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My father was a ground engineer in the RAF and 60-odd years ago I heard noises from my parents' room at 0530, earlier than his normal departure time of 0700. Being a teenager I turned over and went back to sleep.
Long, long afterwards my father told me he had dreamt of an aircraft crash. Running towards the vast pall of smoke and flame, all too common in those days, he met an airman running back shouting "Crossed controls, crossed controls!" He woke abruptly and remembered that one of his aircraft was due to return to service after major overhaul and had a terrible premonition.
He left for the airfield at once and found the elevator cables on that aircraft had been misassembled so the control worked in reverse order. The perpetrators had been two of his most reliable airmen. The mistake should have been discovered in pre-flight inspection, but sometimes it wasn't ...
My father never knew what inspired his dream; we put it down to some sixth sense. My moral is that if you're unsure about a job you have done, be it plumbing, gas, or aircraft control systems, go back and put your mind at rest.
Long, long afterwards my father told me he had dreamt of an aircraft crash. Running towards the vast pall of smoke and flame, all too common in those days, he met an airman running back shouting "Crossed controls, crossed controls!" He woke abruptly and remembered that one of his aircraft was due to return to service after major overhaul and had a terrible premonition.
He left for the airfield at once and found the elevator cables on that aircraft had been misassembled so the control worked in reverse order. The perpetrators had been two of his most reliable airmen. The mistake should have been discovered in pre-flight inspection, but sometimes it wasn't ...
My father never knew what inspired his dream; we put it down to some sixth sense. My moral is that if you're unsure about a job you have done, be it plumbing, gas, or aircraft control systems, go back and put your mind at rest.