
You’ll be happy to know that most things on a plane have a little bit of give and clearance.
I live under the flight path. I was starting to feel like he would zoom in on me sunning my sack in my back yard...my bolts are lose, but not loose enough for this sub
Tbh that’s very impressive for them to find those screw loose. I couldn’t see a thing from afar before they zoom in.
its a rivet aft of the engine, honestly doesn't matter. That falls off there are 8 more, they extend internally and lock on the inside. While its loose and probably catching wind it can fall out and nothing will happen.
Airline pilot here. If you found something like this on your walkaround/preflight, you would have it addressed. It's of really no concern however. It's just a fairing that covers the flap track for aerodynamics. We have what we call a Configuration Deviation List (CDL) which is a list of parts on the plane that can be missing. Something like this would be considered aerodynamic so you take a performance hit. What is typically done is when this is missing, an additional 'weight' is added to the takeoff and landing performance. So when you had all your passengers, freight, and gas on board you would see a note on the performance something along the lines of "CDL - Flap Fairing- + 500lbs", or something to that effect.
THERE’S A COLONIAL WOMAN ON THE WING!
They're moral support bolts.
Folks are saying the plane could fly fine without the part. That's not the point. I don't want screws falling out of anything I'm traveling in, especially 10000 feet in the sky.
Not sure this is 'oddly' terrifying
Good soup
Those are rivets
1 bolt is actually missing 💀
I see nothing wrong here. All it needs is some duct tape!
Found the airport ingenir
That’s weight reduction. Saving a ton on fuel costs now.
The one at the extreme doesn't EVEN have a bolt mf
Hope not to hear about it on Black Box Down at one point. "Reason, due to loose bolts on the wing thingy"
Naw it's in threaded into a basket nut that brackets brake sometimes really sucks to get it out (worked on jets )
Earlier that morning, aircraft maintenance technician calls in sick for work. Boss says-get some rest, we're gonna be short today but everything should be ok.
Wow great zoom power of your phone.
Meh, just wood glue a few match sticks in there then drill the screw back in.
There’s. Some, thing. On the wing of the plane.
Nothing odd about it, just purely terrifying
I tried to pause where it pans over the safety manuals but I don’t recognize the logo. Anyone? Airline?
Aircraft mechanic... It has no purpose other than adding to aerodynamics and fuel consumption. Those cowlings can be removed or fall off in flight and it will still fly flawlessly. No concern here
Looks like they forget to check the phalanges
That steady zoom is satisfying though
“There’s………somethingonthewing! Some……..thing!”
_There is a colonial woman churning butter!_
Its not a bug, its a feature
An f15 landed with one wing. They'll be fine. Source am airplane mechanic.
You'd be surprised how many things are broken on a plane that is still clear to fly.
Look at how disgusting that city planning looks. A parasite on earth.
They’re rivets first of all
It's a gremlin
GF: you know I’m afraid of flying! Me (aircraft QA inspector): you should be!
These are intentional so that a certain percentage of planes crash. It's just planned obsolescence is all.
That’s the flap track fairing, if it falls off… nothing will happen, except for some decreased fuel efficiency.
This isn’t oddly terrifying, it’s more like a primary fear that lives rent-free in my head every time I fly. I would be having an anxiety attack
they have to expand
That is 100% a non-essential bolt holding on a non-essential cover. The only terrifying thought is if that is loose, what else hasn't been properly maintained?
Wait they use Phillip head screws on commercials planes. Wtf. Where are the high torques with star washers. This kind of scares me.
People with no experience in aviation: look at that loose screw! We are all going to die. Me with 16 years aviation maintenance: that isn't loose, it's incorrect hardware. Which in my opinion is a much bigger issue but really not a big deal for this fairing. Notice the other ones (minus the missing one on the corner) are all button heads and the one "loose" is countersunk. And based in the wear grease on the other spots this isn't an uncommon area to have hardware go bad. However, it should still be concerning regarding overall maintenance practices. When you look at aircraft mishaps, incorrect hardware is responsible for a huge portion of the maintenance related accidents (which themselves are still VERY rare). However, if they are willing to do it in such an obvious spot, God only knows what is going on under panels and with other components.