KY ARNG Aviation Safety Alert

1
NUMBER 08-001 (FOD and Tool Accountability
Checks) 23 October 2007
ISSUE A Poorly-Conducted FOD or Tool
Accountability Check Can Be a One-Way Ticket for
a Flight Crew and Aircraft. DISCUSSION After
ferrying their aircraft across the Atlantic,
Europe, and much of Asia, a C-23 Sherpa crew
turned their aircraft over to Maintenance, who
promptly undertook the necessary checks,
inspections and washes. After opening the engine
cowlings following the compressor wash, a spool
of stainless steel safety wire was found nestled
near the exhaust stack, with the plastic spool
nearly melted away! The aircraft had just been
delivered to the C-23 flight crew after a
stateside contract maintenance team had completed
their final maintenance procedures minus a
complete FOD and Tool Accountability check! For
further reading on FOD prevention, see KY ARNG
Pam 385-95, para. 5-4.

• RECOMMENDATIONS
• Crewchiefs and Mechanics Never take more parts,
  freelist stock or tools aboard your aircraft than
  is absolutely necessary. A piece of snipped
  wire, or a dropped washer can bring your aircraft
  down faster than any insurgent RPG! Keep that
  FOD can or bag handy, and have a positive count
  of everything coming on, and coming off the
  maintenance stand with you!
• Flight Crews Be diligent in checking inside
  visual access ports, doors and panels after
  maintenance has been completed on your aircraft.
  No doubt the Mechanic doing their final checks is
  doing the best they can so be sure youre not
  the cause of any rushing the Mechanic off the
  aircraft to make your launch time. If the
  aircraft isnt ready, it isnt ready!

• QC, PC, and Maintenance Su-pervisors Give every
  main-tenance procedure the time it needs! And,
  stay vigilant in holding the Maintenance Manual
  Standard for FOD and Tool Accountability Checks!
  If a major maintenance pro-cedure only took .1
  to com-plete the FOD and Tool Accountability
  Check, per-haps a second look may be in order!

This spool of stainless steel safety wire was
parked on top of this C-23 engine for an entire
ferry flight from CONUS to SWA! Lesson learned
Is your FOD and Tool Accountability Check
accurate?