A CE550 was preflighted by the captain while waiting for his first officer.during his walk around a ...

Narrative:

Fuel control units were changed on both engines of cessna citation and a test flight was considered appropriate before passenger flights. An IFR flight plan was filed to FL450 and return to the departure airport. Preflight inspection was accomplished as the mechanics were installing the engine cowlings. At that time I did not see them using maintenance blankets on the wings; nor do I believe they were being used at that time. I also watched line service refuel this aircraft. It was decided that one of the mechanics would accompany us on this flight as an observer in case we encountered any abnormalities. We first had to wait for our copilot; who is also a captain; to return from a training flight that he was on. Apparently; one of the mechanics at some time used a maintenance blanket to stand on to clean finger prints off the engine cowlings. I believe this took place after my preflight was performed. With all present; we boarded. Engines start and taxi were normal. We were than cleared for takeoff. After lineup I began pushing the throttles forward and immediately heard what sounded like a tire blowout and the aircraft yawed slightly to the right. The aircraft hadn't rolled more than ten feet at that time. I immediately brought the throttles to idle; telling the copilot that I think the right tire blew out. We then noticed the right engine itt was red lined. We shut down the right engine immediately and requested clearance back to our hanger and instructed ATC to cancel our flight plan. We taxied back to the hangar and shutdown. Our mechanic got out first to inspect the engine and reported that it looked like we had ingested a large bird. On closer examination we discovered that we had ingested a maintenance blanket. This blanket was approximately 78' X 70' and we recovered 60% of the blanket that probably passed through the bypass and onto the runway. The other 40% probably went thorough the core of the engine (uncertain). Unsure if this warranted notifying the FAA; we elected to contact our FAA office. They examined the aircraft and suggested that I may be violated for improper preflight procedure. Corrective action: 1. Never preflight while maintenance is still underway. 2. Pilot and copilot should always walk a circular pattern around the aircraft prior to boarding for flight no matter how recent the preflight was performed. 3. Mechanics on maintenance test flights will also walk circular patterns around the aircraft prior to boarding for flight. Human performance factors:as pilot and copilot; we have our duties. In regard to preflight the copilot performs a thorough aircraft preflight while the captain performs the duties of weather briefing; filing flight plans etc. When the captain is finished; he/she goes to the aircraft and does a follow up preflight checking for obvious things such as oil and hydraulic levels; tires; loose panels; FOD; doors properly latch etc. As a captain; I always walk to the back of the aircraft to look forward to make sure that no damage has occurred since the preflight. I do this just before boarding for flight. On this day I failed to follow this routine procedure since I was the one that had preflighted it and didn't think the aircraft had been out of my sight. We approached the aircraft from the left forward side unable to view the right wing root under the right engine intake. We should disregard assumptions and err on the side of safety by performing that last minute walk around. In this case; the captain performed the preflight and no follow up preflight was performed by the copilot since this was not the norm for copilot duties in this sequence. We will have a flight department meeting involving pilots and mechanics. We will discuss every aspect of this incident and reaffirm the complete and detailed procedures to be followed prior to flight on all flights.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A CE550 was preflighted by the Captain while waiting for his First Officer.During his walk around a maintenance blanket on the wing which was not seen. It was subsequently ingested into the right engine.

Narrative: Fuel Control Units were changed on both engines of Cessna Citation and a test flight was considered appropriate before passenger flights. An IFR flight plan was filed to FL450 and return to the departure airport. Preflight inspection was accomplished as the mechanics were installing the engine cowlings. At that time I did not see them using maintenance blankets on the wings; nor do I believe they were being used at that time. I also watched line service refuel this aircraft. It was decided that one of the mechanics would accompany us on this flight as an observer in case we encountered any abnormalities. We first had to wait for our copilot; who is also a captain; to return from a training flight that he was on. Apparently; one of the mechanics at some time used a maintenance blanket to stand on to clean finger prints off the engine cowlings. I believe this took place after my preflight was performed. With all present; we boarded. Engines start and taxi were normal. We were than cleared for takeoff. After lineup I began pushing the throttles forward and immediately heard what sounded like a tire blowout and the aircraft yawed slightly to the right. The aircraft hadn't rolled more than ten feet at that time. I immediately brought the throttles to idle; telling the copilot that I think the right tire blew out. We then noticed the right engine ITT was red lined. We shut down the right engine immediately and requested clearance back to our hanger and instructed ATC to cancel our flight plan. We taxied back to the hangar and shutdown. Our mechanic got out first to inspect the engine and reported that it looked like we had ingested a large bird. On closer examination we discovered that we had ingested a maintenance blanket. This blanket was approximately 78' X 70' and we recovered 60% of the blanket that probably passed through the bypass and onto the runway. The other 40% probably went thorough the core of the engine (uncertain). Unsure if this warranted notifying the FAA; we elected to contact our FAA office. They examined the aircraft and suggested that I may be violated for improper preflight procedure. Corrective Action: 1. Never preflight while maintenance is still underway. 2. Pilot and copilot should always walk a circular pattern around the aircraft prior to boarding for flight no matter how recent the preflight was performed. 3. Mechanics on maintenance test flights will also walk circular patterns around the aircraft prior to boarding for flight. Human Performance Factors:As pilot and copilot; we have our duties. In regard to preflight the copilot performs a thorough aircraft preflight while the captain performs the duties of weather briefing; filing flight plans etc. When the captain is finished; he/she goes to the aircraft and does a follow up preflight checking for obvious things such as oil and hydraulic levels; tires; loose panels; FOD; doors properly latch etc. As a captain; I always walk to the back of the aircraft to look forward to make sure that no damage has occurred since the preflight. I do this just before boarding for flight. On this day I failed to follow this routine procedure since I was the one that had preflighted it and didn't think the aircraft had been out of my sight. We approached the aircraft from the left forward side unable to view the right wing root under the right engine intake. We should disregard assumptions and err on the side of safety by performing that last minute walk around. In this case; the Captain performed the preflight and no follow up preflight was performed by the copilot since this was not the norm for copilot duties in this sequence. We will have a flight department meeting involving pilots and mechanics. We will discuss every aspect of this incident and reaffirm the complete and detailed procedures to be followed prior to flight on all flights.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.

Attributes
ACN	969532
Time
Date	201109
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Tower
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Citation II S2/Bravo (C550)
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Takeoff
Route In Use	STAR JHAWK SIX
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Turbine Engine
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Flight Engineer
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 100 Flight Crew Total 23500 Flight Crew Type 10000
Person 2
Function	Pilot Not Flying First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 100 Flight Crew Total 3480 Flight Crew Type 350
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural FAR Deviation - Procedural Maintenance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

A CE550 was preflighted by the captain while waiting for his first officer.during his walk around a maintenance blanket on the wing which was not seen. It was subsequently ingested into the right engine.