Wandered into a hangar in Tucson and found a 747 with a lawn chair taped to the wing

I was down in Tucson last month visiting a buddy who works at one of the boneyards out there. We were just walking through this old hangar full of parts and I look up and see a 747 wing with a literal plastic lawn chair duct taped right onto the leading edge near the fuel vent. I asked my friend what the hell that was about and he said some mechanic used it as a quick seat while fixing a leak and just left it there for three days because nobody said anything. The tape was already sun baked and cracking off. I couldnt believe nobody caught it during the walkaround. Has anyone else seen something this dumb just sitting on a plane that somehow got ignored?

2 comments

2 Comments

milam4218d ago

Oh come on, I mean maybe the guy was just being resourceful. Idk, duct tape is pretty strong and if its just a quick fix for a seat on a grounded plane, whats the big deal? Its not like they were flying it with the lawn chair still attached so it probably got caught during a deep clean or something later. Maybe its just me but I see mechanics jerryrigging stuff all the time to get the job done faster and it almost always gets sorted out before anything serious happens.

logan_schmidt18d ago

So why is the bar suddenly lower for airplanes than it is for literally anything else? @milam42, I get that duct tape can hold up to some weird stuff, but there's a difference between a lawn chair falling apart and a passenger seat on a grounded plane. The whole point of being grounded is that nothing should be "getting caught" on anything because it's supposed to be safe for the next flight. If mechanics are jerryrigging seats with tape, what else are they taping together that we just don't see? I'd rather wait an extra hour for a proper part than fly on a plane held together with thoughts and prayers.