Several years back, I heard of an airline first officer going through a preflight control check of the aircraft's elevator and ailerons. When pulling back to the end of travel, he noticed some grabbing and binding of the elevator cable. The FO told the captain, who agreed after his own flight control check, and air carrier maintenance was called.
The subsequent inspection revealed that the cable was routed around a spar in a manner that was out of accordance with the maintenance manual for the aircraft. The condition resulted in a frayed cable sawing through the spar. It was a matter of time before this cable severed and caused a catastrophic accident. By taking the flight control check seriously, this first officer may have saved many lives.
Maintenance personnel are human and can make errors like anyone else when they are tired, sick, on medication or stressed out about a personal issue. As pilots, we should never presume the aircraft is in perfect condition when returning from maintenance. As our fortieth president Ronald Reagan said about foreign affairs, we should "Trust but Verify" behind our maintenance coworkers and diligently follow preflight inspection flows and checklists.
Please take a moment to download and read the linked two-page safety bulletin on the subject. It has information you need to know and links to more information online.
Cut and paste this link: https://www.faasafety.gov/files/notices/2019/Sep/SE_Topic_16_02.pdf
Phil Dixon, FAASTeam Program Manager, Memphis, 901-322-8660, phil.dixon@faa.gov
