

How to repossess an airliner - mootothemax
http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/Grab-the-Airplane-and-Go.html

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tbrooks
Awesome story, this appeared on Salon.com last year:

[http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/06/06/lear_jet_repo_m...](http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/06/06/lear_jet_repo_man)

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mattmaroon
I never understand how this happens. The one reporter sees the other article
and thinks "hey, I just have to write the exact same story, but in different
words!" Then they probably go home to their wives and complain about the
massive downsizing in their industry.

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dcurtis
More like, "Oh, wow, they got a lot of attention from their market! If I write
the same thing using different words, I can get lots of attention in my
market!"

It works.

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mattmaroon
Isn't everyone's market everyone now?

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borism
depends on who's "everyone"

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Groxx
Good article, and a rather epic job. A fun read :)

I liked the comment about repossessing a _train car_. That's somewhat more
difficult, I have to admit.

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bmalicoat
If you liked that you may enjoy this:
[http://www.wired.com/print/science/discoveries/magazine/16-0...](http://www.wired.com/print/science/discoveries/magazine/16-03/ff_seacowboys)

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Mankhool
These two details are really quite scary.

"Engines are sometimes leased separately and shuffled around within an
airline’s fleet . . ."

"Cut-rate Tower Air kept its wide-body fleet flying by quietly dismantling a
trio of 747s leased from GMAC and dispersing the components among its 18 other
airplanes."

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borism
Why is it scary? Engines are a significant part of airplane cost and just like
planes they only make money when flying, so it totally makes sense to use
working engines from grounded aircraft as a replacement for flying aircraft.
All airlines do this all the time.

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reduxredacted
I think it's more like this: If they stopped making payments, it's safe to say
they might be cutting corners in maintenance as well.

 _"We just watched and waited until the crew checked into their hotel",
Popovich says, "then we grabbed their plane and flew away."_

That certainly doesn't sound like they're doing a lot of inspection to ensure
a safe return. Granted, it's only their hind-ends and they are aware of the
risks, but I think this guy and his crew certainly deserve a brass balls
award.

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sokoloff
That's one of the beauties of a turbine engine. If it starts and N1, N2 RPM
and fuel flow is within spec, and you don't exhaust the fuel, the chance that
that engine will run for another 5 hours is extremely high.

If my experiences with my own (single piston engined) airplane are in any way
representative, I would be surprised if the first flight out of major
maintenance isn't statistically significantly riskier than a random repo
flight.

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yosho
now there's a cool job

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rokhayakebe
I would not want to repo a plane from the wrong people. They could sabotage it
every time they leave it. I don't know how easy/hard it would be to unplug
something on a plane,something that will not look obvious.

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blhack
Short of sabotaging it structurally, there isn't much they could do. Planes
can glide if they need to.

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sean12345
I doubt many people would want to make a glider out a 747!

