Word: pylon
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...worst in U.S. airline history. TIME has learned that the plane's No. 1 engine mount was weakened be cause of a short cut taken by mechanics in March. While they were doing routine maintenance work on the plane, they low ered engine No. 1 and its pylon, weighing a total of 18,500 Ibs., from the wing by a hydraulic forklift. Then, while the mechanics were remounting the assembly, they broke for lunch, leaving the engine and pylon suspended on the lift...
When the mechanics returned, the engine and pylon unit had shifted an almost imperceptible quarter-inch, throwing them out of exact alignment with their wing fittings. According to federal investigators, the workmen then used brute force to jam the unit into its mounting. The flange on the rear bulkhead of the pylon apparently cracked, so minutely that the fault was not detected The aircraft then flew some 100 flights before engine No. 1 ripped loose from the wing on May 25 in Chicago...
...report issued last week notes, the mechanics had ignored the maintenance instructions set forth in manuals by the DC-10 manufacturer, McDonnell Douglas. The manuals call for removing and remounting the engine and pylon separately-and preferably with an overhead lift and sling that can support the weight of the two assemblies more precisely than a forklift. Yet the FAA agreed with American Airlines that the manufacturer was aware of the one-step operation, which cuts maintenance time in half, at American hangars...
...showed no eagerness to lift the ban quickly, the European airlines became restive. Reason: they did not want to keep the plane on the ground, especially during the peak season of tourist travel. Although one of every three U.S.-owned DC-10s inspected had flaws in the pylon mountings (such as cracks, corrosion and serious stress in the attachment bulkheads), no similar problems were found on the European crafts. Furthermore, the European lines fly almost exclusively advanced, longer-range versions of the plane, known as the series 30 and 40, rather than the older, shorter-range series 10, which...
...times on the evasive, added to the growing suspicion in the aviation community that the FAA, for all its vigilance in the past, had not been properly supervising the maintenance procedures used on the DC-10. Before appearing on the Hill, Bond ordered a precautionary inspection of the engine pylon mountings on three other wide-bodied jets operated in the U.S.: the Boeing 747, Lockheed L-1011 TriStar and the European-built A300 Airbus...