The day a bird's nest caused a full avionics fault on a Citation in Phoenix

Got called out to a Citation at Sky Harbor last Tuesday for a weird nav system fault that kept resetting. Spent 3 hours checking connectors and software before I found a pack of twigs and dried grass from a bird nest jammed behind the main avionics rack, shorting a data bus. The captain just laughed and said 'guess they wanted a free ride.' Anyone else had a random animal cause a major fault like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

park.iris2mo ago

My buddy found a snake in a King Air's static port.

brown.reese2mo ago

A snake in a static port sounds like a small thing, not a major fault.

masondixon1mo ago

You say a snake in a static port is "a small thing, not a major fault," but I gotta push back on that. A blocked static port on a King Air can mess with your airspeed and altimeter readings in a big way. That's not just a minor inconvenience, that's a serious safety issue if you're flying IFR or at night. A nest of twigs shorting a data bus is nuts, but so is a critter blocking your pitot-static system. Both can ground a plane real quick and cost a pile of money to fix right.