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Essay on Improper Maintenance Of Aircraft
When a plane flies more than a certain amount of time it is put into the hangar where it is inspected for any problems that might occur. Regular inspections are made on various parts including the body of the plane, the engine, the tires and the various gauges. Even a small problem can lead to a major disaster. Because of this, the inspection is serious business.
Private aircraft owners take their airplane to a maintenance facility trusting the crew to complete the required inspections or repair in a professional manner. However, when repair manuals are not used and shortcuts are taken, you're probably not going to find out until you're miles in the air. Then, when you're aircraft loses total power there's not a problem with you coming down; the problem is the type of terrain and how hard it hits at impact (Kraus, 2001).
A private pilot of a Cessna 182P was losing instrument power and had difficulty maintaining altitude; it was fourteen miles back to the airport where he just completed an instrument approach without landing. The runway lights were in sight, but the pilot crashed just two miles from the airport on the perimeter of a complex of green houses. To the right of the wreckage was a row of electrical power transmission lines twelve inches in diameter and thirty feet tall.
After yet another thorough investigation, the NTSB determined the probable cause of this accident was a missing valve keeper (Kraus, 2001). There was an annual inspection completed on this aircraft about two weeks prior to the accident and was the pilot's first flight since the inspection.
The number one, three, and four cylinders were removed, cleaned, and repaired during the inspection. During the investigation it was discovered that one of the two valve keepers was not reinstalled....
