Runway Runaway? Wheel chocks?

[NJFFSA16]

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - An unoccupied John Wayne Airport fire
truck rolled backward and struck an American Airlines jet preparing
to take off for New York on Tuesday. No one was hurt.
Ninety-seven passengers and six crew members were aboard
American Airlines Flight 250 during the 12:10 p.m. accident, which
damaged the Boeing 757's fuselage near the right wing, said airline
spokesman Tim Wagner. The fire truck's ladder also struck the nose
of the plane, Wagner said.
The fire truck rolled backward and hit the plane as it was
waiting on the taxiway but not moving, said Ann McCarley, a
spokeswoman for the Orange County airport.
The fire truck's crew was inside the terminal responding to a
medical call, she said. The truck's emergency brake was not
engaged, she said.
Passengers were taken off the flight and boarded another
American Airlines plane that departed for John F. Kennedy Airport
more than three hours later, Wagner said.
The runway remained open during the accident, McCarley said.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[blaze79]

Man, you forget to put the blocks under the wheels and the truck rolls away. You put the blocks under the wheels and then you forget that you put them there, causing a rather loud "KER-KLUNK" when you drive over them. You just can't win. Sigh...

[MalahatTwo7]

The KERLUNK is embarrassing in itself, but not nearly as bad as when the truck doesn't have enough power in the motor/transmission to overcome the wheel chock. The other embarrassing moment is when (much later) you realize that you have "lost" a chock. Only to find it buried into the ground...... *Looking around me.... nope no one saw that....*

[EFD840]

The KERKLUNK, the weak truck, and the missing chock are all embarrassing but I bet the engineer involved would gladly accept any of these over the NTSB report.

[MalahatTwo7]

Yep. EFD840, I think I can answer "YES" to that point. I am *ahem* responsible for the "Missing/in the dirt" chock...

[EFD840]

Since we're on a confession streak, I possibly once created a very loud KERKLUNK with the chief in the cab.

No way to look around and act innocent on that one.

[firenresq77]

As long as we're confessing.........

We had a fundraiser at the station one day and all of the trucks we're parked outside. Well, on this day, someone decided to park the Mini-pumper in a parking spot on the side of the building and used a chock (which, right wrong or indifferent, usually didn't happen). I was still fairly new and not used to driving a stick shift. After the fundraiser was over we were pulling all of the trucks back into the station. Did I mention I wasn't used to driving a manual transmission??????????


Ended up shooting the chock behind the truck and it hit the building..... missed the gas meter for the building by about a foot......

[Bones42]

Ok, we use to "lose" wheel chocks also once in a while. We ended up putting a short rope with a loop on the free end. Tied the rope to the wheel chock, hang the loop over the drivers door handle. Kind of hard to "lose" the chocks anymore... Just an idea.

[FireSarge]

hmm no the worst was when the driver drove over the chock and you heard a loud POP!!!


wouldnt you say

[RyanEMVFD]

what's worse is when you are backing the truck up somewhere and you have someone backing you and they run you into a tree, a sign, a building or something that they saw but let you hit anyway.

[blaze79]

On the subject of screwing up, I have another story. During our FFTS 600 exam, "someone" (cough cough) forgot to put the transmission into drive before preparing to flow water. I was trying to throttle up to 1100 KPa but it wouldn't go past 100. The tester was thinking that something was wrong with the truck when one of my classmates piped up and told him what I did wrong. Fortunately, the tester laughed as I climbed back into the cab and shifted into drive. Boy, was my face red. I had never made that mistake before, but I have a tendency to get very nervous when taking exams. It was a great example of what NOT to do when trying to operate a pump.

[FireSarge]

LOL

*feels embarassed*


how did you know chief


i yelled for him to stop just before he put Ladder 26 into a concrete wall. it was a brand new truck but luckily it only broke off a little piece of plastic

[ARFF26]

We read the FAA report on the John Wayne ARFF truck at work the other night and were LOAO. It is one of those "there but for the grace of God go I" things. You always worry about running over runway lights and all that stuff but hitting a plane is a biggie, ranks up there with being on the runway when a plane wants to be there too. Baaaaad juju and looked on VERY poorly by the FAA.

[gfowlston]

Speaking of screwing up, we have a new 105ft all wheel steer and one of our drivers hit the bay door going up not once but twice, once leaving and once pulling in.

[DanTCFD]

I feel bad for the department that bought their nice, big, fancy new aerial, received delivery, only to find out it wouldn't fit in their station! lol, there's pics floating around somewhere of it.

[FireSarge]

we had to install a new bay door

[engine23ccvfd]

One of my all time fav pics is the Pierce Demo unit in Boston....turns out they have some low bridges up that way... Still I think I would rather get stuck in a tunnel/bay than smack a 757....Geez I wonder what the fee is to re-certify a plane frame?

[blaze79]

Not as much as the fee to restore the department's reputation. LOL

[Kvfcjr]

How about an auto-matic wheel chock that goes inot place when the parking brake is applied. sounds odd, but it would save chocks from being lost, or KERKLUNK

[FlyingKiwi]

Are you volunteering for the position?