Thursday, March 29, 2007

Irony of the Week

(As I tried to write this entry, I realized that it would be semi-proprietary information. Now I'm trying to figure out how to phrase this such that the irony comes through, without revealing the proprietary information.)

On any airplane, there are various things that are relatively hazardous, but are considered an acceptable risk, or are necessary in an emergency. For instance, small amounts of radioactive substances (tritium) are used for emergency lighting and explosives are used in various places such as emergency escape slides and engine pylons (don't think about why pylons need explosives.).

My problem part of the week is one of these potentially hazardous parts. It's fine on the airplane, properly installed. But, it can't actually fly on the LCF when the part is being shipped on a section. This isn't quite the academic concern; there was a major accident a few years ago involving hazardous airplane parts being shipped incorrectly.