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Holy Airplane Wing!
 By Tom Shoop | Tuesday, April 01, 2008  |  09:05 AM

I don't travel all that much, but when I do, I trust that agencies like the Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration are doing their jobs and keeping me safe from terrorists and faulty airplanes. Sometimes that involves crossing my fingers just a little, though.

Like last night, as I waited on a plane on the ground for three hours at Minneapois/St. Paul International Airport, in a driving snowstorm, staring out at the wing of an airplane with a hole about four inches across in it. The hole had been covered up by what I swear appeared to be duct tape until moments earlier, when the tape had been ripped off during the de-icing process. We taxied back to the gate and, to my amazement, a couple of mechanics came out, applied more tape (which actually seemed to involve some kind of heat-activated adhesive) and pronounced the plane ready to fly -- which it then did, all the way to Washington.

As nervous as I was watching this whole process unfold, I'm assuming, until the FAA tells me different, that this was a fully approved repair technique. And I feel just a little better about my own duct-tape-based home repair efforts.



Comments


As A former Airport Public Safety Officer, I was "amazed" the morning I heard over the tower frequency: "MHT, this is FAA Cessna Citation ...low hydraulic pressure ... can we fly by the tower to have you see if our nose gear is down?" We "suited up" in our crash suits ... At about 100 feet above the runway, with US DOT insignia on the tail, "Federal Aviation Administration" in Block capital letters across the fuselage, AND NO VISIBLE NOSE GEAR, we got ready to chase the plane up the runway...

Robert Olcott  | Friday, April 11, 2008 |  12:14 AM


When I was in the Marines, the folks in the Helo Squadrons used "200mph Tape" all the time for non-structural repairs.

Lane Narrows  | Thursday, April 03, 2008 |  07:35 AM


Tom, I've been worried about the integrity of our nation's airways since the 11/2001 Airbus crash in the Queens. The normally succinct NTSB never has proferred a reasonably logical and conclusive explanation for this tragedy. Instead, existing NASA facilities capable of assessing the elusive PIO (Pilot Induced Oscillation) explanation were turned down, standards for the design of structural actuators not fully discussed, absence of redundancy in the connection details of the plane's tail and other issues uncharacteristically not discussed in the NTSB's summary. With the recent fiasco with NASA's safety studies becoming reality, it is high time the flying public demand a Congressional response to a government too much aligned with large global financial interests.

Did you know that "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand is no longer required reading in high school? Wake up America!

Anonymous  | Thursday, April 03, 2008 |  07:05 AM


I doubt that the Wright brothers plane had to deal with the force of speed, altitude and weather that the plane Mr. Shoop and Sen. Grassley were on.

And I certainly hope that the "tape" in question was more than your average cure-all duct tape my Dad has all over his house!

Ed's Daughter  | Wednesday, April 02, 2008 |  10:48 AM


If the Wright Brothers got off of the ground in an airplane made of canvas and wood, a little duct tape shouldn't hurt. I'd be more interested in knowing how the four inch hole got there.

Robert M.  | Wednesday, April 02, 2008 |  06:55 AM



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Government Executive Editor Tom Shoop takes a look at news and events affecting the federal bureaucracy, from the perspective of a longtime observer of government.

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