Complacency Kills– Pay Attention to Details!

     An airplane refueling mistake is reported to be the cause of a crash of an air ambulance in New Mexico in late August, 2014.  The airplane had picked up a patient, two medical personnel and were returning to El Paso, Texas when the airplane started to have difficulty about 200 feet above takeoff.
   
       Smoke poured out of the right engine and the pilot was unable to gain sufficient altitude to return the plane to base before it crashed, killing both pilots, the medical evacuee as well as the two medical staff on board.

        An analysis of the fuel in the fuel tank identified that the fuel was the wrong type of aviation gas for this particular engine.  Lack of attention to detail caused five people to perish.

         One of our clients put gasoline into his diesel truck one day while delivering some product for a client.  Interestingly, he was only about 1/2 mile out of town before he recognized his mistake– the truck did not run.  It took about 3 hours to get a wrecker to come and tow the truck to the nearest town where a mechanic could drain the fuel, replace the damaged parts and get the truck operational again.  Of course, it took several days as well– our client had to rent a truck and come back to home base while his truck was repaired.

          Don’t become complacent.  Pay attention to detail– this is a key, no matter what type of business one is in.  Attention to detail is the key to success.  Paying attention to the little details will allow the big details to take care of themselves.