Forgotten mechanics: plane with tool in engine spent almost 300 hours in the sky (photo)

Before the tool was found in the engine, the aircraft was operated for 26 days. He managed to make 34 flights.

A Qantas plane has flown several times with a tool loose inside one of its engines, totaling nearly 300 hours of flight time. Details of the incident were released by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) on November 14.

A Qantas Airbus A380-842 has logged 294 hours of flight time with a nylon borescope designed to inspect hard-to-reach areas. The tool was left in the left outboard engine after a routine maintenance visit to Los Angeles on December 6, 2023.

The maintenance engineers failed to notice that the tool was left in the engine's low pressure compressor housing when performing foreign object checks after completing the borescope inspection.

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Furthermore, the maintenance engineers did not initiate a search procedure of the lost instrument after it was determined that the instrument was lost and the certifying engineer released the aircraft for service.

Also, it was noted, workers did not discover it during routine inspections at the end of the three-day maintenance period. .

On January 1, 2024, a 1.25 m long tool was found stuck in turbine components.

According to the ATSB, the aircraft had been in service for 26 days, making 34 flights, before the instrument was discovered.

It was it was determined that the tool was deformed, but the engine was not damaged.