Health and safety

Over the course of the lab sessions various precautions had to be taken with regards to safety. From the brake task the hazards were as follows;

• potential slip hazard from hydraulic fluid if the aircraft had been operational.
• possibility of hitting your head when working under the aircraft wing to remove the tyre.
• working with heavy loads e.g the tyre during removal. 
• possibility of working with hot materials is the aircraft had been operational and service began immediately after the aircraft landed.
• working alongside the sharp edges of the aircraft wings.

With respect to the following health and safety issues the following measures were/would (be) used to mitigate the hazards;

• As the aircraft had not been operational for a long time, the aircraft did not need to be drained of hydraulic fluid from its landing gear so that hazard was already dealt with. In addition to that, for the slip hazard, use of an absorbing agent to contain spills would be a suitable way of managing the concern.
• For this particular hazard in the context of lab the only mitigating factor that could be implemented is for the maintenance engineer would be to show precaution when standing and getting under the aircraft wing. In a real world scenario however, the aircraft could be hoisted up using various devices to eliminate that risk. With consequence to this however, the risk of working with heavy objects at height would then arise, which is more detrimental to a persons safety.
• Working as a team or using machinery designed to hoist the tyre out safely would be a mitigating factor for this hazard. With regards to this however, the tyre was not really that heavy when inflated so if deflated the task could easily be performed by a fit person.
• Use of a cooling agent such as water could be used to cool the brakes after the aircraft comes to a halt. Consequently to this approach however, if this was done multiple times the constant sudden change to the temperature of the brakes, would lead to their shelf life decreasing at a faster rate as cracks would form through the rapid expansion and contraction of the metal. so the most reasonable method of mitigating this risk would be to undertake other tasks on the aircraft in the meanwhile, whilst the breaks cooled of naturally.
• use of foam pads on the edges of  the wing, so that if someone hits their head the blow is cushioned.

For the metrology lab there were no real concerns with regards to health and safety. With regards to this claim I would suggest that i a person was competent enough to understand the machines he was using and showed reasonable precaution to the mains connection, there was no real danger to their health.

In addition to this however, in the case of another form of NDT a precaution when dyeing the component under scrutiny, would be the use of protective clothing such as gloves to stop the dye coming into contact with the skin, and the use of a facial mask to stop the fumes of the dye from being inhaled.