Airmen save money by preventing FOD

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Jaimi L. Upthegrove
  • 482nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs
HOMESTEAD AIR RESERVE BASE, Fla. --  Foreign object damage, known as FOD, is a virus that plagues the Air Force costing precious time and money to repair equipment inadvertently damaged.

Defined is any damage to an aircraft that can be attributed to a foreign object that may or may not degrade its ability to safely perform the mission, FOD is a continuous challenge members of the 482nd Maintenance Group face.

"FOD prevention is the biggest thing we have to worry about in this shop," said Airman 1st Class Eric Stites, an aerospace propulsion technician for the 482nd Maintenance Squadron engine shop. "Even a small piece of FOD could result in the entire engine being taken apart for repairs."

A lone piece of FOD can easily cause more than $45,000 in a single incident, explained Stites. FOD can be caused by something as small as a tiny, loose piece of gravel getting sucked into and aircraft's engine.

Some FOD is inevitable, such as bird strikes, volcanic ash, and some runway debris, but every Airman who goes on or near the flight line must remain vigilant for what FOD can be prevented.

The most important step the Air Force has taken to prevent FOD is the training and importance they put on prevention. In 2013, Stites won the fourth quarter safety award for his keen eye and attention to detail, which aided in the prevention of continued FOD.

He noticed some of the engines they had worked on were coming back from testing with damage that wasn't there when they left - even though they had been thoroughly examined with the borescope. Stites took a second look at an engine that was taken apart and had similar damage, noticing holes in the rub strip, which is a rubber ring the blades come in contact with around the engine casing.

He probed the holes with a scribe and found tiny steel balls lodged in the engines rub strip that were the right size and shape to have been causing both the initial and continued damage. They were small, like the ball in a ball-point pen, and caused significant amounts of damage. His finding was estimated to have saved $35,000 per engine.

In today's tight fiscal climate, FOD is simply unacceptable when it can be prevented. So when on or near the flight line, look down from time-to-time, and pick up anything that can be picked up. You may just save the AF thousands of taxpayer dollars.

The Air Force has taken many steps in preventing FOD, and these measures have reduced the overall cost spent repairing engines. One of the steps maintainers here have taken is the tool accountability program, which is an Air Force wide program.

"All forms of FOD prevention are important because safety of flight is a point of paramount significance," said Senior Master Sgt. Mark Marta, 482nd MXS jet engine intermediate maintenance section chief. "FOD is very expensive, in both dollars and man-power hours."

The tool accountability program grooms every Airman working on the aircraft or aircraft parts to know where their tools are at all times, and forces them to physically account for each one before packing up at the end of the day, he explained.

This is important because tools can easily get misplaced and cause significant damage due to the durable material they are made of and their size.

In addition to accounting for every tool, Airmen working in the engine shop use a borescope to check the engine internally for any foreign object that may cause FOD before sending off for testing, and when it comes back.

Effective FOD prevention measures include tire checks and FOD walks. Any vehicle entering the flight line must have their tires checked for anything that has the potential to become FOD. On each morning that flying will be conducted, members from 482nd MXG can be seen lined up across the flight line walking, shoulder to shoulder, from one end of the Mako ramp to the other, heads bent in concentration.

They scour the ground for anything that could become FOD. At the end of the walk, a member of the 482nd Maintenance Group Quality Assurance team gathers everything found and puts it in a bag for review.

"FOD walks are important because they keep the heart of our aircraft, the engine, healthy," said Master Sgt. Jason Mattice, a quality assurance inspector for the 482nd MXG. "FOD is a major reason why our engines suffer the damage that they do, and most of it can be prevented. With our aircraft having only one engine, we have no room for error."