Assume nothing

Flying Safety, June, 2001 by Dewey Buck

It was dark, humid and hot, a typical May night in Thailand, 1973. I was a buck sergeant in the 432 FMS NDI Lab. Along with the rest of the lab personnel, I had been placed on 12-hour/seven-days-a-week shifts. This had been our way of life for the past several months. For everyone routinely involved in aircraft maintenance, it was all the same, 12 on and 12 off. With 125 F-4s assigned and a war going on, maintenance activities filled our every minute. But this night would turn out a little different from what we'd been conditioned to.

Maintenance Control, as it was called back then, had scheduled the usual three or four F-4 van-ramp FOD inspections for the lab to X-ray. The three-man crew had worked together for several months, and we knew the routine backwards and forwards. The aircraft would be towed to the authorized spot. We would rope off the area, set up the X-ray equipment and place the films in the appropriate areas on the aircraft. We'd radiate the films. We would remove them, pack up the equipment and head back to the lab. Once there, we would hand-process the film and give the final results to Maintenance Control.

When setting up the radiation barrier around the aircraft, it was a safety practice to check the surrounding area for unauthorized personnel, like a crew chief or aircraft brakeman (one is required when towing an F-4 to a spot). We never figured anyone would be stupid enough to fall asleep inside the cockpit when NDI was going to X-ray, so we always checked the aircraft outside, never inside. (We thought, "Hey, no place to hide!") Anyway, as luck would have it, this time we had a problem locating the aircraft forms. I took it upon myself to check the cockpit, just in case they'd been left there. Now you can imagine the look on my face as I opened the canopy and found the brakeman asleep in the seat! As I woke him up, I noticed the aircraft forms in his lap.

That night set into motion a change in the rules and guidelines for setting up nighttime X-ray operations. My awareness for safety had been changed for the rest of my days in NDI. Now, 28 years later, I still remember that look the brakeman gave me. Lessons learned were many, but the one that stands out the most was: Never assume, just check it anyway! There might be a stupid person in your area.