I'm inspecting an airplane
Just any old airplane
Could be a Cessna 150
Could be a Boeing 747
I'm looking for anything that might be wrong
Corrosion on the metal surfaces
Damage or delamination of composite structure
Improperly routed or damaged wiring
Worn or broken things of any kind
Going along with my flashlight and mirror
Peeking inside all the open panels
A checklist of areas and things to look for on my clipboard
And then I get to an unopened area
Whomever did the 'Open' step on the work cards forgot this one
It's not a big area
About one cubic foot of area all told
I stare at it thoughtfully
Knowing that on this type of airplane
I've never found anything wrong in this particular area
Nothing
Ever
Not in ten years of looking at these aircraft
So I move on
Confident that nothing could be wrong in there
Looking at everything else
Finishing my inspection paperwork
Writing my non-routine cards
Punching out and going home
Not a care in the world
Until I lay in bed that night
Thinking about things
Thinking about that unopened panel
That one cubic foot of space that I did not look at
But that I had signed for saying that I had
I couldn't get to sleep
I kept seeing things in that one cubic foot space
I saw corrosion on the wing spar
I saw wiring that had chafed through and was arcing
I saw broken brackets and clamps on tubing
I saw a flashlight and a rag that someone had left up there months before
I saw everything possible that could be wrong in that one cubic foot
All because I had not actually looked
Therefore everything was wrong inside that area
I finally got to sleep
But it was a fitful sleep
My dreams even worse than my thoughts
Creatures inhabited that one cubic foot in my dreams
Doing wild and crazy things
Full of bees
Full of bats
Full of metal eating grubs
The next morning I was tired
But on my way to my car I grabbed my ratcheting screwdriver
The good one
The Snap-On one with the amazing 'bowling ball material' handle
That I'd had for twenty years
I took it with me to work
And at lunch time that day
Instead of sitting down and eating
I snuck out to the airplane
I opened that panel by removing forty two screws
Placing them carefully inside a parts bag
And I looked inside with my flashlight
Of course, there was nothing wrong inside there
But until I looked
Everything and anything was wrong inside there
Erwin Schrodinger was on to something with that cat thing
Just any old airplane
Could be a Cessna 150
Could be a Boeing 747
I'm looking for anything that might be wrong
Corrosion on the metal surfaces
Damage or delamination of composite structure
Improperly routed or damaged wiring
Worn or broken things of any kind
Going along with my flashlight and mirror
Peeking inside all the open panels
A checklist of areas and things to look for on my clipboard
And then I get to an unopened area
Whomever did the 'Open' step on the work cards forgot this one
It's not a big area
About one cubic foot of area all told
I stare at it thoughtfully
Knowing that on this type of airplane
I've never found anything wrong in this particular area
Nothing
Ever
Not in ten years of looking at these aircraft
So I move on
Confident that nothing could be wrong in there
Looking at everything else
Finishing my inspection paperwork
Writing my non-routine cards
Punching out and going home
Not a care in the world
Until I lay in bed that night
Thinking about things
Thinking about that unopened panel
That one cubic foot of space that I did not look at
But that I had signed for saying that I had
I couldn't get to sleep
I kept seeing things in that one cubic foot space
I saw corrosion on the wing spar
I saw wiring that had chafed through and was arcing
I saw broken brackets and clamps on tubing
I saw a flashlight and a rag that someone had left up there months before
I saw everything possible that could be wrong in that one cubic foot
All because I had not actually looked
Therefore everything was wrong inside that area
I finally got to sleep
But it was a fitful sleep
My dreams even worse than my thoughts
Creatures inhabited that one cubic foot in my dreams
Doing wild and crazy things
Full of bees
Full of bats
Full of metal eating grubs
The next morning I was tired
But on my way to my car I grabbed my ratcheting screwdriver
The good one
The Snap-On one with the amazing 'bowling ball material' handle
That I'd had for twenty years
I took it with me to work
And at lunch time that day
Instead of sitting down and eating
I snuck out to the airplane
I opened that panel by removing forty two screws
Placing them carefully inside a parts bag
And I looked inside with my flashlight
Of course, there was nothing wrong inside there
But until I looked
Everything and anything was wrong inside there
Erwin Schrodinger was on to something with that cat thing
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