No Aircraft
Maintenance Airframe; Maintenance Powerplant
Maintenance Technician 29
Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Maintenance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General Maintenance Action
Company Policy; Equipment / Tooling; Procedure
The left upper deck safety rail broke in two spots when I leaned against it. Upon further inspection I found one more broken weld; the reason they broke was due to cold welds. I found five more cold welds on both the right and left railings. The two welds that broke appeared to have been recently done; but the rest seemed much older. This suggests that this has been going on for awhile and there may be many other unsafe welds on other pieces of equipment. Safety rails on lift trucks; JLG's; de-icing trucks; etc...I informed Hangar Supervisors and I tagged the vehicle and brought it to the Ground Equipment Shop. I also showed the Midnight Ground Equipment Lead the welds. I suggested that whoever is doing these welds should stop immediately until he learns how to weld and gets certified.I would suggest that only certified welders repair our equipment. I also think they should check the ground equipment safety features (hand rail lift trucks etc…) for more bad welds.
Reporter stated he was standing on the upper platform of an AirStair's passenger loading truck that is used to enter and exit B757-200 aircraft when suddenly the welded steel tube railing broke. He is over six feet; six inches tall and if he had fell over; the drop to the concrete was long. He found nine spots of broken and inadequate welds on different sections of the remaining railings. The same truck had recently been used to off-load an entire football team.Reporter stated many of the welds looked like someone had tried to TIG Weld or just spot weld instead of doing a complete weld around each rail tube. Some of the other vehicles do have aluminum rails instead of steel; they also were cracked. He received little support for getting the rest of their ground equipment inspected for similar support rails that may be broken or have unsafe welds; including the belt type baggage loaders and cargo pod loaders.
A Mechanic reports an upper deck safety rail broke in two spots when he leaned against the steel supports on an Air-Stairs passenger loading truck used for entering and exiting a B757-200 aircraft. Numerous other sections of the railings were broken or had 'cold' welds that were not safe.