Narrative:

[Maintenance worker] was seriously injured while using a forklift to remove a flap from a 757. These injuries resulted from being forced by the company to use equipment unsafe to change flaps on aircraft. Amts were forced to use a forklift to replace the main aft flap on aircraft X risking injury to amts and damage to aircraft. The company has also failed/refused to provide any information on what equipment forklifts may be used for or instruction/precautions when using the forklift to secure flight controls and other large objects. The company's negligence could result in catastrophic failure.[a similar incident resulted in] the flight crashed during takeoff when the number 1 engine separated from the wing. The engine separated as a result of a new procedure whereby amts used a forklift to support the engine while it was being detached from the wing. While most other carriers used a hoist; [this company] used a forklift. Under the procedure used; if the forklift was in the wrong position; the engine would rock like a see-saw and jam against the pylon attachment points. The procedure used caused an indentation that damaged the clevis pin assembly and created an indentation in the housing of the self-aligning bearing; which in turn weakened the structure sufficiently to cause a small stress fracture. The fracture went unnoticed for several flights; getting worse each flight. During takeoff; enough force was generated to finally cause the pylon to fail. At the point of rotation; the engine detached and was flipped over the top of the wing

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B757 Maintenance Technician reported that they used a forklift to replace the main aft flap.

Narrative: [Maintenance Worker] was seriously injured while using a forklift to remove a flap from a 757. These injuries resulted from being forced by the Company to use equipment unsafe to change flaps on aircraft. AMTs were forced to use a forklift to replace the main aft flap on Aircraft X risking injury to AMTs and damage to aircraft. The Company has also failed/refused to provide any information on what equipment forklifts may be used for or instruction/precautions when using the forklift to secure flight controls and other large objects. The Company's negligence could result in catastrophic failure.[A similar incident resulted in] the flight crashed during takeoff when the Number 1 engine separated from the wing. The engine separated as a result of a new procedure whereby AMTs used a forklift to support the engine while it was being detached from the wing. While most other carriers used a hoist; [this company] used a forklift. Under the procedure used; if the forklift was in the wrong position; the engine would rock like a see-saw and jam against the pylon attachment points. The procedure used caused an indentation that damaged the clevis pin assembly and created an indentation in the housing of the self-aligning bearing; which in turn weakened the structure sufficiently to cause a small stress fracture. The fracture went unnoticed for several flights; getting worse each flight. During takeoff; enough force was generated to finally cause the pylon to fail. At the point of rotation; the engine detached and was flipped over the top of the wing

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.