$4 Million Mistake on Air Force One - Episode 222
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- Опубликовано: 20 сен 2024
- Oil and oxygen don’t mix on airplanes. A crew doing maintenance on the Air Force One oxygen system ignored safety procedures resulting in $4 million dollars of damage to the plane.
The damage was caused by maintenance activity on the oxygen system of a U.S. Air Force VC-25A, a 747 aircraft that regularly flies the President of the United States. This event occurred in 2016.
John Goglia and Todd Curtis share evidence that crew did not follow the VC-25A's aircraft maintenance manual procedures for cleaning the tools, parts, and components before performing leak checks on the oxygen system.
This is perhaps the highest profile incident of an aircraft damaged due to improper oxygen system maintenance procedures. John notes that failure to follow procedures is the FAA's top cause for maintenance problems in commercial aviation.
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Music: “Inspirational Sports” license ASLC-22B89B29-052322DDB8
My word, the amount of minutiae in John’s mind, to be able to explain this single system in such detail. His retirement from active maintenance is our cumulative loss.
I worked in several flight test operations in my career (FE, FTE). The experimental aircraft typically employed dedicated oxygen systems for cockpit and test crews. We used military style helmets and masks with demand/diluters. My first flight test operation specifically separated O2 system servicing, maintenance and repair - including our personal equipment from regular A&P activities. We had one or two mechanics trained in oxygen system maintenance located in a dedicated maintenance shop. No one else was allowed to work on these systems. I never experienced any issues related to our breathing equipment. It’s all about process.
I am now retired, but I used to work for the Los Angeles DWP as a steam plant operator. I was trained about the hazards of an oxygen enriched atmosphere and how it would create a severe Fire Hazard. I also used to see the warnings on the pressure regulators of oxygen tanks warning not to use any oil. The atmosphere we breath is only 21% oxygen, 78, Nitrogen and 1% other gases. I was also trained that pure oxygen can cause oils to spontaneously combust.
I enjoy your posts immensely.
Great statement: "Not all soap is created equal."
I had no clue that petroleum oil and oxygen didn't need a spark or any kind of ignition to start a fire! Holy cow!
They still need a heat source just like any ignition process does, it's just that with pure oxygen involved you don't need heat to the level of a spark, the oily rag that he was talking about probably went up just from the friction of the guy dragging the torch tip across it, likewise an oily rag sitting in direct sunlight on a hot summer day will probably be hot enough for the ignition process to start once the rag material was saturated enough with pure oxygen, the regulators on oxygen tanks aren't supposed to be oiled because when you turn the valve's there's friction between the parts that could easily generate enough heat to start ignition if there's oil in the assembly, it's really a misnomer to say it'll spontaneously combust because there's no chemical reaction between the oxygen and oil that itself generates heat which is really the conditions needed for true spontaneous combustion, but with pure oxygen and something like oil that has a low flash point it doesn't take much heat to achieve ignition.
Even Teflon will burn in a O2 atmosphere.
Interesting that incorrect soap was the cause of the Tesla Cyber truck recall for the potential throttle pedal sticking problem.
Something somewhat similar goes on when testing propane lines for leaks. A soap test is done on all connections, and then a pressure check of the system. It is very important to use only specified soap types, for those leak checks.
Without knowing the exact facts of the incident, I will guess what happened. When they were assigned to do the inspection, they could not find the "oxygen leak detector" so they used a substitute of soapy water. Management said get the job done NOW and the substitution was done. Since dodo runs downhill the mechanics are blamed and management slides by. Same ole story at Boeing. Seems like a plug door failure type scenario. Fire the MBAs not the mechanics.
This was a major screw up. O2 is nothing to screw with. Oxygen specific tools, gloves, etc. There are specific retest procedures for components. FOLLOW THEM TO THE LETTER!!!!! There is an old corney training film that makes a point how deadly this is. The man from LOX. I lost a former squadron mate of mine in 1991 onboard the USS Independence. O2 fire in paraloft.
Working on SCUBA regulators is the same way. Anything that is 100% oxygen or even oxygen enriched like 32% must be oxygen clean.
I've always wanted to know, what are normal SCUBA tanks filled with? I'm not talking about some special deep diving rig just your average run of the mill SCUBA tanks, I've always wondered if they're just compressed air or pure/enriched oxygen, because I've never seen the type of oxygen/flammable warning labels that you see on torch tanks on the few SCUBA tanks I've looked at closely.
BOEING never loses, the USAF just give them orders for more refuelling aircraft.
As a retired avionics mtce engineer for air canada,since our tools never venture into hydraulic or oil,grease, WE DID ALL O2 work, thus the obvious
No taxpayer dollar left unwasted
Didn’t learn from the Apollo fire I guess. I used to service fighters with LOX, very volitile.
How many times have we heard that only unionized work can be trusted ? That unions have pride in their work, police themselves and should be trusted ? The dangers of mixing oxygen and petroleum products has been known forever. The fact that unionized Boeing mechanics are this lackadaisical on such a dangerous matter is both shocking and telling. If they would treat Air Force One this way they'd obviously have no compunction against treating every aircraft they work on (even airliners) the same way.
It cost us allot more but that will be fixed in November
The valujet, apollo capsule, and the other aircraft mentioned with the cockpit electrical fire are not comparable to this incident. As those incidents weren't caused by contaminated oxygen systems. And in reality, they weren't really O2 system related. There's also a litany of technical misinformation about O2 systems and "contamination" that was discussed here. If I type it all out, I would have 2 pages of information to correct what was said, along with varying nuances that weren't considered.
Yes, tech data wasn't adhered to and it caused issues that were referred to regarding the April 2016 incident. Granted there's so many nuances regarding the bureaucratic processes involved with how the air force sees issues like this, which also weren't discussed. There's a separate air force one O2 incident that happened recently and as a result, there's an active lawsuit regarding that. To those in the comment section insinuating that Trump would've handled the situation better if Biden wasn't in office is ridiculous as Trump wasn't in office yet at the time of the incident that this video is referring to (so, Obama was in office at that time), and also, that's not how that works.
So how did the non-approved substance get inside the tubes of the closed O2 system? Not without a leak.. Seems like the leak was not addressed..
They had opened the system.
What if petroleum base products are in someone hair during an emergency situation on an air and the drop down mask are deployed can you touch on this?
Has anyone considered that their actions may have been intentional to cause an accident? It makes we wonder when three individuals forget their training, one of them, I could understand, but all three. It makes me wonder.
there's training/by the book and then there's real world practices on the job. In the Army my AIT was reading maintenance manuals for 6 months. I was continuously told I would learn to do my job when I got to my actual duty station and to use a manual. I learned immediately those who asked for a manual didn't leave the shop. I worked on missile systems half the time I never used a manual unless I was in the shop working with Oscopes or something technical like repairing a test controller.
glad that cheese ball miles o'brian isn't on this show, couldn't stand to watch your videos seeing the face of cnn and reminiscing of the bunk miles spewed during his 'reports'.
Your opinion is invalid.
The mistake: Letting Biden on board!
This anomaly occurred in 2016. What is the relevance of your comment to this discussion?
Sounds like a good show. I'm leaving after a minute where you start with a long intro and then start talking about some advertising. I love hearing about aircraft safety. Too bad I'm gonna miss out on what you have to say. Adding you to blocklist. I don't want to support content where the podcasters think it's ok to start with commercials. The only way I know how to do this is to never watch that sort of nonsense.
Bye.
This video is not all true. 4 million dollar repair??? Come on guys, do better. I'm done watching you two.
Well, they likely had to replace all the lines and related equipment as it’s one of the Air Force One 747’s.