Narrative:

I was working in the gear well area and laid pliers down. I thought that I had removed the pliers from the area [and] I even swept the area visually and reached in the hole where I thought I might have left them. I felt nothing and looked down at my tool tray thinking even now that I saw the tool in my tool tray. However seeing as I don't have the pliers I can only believe that what I thought I saw really wasn't my pliers. So as soon as I put two and two together I contacted my supervisor. Supervisor called maintenance control and they dispatched contract maintenance to drop the wheel bin and look. According to on call maintenance no pliers were found. More time to work on the aircraft would help; but the bottom line is if I had been thinking clearly at the time and did a review like I normally do of my tools at the end of the night this definitely would not have happened. If I had not laid the tool down in the wheel well area and put the pliers on the floor like I try to always do this would not have happened. If I looked with a mirror instead of just reaching into the hole this would not have occurred. Whether or not outside conditions played a part in this situation the bottom line is I allowed this to occur because I broke the chain and I am ultimately responsible for my actions.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Fearing he had left a pair of pliers in an aircraft workspace; a Mechanic initiated a search but failed to find them.

Narrative: I was working in the gear well area and laid pliers down. I thought that I had removed the pliers from the area [and] I even swept the area visually and reached in the hole where I thought I might have left them. I felt nothing and looked down at my tool tray thinking even now that I saw the tool in my tool tray. However seeing as I don't have the pliers I can only believe that what I thought I saw really wasn't my pliers. So as soon as I put two and two together I contacted my Supervisor. Supervisor called Maintenance Control and they dispatched Contract Maintenance to drop the wheel bin and look. According to on call maintenance no pliers were found. More time to work on the aircraft would help; but the bottom line is if I had been thinking clearly at the time and did a review like I normally do of my tools at the end of the night this definitely would not have happened. If I had not laid the tool down in the wheel well area and put the pliers on the floor like I try to always do this would not have happened. If I looked with a mirror instead of just reaching into the hole this would not have occurred. Whether or not outside conditions played a part in this situation the bottom line is I allowed this to occur because I broke the chain and I am ultimately responsible for my actions.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.