Airliners.net

Link/Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/11/polit ... amination/

"Three Boeing mechanics caused $4 million of damage and could have sparked a mid-flight fire while repairing one of the planes in the Air Force One fleet, a federal investigation has found. "
"The oxygen system aboard one of the two VC-25 aircraft available to President Donald Trump was contaminated while the plane was undergoing maintenance at a Boeing plant in San Antonio, Texas between April 1 and April 10, 2016, according to an incident report released by Air Force investigators this week."


Please keep politics and political views to yourself. This is just about 3 Boeing maintenance who caused $4 million in damages to one of the Air Force One jets.

Could have also burned up flying Obama. Probably would have landed first though if there was a fire.

I'm trying to work out how a maintenance mistake resulting in a fire that occurred while on the ground could some how have resulted in a mid air fire...

Let's also remember this is aviation, more over its military aviation where even the most basic of component can get really expensive, really quickly, what was the actually damage?

mwhcvt wrote:

I'm trying to work out how a maintenance mistake resulting in a fire that occurred while on the ground could some how have resulted in a mid air fire...

Let's also remember this is aviation, more over its military aviation where even the most basic of component can get really expensive, really quickly, what was the actually damage?

I don't think there was a fire, reading the article, more the risk of one.
Introducing a contaminant into a high-oxygen environment is VERY hazardous, and special cleaning procedures are employed for all equipment used in manufacturing and servicing parts for oxygen systems to reduce the risk of contamination, and materials choices have to be made with care to reduce the risk of ignition if contaminants are introduced. Just the smallest of contaminants striking a surface at high velocity and/or pressure can generate enough heat to catch fire. Any oil or grease in the system may also ignite with enough heat and pressure This often would happen at constrictions such as valves and sharp corners, and can completely destroy robust-looking steel valves.
So what seems to have happened is these engineers used non-oxygen-safe tooling in their work, introducing the risk of system contamination and hence fire potential, which fortunately does not seem to have occurred. But the whole system will need to be cleaned-out to ensure it is safe, leading to the $4mil damage cost.

This video shows the basics;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaBghGKAOBo
http://caspaerospace.com/files/document ... n_Info.pdf

Then what? The mechanics or inspection caught it and fixed it before releasing the aircraft. "American Airlines planes that was having an engine change could have crashed it if flew with one engine"

If you read the airforcetimes article you'll also notice that the mechanics in question were on mandatory twelve hour shifts since the prior December. Add to that having maybe one day off in a week or none at all people shouldn't be too surprised when someone makes a mistake.

https://www.airforcetimes.com/articles/ ... gen-system