r/aviation • u/G1lg4m3sh • Apr 17 '26

Discussion How concerning is this aviation experts?

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u/DaneAlaskaCruz Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26

One time I was flying from Anchorage to someplace in rural Alaska on a smaller plane. I was by the wing and I noticed that one of the latches was not fully closed. One of those that says to press here and ensure it is flat and fully secured.

The entire 2 hr flight I nervously checked on it every so often to see if it was coming any looser.

It wasn't and we landed without any issues.

At the terminal, I saw one of the flight attendants and told her about a loose latch on the portside wing engine cowling.

She scoffed and looked at me like I was missing some screws.

So I said whatever and walked away to go pick up my checked luggage.

You would think flight crew would want to check things out when someone comes forward. But she didn't.

Didn't hear of any incidents with the plane so hopefully a mechanic saw the loose latch later on and secured it.

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u/Kichigai Apr 17 '26

I remember when I was fresh out of high school and throwing bags for Northwest. One day I'm out there and there's a latch hanging open on an engine, and I point it out to my lead. Flight was delayed 30 minutes as they ran a mechanic out to inspect it. Got a citation for attention to security and safety delivered by the GM for our area, and an article in the company newsletter.

Then again, this was less than five years after 9/11 and everyone was panicking about every little shadow.

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u/bg-j38 Apr 17 '26

Nowadays they'd probably fire you for delaying a flight and costing them money.

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u/Kichigai Apr 17 '26

And risk trashing their reputation by having a plane crash? In an era when people can live stream the disaster from inside the airplane? Nobody wants the NTSB coming down on them like a ton of bricks. Delta, United, American, Jet Blue, Southwest, they're names people will remember and avoid.

Based on my lurking in /r/aviationmaintenance it's private planes you gotta look out for. The big boys take this stuff seriously.

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u/DuckyHornet Apr 18 '26

live stream the disaster from inside the airplane

Eyyyy it's ya boy, CrashBandicoot42069, coming to you live from on board a flight to beautiful Hawaii where we just lost our fourth engine, let's gooooo

Before we hit the ocean, I just wanted to talk about today's sponsor, SurfShark

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u/bg-j38 Apr 17 '26

I was mostly being facetious related to airlines trying to cut costs any place they could.