Aviation is a Team Work: No Possible Accident Thanks to Young Petty Officer Machinist

What is Aircraft Maintenance Discipline?

The Aircraft Maintenance Discipline, model and profession is a dynamic phenomenon that is influenced by and benefits from many disciplines and offers exemplary solution models to these disciplines. The fact that the aircraft in the focus of the profession are flying platforms with complex systems has transformed the aircraft maintenance discipline, which is responsible for the maintenance, repair and lifetime sustainment of these systems, into a large, large and enviable organizational structure that is open to development, outward-oriented, internalizing sharing, cooperation and integration.

For the Air Force, the aircraft maintenance discipline is acquired as part of the training provided at the Air Technical Schools Command. In the organizational structure of the Air Force, the Air Technical Schools Command, which is affiliated to the Air Training Command, is located at the Gaziemir campus. 

History of the Air Technical Schools Command and its role in mechanic training

The establishment of the school is based on the order of the General Staff dated September 17, 1922. Accordingly, the Air Force Inspectorate in Konya and the Air Flight School in Adana were transferred to Izmir, and between 1923 and 1924, the school also offered ground courses such as general physics, motor and flight vehicles, topography, machine gun, theoretical and practical flying.

In 1928, the Air Machinist School in Yeşilköy, Istanbul was closed down and moved to Eskişehir, and in the same year, the Air Machinist NCO School was opened as the Air Machinist NCO School within the Air Flight School in Eskişehir, and the Air Flight School and Air Machinist NCO School came together to form the Air Schools Command.

In 1932, as a result of organizational changes, the 3rd Air Regiment Command was established with the air units remaining in Gaziemir, and was transferred to Diyarbakır with the outbreak of World War II. Afterwards, the Machinist School was transferred back to Gaziemir, İzmir in 1949.

In 1950, depending on the developing technology of aviation, some technical schools were opened in Turkey in various periods in order to train personnel in other specialties and branches other than pilots. These are Air Communication School, Air Supply School, Air Transportation School and Airfield Facility Maintenance Technical School. These schools, including the Machinist School, were merged into one command and named Air Technical Schools Command.

On January 2, 1950, the name of the Machinist School was changed to Aircraft Maintenance School. In 1956, the Air Technical Schools Command in Gaziemir was abolished and replaced by the Air Training Corps Command, and in 1957, the Air Training Corps Command was renamed as the Air Training Command.

In 1969, following the relocation of the Air Training Command to Güzelyalı, the four school commands stationed in Gaziemir (Aircraft Maintenance School Command, Airfield Facility Maintenance Technical School Command, Air Communications School Command, Air Defense School Command) were gathered under the Air Technical Schools Command, which was established on September 13, 1969. 

In 1998, the name of the Air Technical Schools Command was changed to "Air Class Schools and Technical Training Center Command". In 2002, as the training period for non-commissioned officer candidates was increased to two years, the Air Non-Commissioned Officer Vocational School was established. Eventually, the name of the Air Class Schools and Technical Training Center Command was changed to Air Technical Schools Command as of the 2006-2007 academic year. The young machinists trained at this school take aircraft maintenance courses with a focus on Airframe Maintenance and Aircraft Ground Support Systems, and following their on-the-job training, the machinists, in other words aircraft maintenance technicians, are assigned to the continents and flight units.

Today, I will tell you the story of an unnamed young non-commissioned officer mechanic who, with the rank of Petty Officer Sergeant, did not allow a CF-104 aircraft to take flight in 1984 when he saw a malfunction that prevented it from flying during the mechanic checks after engine start-up. In the following lines, I am conveying to you the behavior of this young non-commissioned officer, one of our unsung heroes, who had a high sense of duty discipline and awareness, from the mouth of his own flight line commander, Hüseyin ATAN, a young first lieutenant at the time, who later retired from the Air Force with the rank of Aircraft Maintenance Colonel.

Duty Discipline of a Petty Officer Sergeant

"In 1984, I was assigned to Diyarbakır as the Maintenance Commander of the 182nd Flight Line under the 8th Main Jet Base Aircraft Maintenance Command with the rank of Lieutenant. The first day I set foot in the 182nd Line Maintenance Command, I was shocked by the sight I encountered. It was a rainy day in Diyarbakır and the roof of the line building was leaking due to broken tiles. There were plastic containers on the floor to prevent puddles. The interior and exterior plaster and paint had started to peel off. Many of the windows were broken or cracked. The toilets and showers were old and poorly maintained. It was also not warm enough inside. In general, the whole building was almost uninhabitable. After meeting and talking to the line staff, I asked them about the general condition of the building and whether they had any complaints. When I listened to them, I learned that there was not much I could do and that the building could not be properly maintained and repaired due to insufficient funds. I decided to work hand in hand with the staff to rectify this situation. It was up to me.

In the first stage, we paid attention to the general cleaning of the building. We threw out unnecessary and unusable materials and overhauled those that could be fixed with maintenance or repairs. Then we started the gardening of the building. We contacted the Regional Directorate of Forestry, procured 250 pine saplings and planted them around the building. With the support of my circuit mate from the Asphalt Battalion Command, we replaced the broken tiles of the building and made the necessary maintenance and repairs to the roof. The interior and exterior plastering and painting of the entire building were also repaired. Broken windows were replaced. We solved our heating problem to a great extent by having the necessary maintenance and repair work done to the heating and heating center of the building, which was malfunctioning. After bringing our building to a habitable level, I turned to maintenance and flight activities, which is our main field of activity. I started to work to improve the quality of aircraft maintenance activities. First of all, I endeavored to complete the missing technical orders (TO) and checklists of the personnel and the materials in the had staff. I also accelerated in-shop training activities to eliminate the training deficiencies of the personnel. 

During the last 4-5 months of these intensive activities, we constantly emphasized to the personnel that flight safety was our top priority, that the mechanics were the last person to perform general system activity control before handing over an aircraft to the pilot, and that any deficiency or defect they might detect constituted the last and most important step in flight safety, and that it was our principle that should never be compromised.

Meanwhile, in 1986, in our line, which had CF-104 aircraft in its inventory at that time, the following incident occurred shortly afterwards during a night flight: An airplane aborted for the third time. When I went to the aircraft with its engines running, I witnessed that the pilot was displaying angry behavior in the cockpit, and that he was having a heated argument with the engineer in charge of the aircraft. The mechanic was a young man who had joined us only two months ago. He was a staff member with the rank of Petty Officer Sergeant. The pilot insisted that this was an operational mission, that he had to fly, that the chocks had to be removed. 

So I decided to talk to the pilot directly. You wait in the cockpit for a while, we'll have a look with my friends. While the pilot was waiting in the cockpit, I asked the engineer what the malfunction was. The malfunction was of the type that could be seen when the hydraulic panel in the lower part of the rear fuselage was opened. The button of the afterburner (AB) system, which had to be checked on the ground before the flight, had to be pressed for testing purposes, and if the test result was active, the aircraft had to be allowed to fly. In short, it was one of the last checks. The engineer showed me on the spot that when the test button was pressed, an arc occurred inside the button and all the cables became incandescent because of this. The engineer was rightly obliged to interrupt the flight of the aircraft in this unsafe situation. In this situation, it seemed to be the right decision to stop the flight of the airplane. My young non-commissioned sergeant friend, who was very new and not yet experienced enough, made a vital decision in cold blood and communicated it to the pilot. This was the source of the argument between the pilot and the engineer. Naturally, the pilot was unaware of the bad scene that emerged when the AB test button was pressed.

I decided to clearly communicate the decision to cut the plane off to the pilot. I brought the ladder closer to the cockpit, explained the malfunction to the pilot and told him once again that the plane could not fly. The pilot, who was waiting in the cockpit for the plane to operate, accepted the situation and said, "It was not destiny for me to fly today." After the plane was secured, he silenced the engine on the spot and left the cockpit. 

We went under the plane with the pilot. The pilot, who had looked a little sad and a little tired due to not being able to fly until that moment, saw the gravity of the situation up close. He said, "I'm glad I didn't fly" and thanked me and especially our young engineer brother, a junior sergeant engineer who hadn't even grown a mustache yet, from the bottom of his heart. 

The pilot was happy not to fly. He was leaving the flight line with this joy. 

The young mechanic was pleased to be appreciated for doing his duty properly. He was leaving the flight line with the pride of having prevented an accident at the very beginning of his career. 

I, on the other hand, remember leaving the flight line that evening, proud of the discipline and understanding of flight safety displayed by a young friend, and proud that this valuable friend was serving on my line.

In the end, I thanked this young personnel who did not send the aircraft to flight by complying with the flight safety rules, which I had been emphasizing for a long time, and congratulated him for his exemplary behavior. Later, I selected him as the successful personnel of the month to set an example for everyone, and had his photo hung at the entrance of the 182nd Line Maintenance Command building.

As a result, if this aircraft had been given a flight, a fire would most likely have started in the tail section when it entered the EU during take-off. This would have resulted in severe damage to the aircraft, and perhaps even the loss of the aircraft. After experiencing this incident, I was extremely happy to witness that I was able to make my personnel understand and implement the importance of flight safety."

Conclusion

The ancients used to say: "Aviation is a team work." During the period I served in the Air Force, between 1988 and 2013, I was one of those who saw that this maxim was valid and learned its importance by experiencing it in all aviation activities. Nowadays, I am reading very valuable memoirs written by my predecessors. The more I read these memoirs, the better I understand how our Air Force has made great progress step by step since its establishment on June 1, 1911, how it has developed an important corporate culture over time, and how this corporate culture, the understanding that aviation is a teamwork, is the guarantee for our aircraft to fly in the Turkish skies. 

For this reason, I believe that we owe the fact that a young machinist, who was probably one or two years older than me, 'did not allow a flight with a malfunction', that he defended this with the self-confidence he had, that the line maintenance commander stood by his side and supported him, that the pilot appreciated this approach and did not fly, to the corporate culture and team understanding that we have in our Air Force as a whole. I see the assurance of the future of our Air Force in the assimilation and transfer of this culture from the old to the new and then to the future generations. I believe that the motto 'aviation is a teamwork' is still being followed and embraced today. 

References

Raif Bilgin, “Havacılığın Kilit Mesleği ve Sektörü; UÇAK BAKIM, Bölüm: 3”, STRASAM, 24 Kasım 2022, https://strasam.org/savunma/havacilik-ve-uzay-sanayii/havaciligin-kilit-meslegi-ve-sektoru-ucak-bakim-bolum-3-1407

Hava Kuvvetleri Anılar Kitabı, Ankara, 2009

Hava Kuvvetleri Web Sayfası, Hava Teknik Okullar Komutanlığı Tarihçesi, 2 Eylül 2019, https://www.hvkk.tsk.tr/Custom/Hvkk/96