Technician reported that a maintenance lift struck the elevator of an aircraft and caused damage.

Attributes
ACN	1692204
Time
Date	201910
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Commercial Fixed Wing
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Rudder
Person 1
Function	Technician
Qualification	Maintenance Airframe Maintenance Powerplant
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Deviation - Procedural Maintenance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Ground Event / Encounter Object

Narrative:

We were tasked with rigging the rudder servos we got in the lift to go up and we had two spotters watching us while we got in position once we were in position to do the job do to the lack of manpower the one spotter had returned to the airplane he was working on and the other spotter had to go to the cockpit of the aircraft to help us with pressurizing hydraulics so we could rig the rudder servos. We went to re-position the lift so we could finish the job the hydraulics were still pressurized so the elevator was not in the down position like it was when we got into position to do the job and we forgot our spotters left to do others jobs so when we went to reposition the lift the boom of the lift made contact with the right hand elevator of the aircraft. The event happened in the line maintenance hangar.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Technician reported that a maintenance lift struck the elevator of an aircraft and caused damage.

Narrative: We were tasked with rigging the rudder servos we got in the lift to go up and we had two spotters watching us while we got in position once we were in position to do the job do to the lack of manpower the one spotter had returned to the airplane he was working on and the other spotter had to go to the cockpit of the aircraft to help us with pressurizing hydraulics so we could rig the rudder servos. We went to re-position the lift so we could finish the job the hydraulics were still pressurized so the elevator was not in the down position like it was when we got into position to do the job and we forgot our spotters left to do others jobs so when we went to reposition the lift the boom of the lift made contact with the right hand elevator of the aircraft. The event happened in the Line Maintenance hangar.

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.