FOD Walk

I spent a lot of time on the flight line during my Navy service servicing aircraft. I was careful not to leave tools or  hardware on the ground where it might be sucked into a jet engine. This stray material was referred to as FOD which was an acronym for foreign object damage.

As a preventative measure we conducted a  “FOD walk” before flight operations. We gathered in a single line up and walked the length of the flight deck looking for a stray screw or piece of wire. One of my shipmates quipped “Maybe they should leave a joint on the ground for us to find”.