Tool Found At LAX In Qantas Airbus A380 Engine After 1 Month Missing

Thanks for the link. It was a plastic barring tool so when they discovered it was missing they should have stopped everything and went back to the last place it was used. With apprentices I constantly stress the importance of keeping tools organized so you can see if something is missing befor moving on to the next job task. If this tool had been left in a worse place it could have done engine damage and put the aircraft in jeopardy. Imagine if it had moved and damaged a fuel line which could then lead to an engine fire?

Agreed - much better and coherent article.

Two months - that's a lot of frequent floater miles!

We are flying to NZ on Wednesday (06MAR) on an A380. Fortunately via Dubai.

Damn right it is. The technician probably had to replace that tool out of his own pocket. Poor sap is just trying to make a living in one of the most underpaid trades in society.

Yes I saw the same when I worked in the industry. But I always stressed the importance of organizing tools and putting them away properly after a job task so the tech can see if something is missing. We once had a sensor fail and when we got the panels off found a flashlight had been left behind and rubbed through some wiring. As we went to fix the wiring the tech set his own light down where it could illuminate the aria and I saw exactly why if left behind it would eventually fall against the same wires. Flashlights and headlamps are some of the most often forgotten items.

That makes no sense to me at all. Are you saying that no one would know that a wrench with a yellow paint mark belonged to Fred Splinge, rather than if it was marked "FS" ?

It reads to me they found it at LAX, not necessarily lost it there. Australian officials made the announcement, probably due to the error made over there. This is a poorly written piece of journalism for sure.

It wasn’t a wrench, it was a plastic barring tool that would not have been used in a place where it could go through the rotating group. But it could have done other damage. My guess is the tech set it down after use and then forgot about it.

Sadly I have to admit I lost a screwdriver once and found it 6 years later working on the same engine but with a different company. I lost sleep over it when it went missing and the person I had been working with brushed it off and said that if it makes one trip it will make a thousand and screwdrivers are cheap. But after I lost that screwdriver I made it a habit than no matter how much pressure to get something out the door I would account for every tool befor signing off on a job.