Maintenance Airframe; Maintenance Powerplant
Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Maintenance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General Maintenance Action
Aircraft; Human Factors; Procedure
An aircraft came in for a weight and balance. After the aircraft was defueled we pushed it into the corner of the hangar in front of the chemical room. I walked over to check on the guys and to see how the work was coming along. As I was walking by the mechanics called me over to the aircraft and they said I needed to come take a look inside of the dry bays just forward of the MLG (Main Landing Gear) wheel wells where the fuel sump drains are located. I looked up into the LH bay and saw a hydraulic fuse zip tied; I then looked up into the RH bay and saw the other fuse zip tied. I asked the mechanics to get a picture and send it to me. I then asked the guys to cut the zip ties and we then verified after they were cut that the levers on both fuses were in the correct positions and they then performed an ops check. It was a complete oversight on my part to not check the other fuses that exist on the aircraft to ensure that they were not zip tied also. Being the 2nd most senior mechanic on shift and also being the shift supervisor it was a complete oversight on my part to not inform them to document what we found and to not take the initiative and document it myself. In all sincerity I just didn't quite understand the seriousness of the situation and how big of an impact it could have had on the safety of flight. I thought of it as a couple of zip ties and nothing more; which is a complete failure on my part. I take responsibility for this; my guys did the correct thing by letting me know what they had found and I failed them by not informing them to document it and not documenting it myself. There was some operational check that were performed at a previous date that requires the hydraulic fuses to be placed in the bypass position. After the check was performed the zip ties were forgotten and not removed from the fuses that were on the aircraft. Anytime we find a situation where things are not as they should be with an aircraft we need to document it. It doesn't matter how big or small it seems to be it must be documented.
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The maintenance crew for an Embraer reported the brake system hydraulic fuses were zip tied in the bypass position.