Quacks

I knew it went on. Or rather I had a suspicion it may be going on but to be confirmed on a sneaking feeling like this, is... a lil... lost for words really.

Chatting to "E" today he told me of a plane that was in last week. A bunch of engineers were swapping out an oil to fuel heat exchanger. Knowingly, "E" quizzed them why, they responded saying that the pilots noted excessive fuel was being used. So therefore the fuel must be leaking into the oil supply via the heat exchanger. "E" asked them how they came to that conclusion? They never really gave an answer, just assuring this was the solution.

Thing is "E" & myself know that plane has an internal fuel leak from the wing tanks to a dry bay inside the planes fuselage. Its an easy fault to find just open a drain valve that leads to the dry bay. If anything other than condensation comes out, you have a problem. When we did it the other day over 5 liters of fuel poured out. Highlighted it to the foreman, who yet again worked his magic and the plane was sent flying, labelled serviceable.

But that's not the point, the point is a fault occurred. But rather than search for the problem and confirm what was wrong they just pointed to the quickest "fix" and send the plane on its way. And when it comes back with the fault still there they just change another random bit rather than fix it, and its off flying again. Being a more experienced engineer who has seem more than me, I asked how does it ever get fixed. He answered, it just flys around the world with the problem, while guys randomly change perfectly working bits. It never really gets fixed unless its by pure accident or some one like us gets hold of the plane.

Even more lost for words when he assured me it wasn't just here. Most airlines are like that. No one ever diagnoses problems or delves into a faults history to really solve it. Just prescribe a placebo and let the next doctor deal with it.