I Get It—You're in a Hurry - Brief Article

Approach, Oct, 2000 by Christopher P. Smith

The day's flying had been, without a doubt, some of the best of my short career. We'd completed some great training, including day VFR and IFR, which got us back into the charts and pubs. We also got to see historic sites in New York and D.C., places us guys down in Florida don't see too often--without the bumper-to-bumper hassle of upper East Coast traffic.

We finally landed at Chambers Field in Norfolk after completing night VFR and night IFR training, but we returned a bit later than originally planned. Although we called earlier to update our expected landing time, our OinC was waiting for us in the line area. He wanted a hotseat for one more bag before securing the aircraft for the night. He actually taxied us into the spot for the crew swap. From his anxious appearance, I commented that he must be in quite a hurry to jump in.

As I completed post-landing checks, one of the pages on my pocket checklist came loose. I stuck it back in the book and made a mental note to reinforce it later. There wasn't much risk of the door blowing open at taxi speed, so I placed the checklist on the floor closest to the door as I began to clean up the cockpit in preparation for the crew swap.

Soon the brakes were on, and I noticed my OinC already standing by my door ready to jump. I grabbed the last few items and stuffed the charts the next crew would not be using back into the nav bag. I heard that increase in noise indicating the door had been cracked opened. I turned back to see my door handle up in the unlocked position and my OinC holding the door partly closed.

Now I knew he was really in a hurry. Being the new guy, I am sure I was so slow it was painful for him to watch. Finished with the cockpit, I started to loosen my straps. I looked down at my pocket checklist, and I figured I would just grab it as I stepped out since he was in such a hurry. As I finished turning the lock-on buckle, he opened the door. I grabbed the upper door frame to pull myself out of the aircraft so as not to hold him up much longer.

Then I saw the page from my checklist flutter, right to left, past my front window as I was looking out. My OinC, reacting instinctively slammed the door to prevent more FOD from escaping from the aircraft.

There I sat, looking at my fingers twitching--on the other side of the window. As I turned to yell, "Could you please open the door? You've closed it on my hand," I noticed the upper corner of the door was touching the airframe. He had actually bent the door around my hand. I didn't feel much pain, but after he opened the door and I deftly extracted my hand, I noticed the rapid onset of acute throbbing. The other pilot later remarked that as he turned to the left to follow the departure of my fast moving page, he turned back to see me rocking back and forth in my seat holding my hand. Not to hold up my OinC any longer (since I had already learned my lesson), I gathered my items with my good hand and climbed out. I think he asked me if I was OK as he practically crawled over me into the cockpit.

Once off the flight line, I removed my glove. I was surprised to see no compound fractures or blunt trauma. I walked away with a neat pattern of scabs after a day and, although sore for the better part of a week, my hand was FMC.

We debriefed the events later. True to OinC form, he kept trying to convince me it was my fault my hand was nearly crushed.

Lessons learned? I hobbled away with plenty. First, I'm sure glad for those gloves. I wear them all the time: over water, over land, and especially when hot seating to my OinC. They kept me from getting cut up. Next, gear adrift can easily become FOD--especially in a helicopter where you open a door under a turning rotorhead. Finally, when we talk about crew coordination, we are usually talking about the actual flight regime. However, it involves all elements of aviation operations. We certainly could have done better. I could have given a "hold" signal at the sound of the door opening if I wasn't ready. Possibly--I don't know, I might be reaching--my OinC could have waited until I opened the door, signaling my readiness to deplane.

Lack of crew coordination sure can get you in a pinch.

Lt. Smith flies with HSL-42