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Passenger fixes faulty airliner
- brk 17y agoPretty cool story. I once fixed a faulty first class seat on an NWA red-eye flight. The metal pin that held it in the upright position broke, causing it to fall all the way in the lap of the person directly behind it. Was an almost-full flight and they were going to have to get a duct-tape maintenance guy to bodger it up. I managed to secure it with a seatbelt extender and something else (bit of a ballpoint pen I think). Anyway, was kind of cool, and earned me a free bottle of wine to carry off the plane, on top of the regular drinks consumed on the flight.
- jacquesm 17y agoI'd rather have the mechanic fly on the same plane than remain on the tarmac any day.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- Hexstream 17y agoMore like: "Aircraft engineer fixes faulty airliner"... Nothing spectacularly newsworthy in there IMHO. I guess it just triggers every expert's dream of being able to unexpectedly save the day in a timely manner while off-duty.
- gaius 17y agoStand back! I know regular expressions!
- rbanffy 17y agohttp://xkcd.com/208/ http://xkcd.com/208/
- dennisgorelik 17y agoThe comments are better than the original article :-)
- wlievens 17y agoAbsolutely. My girlfriend (a midwife) is jealous every time she reads a story of a doctor/nurse/midwife assisting in an emergency birth in a plane or something.
- jonah 17y agoReminds me of the recent story about the airman spotting a massive fuel leak from his seat over the wing. http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123149266 http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123149266
- johnohara 17y ago<i>"It was reassuring to know the person who had fixed it was still on the aeroplane. What are the odds of something like that happening?"</i> Between fare discounts for employees, the need to shuttle mechanics to where planes need fixing, the total number of airports and the overall popularity of the 757, I'd say pretty good.
- dmfdmf 17y agoI was on our high school football team and once we were going to another school by bus for a game and along the way there was a loud bang and the engine died and we were stuck on the side of the freeway. The driver and coaches were clueless and soon were saying we probably would not make it to the game in time and would have to forfeit. One of my teammates stepped up and said he worked as a diesel mechanic over the summer and asked to take a crack at the problem. Most of us were skeptical that he could do anything about it (and there may or may not have been bets placed on the outcome ;-)... amazingly, and to this kid's credit, he got it running again in about 15min with only pliers and a screw driver. So we made it to the game in time and won.