The day a single loose coax connector grounded a whole fleet

We had three planes down with weird comms issues last Tuesday, all traced back to a batch of BNC connectors from the same supplier that weren't crimped right. Spent eight hours chasing ghosts before we found the common link. Anyone else get burned by a bad parts shipment recently?

3 comments

3 Comments

charles_henderson3mo agoMost Upvoted

Oh man, that's brutal. Classic case of the problem being the last thing you check. At least you found the common thread. I bet that supplier got a very loud phone call.

the_leo19d ago

Funny you mention that, our QC guy actually IS just one guy squinting at things with a magnifying glass. We found out later that supplier's crimp tool was out of spec by about a mil, so every connector in that batch was basically a handshake that would drop. Replacing all of them on three planes meant I got real good at working in tight spaces real fast. Now I keep a spare BNC in my pocket like a lucky charm.

stella_shah893mo ago

Yikes, that's a supply chain nightmare hiding in plain sight. Makes you wonder if their whole quality check process is just one guy eyeballing things. Did management try to push back on replacing all the connectors at once?