Airport lawn crew mowing too close to airplane...

[mondtster]

At our small airport, the county did the mowing. I asked them to stay away from the airplanes. (I was the airport manager.) but one day a new guy was on the tractor, which had a mandated roll bar on it, and he drove under the wing of a Cessna 180 and crunched the flap and aileron with that roll bar, which was behind him, out of sight/out of mind. Expensive. After that, the county listened and sent any new guys to see me first.

The exact same thing happened at the small airport I work at. The groundskeeper’s summer helper had been cautioned several times about being aware of their surroundings and the expense of things if there was damage but it didn’t sink in until the ROPS bar tore the aileron and wingtip off of a 172 that happened to be parked in the grass. I don’t think he was employed too much longer after that, which was probably a good thing. He wasn’t receptive to remedial training.