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So this overzealous TSA employee is running around some parked commuter airliners at O'Hare, apparently trying to determine whether they could be broken into. He wants to climb on the aircraft fuselage (!), so he uses some of those little probe-thingies he sees sticking out near the cockpit windows as an improvised ladder.
So this is how nine aircraft were damaged - their Total Air Temperature (TAT) probes were rendered useless and it's fortunate that all of these aircraft were caught and grounded. Forty flights were affected by the grounding.
Pilots are pissed:
more details here
This incident highlights the fact that the TSA staff are not trained to actually be around aircraft. They shouldn't be let near them.
So this is how nine aircraft were damaged - their Total Air Temperature (TAT) probes were rendered useless and it's fortunate that all of these aircraft were caught and grounded. Forty flights were affected by the grounding.
Pilots are pissed:
"The brilliant employees used an instrument located just below the cockpit window that is critical to the operation of the onboard computers," one pilot wrote on an American Eagle internet forum. "They decided this instrument, the TAT probe, would be adequate to use as a ladder."
Officials with American Eagle confirmed to ANN the problem was discovered by maintenance personnel, who inspected the planes Tuesday morning... and questioned why the TAT probes all gave similar error indications.
One Eagle pilot says had the pilots not been so attentive, the damaged probes could have caused problems inflight. TSA agents "are now doing things to our aircraft that may put our lives, and the lives of our passengers at risk," the pilot wrote on the forum.
more details here
This incident highlights the fact that the TSA staff are not trained to actually be around aircraft. They shouldn't be let near them.
