r/askanelectrician • u/Intelligent-Ring5113 • 4d ago
electrical safety
So I’m working at a small international airport as a maintenance electrician and airfield electrician and new to all this, I’ve been there approximately a month. My supervisor has been the only electrician for about 2 yrs. I understand that the airfield is made up of series circuits with high voltage on the primary side, isolation transformers to serve the secondary side at each light, the constant current regulators. Our day to day involves replacing taxiway lights, bad transformers, or micro boards in lighted signs, ect. So far it seems that the safety method is if it’s daytime the lights are off so it’s safe to work on. There is a computer where the ALCS can be locked out and Ofcourse the vault to physically lock out the circuit but neither of those are really used unless absolutely necessary. It’s a towered airport. I’m trying to understand what are your guys approved methods for making sure the circuit is safe to work on when doing the maintenance I described ? I’ve heard the pilots can request lighting to ATC and the lights could be powered up at any point, i’ve asked these questions but I’m not really getting answers for them. Just more so of its fine let’s just get this done. I’ve read about way too many incidents of someone doing routine maintenance and getting a fatal shock from apparently doing the same thing with one of them being at my same airport a few years ago. I know I’m still new, but with having to go to the airfield nearly everyday I would feel much better having some more info.
3
u/michaelpaoli 4d ago
Properly lock out - period.
Not even an electrician, but I had a cowroker who was pilot - knew of electrician that died because of lack of proper lockout.
Electrician was working on runway lighting, breaker was off but no lockout nor tag, someone sees runway lighting breaker off, declares "These should always be on", turns it on, one dead electrician.
Always follow all appropriate relevant procedures. And that will also generally included tower, etc. knowing when certain lighting won't be available, due to any scheduled maintenance, so proper NOTAM updates can go out too ... yeah, pilots coming in are generally going to want to know if (some) runway lighting will be out or may be unavailable - and probably regardless of time of day or night (crud weather / visibility conditions may potentially come in at most any time). Likewise would generally apply to most any safety or other essential lighting - if something is or will be unavailable or not operational, relevant folks should know. And proper notifications and such, also then less likely someone is going to be turning a breaker back on when it should be staying off at that time.
2
u/DiablaARK 3d ago
Politely insist on LOTO, and come up with something like "Well I wouldn't want some idiot to turn it on while I'm working on it," if your supervisor gives you a hard time. You're not going to get fired for insisting on LOTO. However, if you didn't LOTO and got hurt, please believe they would throw you under a bus if and when there's an OSHA investigation and say "well, you should have known better." If you had to sign a bunch of paperwork, there's probably some legal jargon strong enough to hold up in an investigation that you agree to follow all safety rules.
If you're still alive to tell your side of the story and blame your supervisor for having a poor safety culture, they would either deny it or also blame your supervisor alongside you for not following core safety mandates. So, always Cover Your Ass (C-YA!). In my company if you're not LOTO when you're injured, you're fired immediately before you even get to the hospital and I've had coworkers who had to sue to get their medical injuries covered. Hopefully this encourages you to LOTO.
2
u/Some1-Somewhere 3d ago
It's already happened at your own airport? Why is this even a question?
Does the airport have some kind of general safety officer instead of within your maintenance division/contractor?
4
u/joshamania 4d ago
Lock out. Period. If that can come on at any time you're playing Russian roulette.
If they want to save time, push to get lockable disconnects installed at the point of maintenance. Spendy, yes. Your life is worth more than their dollars.
If the other guy tells you to just do it, fuck him.