[Jeff Higgins]

It's not sabotage. It's lazy, disinterested hourly employees (mechanics, sealers, electricians, etc.) that are shielded from discipline for this carelessness (and other forms of underperformance) by their union. It's a very frustrating, maddening situation.

I found a real haven from these slovenly union types in AOG. By virtue of it being a "special assignment", and an upgrade in union job classification for those guys, everyone who travelled with us had to qualify to do so. They did not have to qualify with their management or anything, they had to qualify with us - they guys they flew with. Everyone had to make three "tryout" trips, and the rest of the team - us engineers included - got to vote on whether they stay or go. It really separated the wheat from the chaff.

They did toolbox checks at the end of every shift. The bus that would take us back to the hotel would not leave until every tool was accounted for. Every rag, every sealant tube, every stir stick was tracked. Every part - including fasteners - that came off of the airplane was tagged and placed on a rack. Anything that was dropped was found before work resumed.

I remember one time in Tel Aviv I was walking under a wing when a mechanic working on the strut above me dropped a nut. It had obviously just fallen on the floor, maybe rolled under the hi-lift he was working from. Well, several hours later with the entire crew looking for it, we found it - it had taken a weird bounce and landed inside the c-channel frame on the hi-lift. Literally no one was going to work on that airplane until that nut was found. If it took until the end of shift, the bus would not leave until that nut was found.

And that's what it takes. It takes guys willing to commit to that level of discipline. Working in that environment, with mechanics like that, is a Godsend compared to working with their counterparts in the factory at home. And that is where the FOD comes from - slovenly mechanics who are protected by their union. No "process", no matter how robust, will be 100% effective with people like that.