Can we talk about the AOA pitot probe on the CRJ-700?

I was on a gate call at DFW last tuesday when a fresh out of school A&P tried to static test the probe without checking the O-ring. He popped it loose and we lost pressurization data for the whole flight deck. My lead said "you ever see a captain go green?" That probe is sensitive as hell. Should these test procedures have a mandatory sign-off for juniors or do we just expect them to learn from busting stuff?

2 comments

2 Comments

thompson.robin16d ago

Man that's rough, I really feel for the kid though, we all made mistakes like that early on. A mandatory sign-off might suck for the greenhorns but it would save a lot of stress for everyone.

palmer.zara16d ago

Right, I'm totally with you on this one. It's so easy to forget how overwhelming everything is when you're new, and one tiny mistake can snowball into a huge mess. Having a second pair of eyes on things, especially for the rookies, just seems like common sense to me. It's not about being mean or assuming they're dumb, it's about catching the little things before they become big problems for everyone involved. Honestly, I think it'd make the whole team breathe a little easier.