That Tuesday in Newark where everything went sideways

Last summer I had a shift at Newark Liberty where three planes came in back to back with busted weather radars. First one was a 737 with a bad waveguide, second one was an Embraer with a corroded connector on the antenna, and the third one was a Gulfstream where someone had left a screw loose inside the radome. I spent eight hours straight on the tarmac and didn't even get lunch. Has anyone else had a day where the whole fleet seemed to fall apart at once?

2 comments

2 Comments

dylan_stone332d ago

Did you end up finding the loose screw just floating around in there or did it take forever to track down? I swear those Gulfstream radomes are a nightmare for small hardware, had one where a washer got jammed in the waveguide flange and caused a full radar failure mid-flight. Been there with the no lunch thing too, nothing like 8 hours on concrete with a busted headset and a growing list of angry pilots waiting for their planes.

mary6141d ago

Ugh yes it took me forever to find that stupid screw! I was down on my hands and knees with a flashlight for what felt like an hour, and it had wedged itself in the corner of the radome support bracket, totally invisible unless you got your face right up in there. That's exactly what happened to me a few months back with a washer in a King Air, it got stuck under the harmonic filter and the radar went completely haywire on a test flight. I was so hangry by the time I finished, I almost ate a bag of chips from the vending machine but it was expired. The pilots were texting me every 15 minutes asking for updates and I just wanted to scream 'I'm working on it!' Nothing kills your mood faster than no lunch and a busted headset with a line of grumpy pilots.

-1