"B.B." u wrote in message
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This was at my dad's work. They were moving an F-16 with a crane
when there was a loud pop. Naturally, they stopped the crane, and
unnaturally a bunch of people started walking around the plane to figure
out what had popped. Including roaming around beneath it.
Nobody found anything, so everyone got back and they started moving
the whole thing again. A second later, popoh****wham! F16 on the floor
with a few million in damage to it.
Turns out when they recently overhauled the cranes there someone
ordered a wrong bolt--was off by one line in the chart. So the
connection between the hook and the pulleys wasn't strong enough and
gave way.
They're extremely lucky the thing didn't fall on those idiots under
it. At that time it was down to one half-sheared bolt holding up the
whole weight.

This story isn't safety related, but is quite funny. When I worked for BAe
Military Aircraft at Brough some years ago they supplied McDonnell-Douglas
in the US with several wings for the Harriers they were making under
license. When the wings were offered up to a fuselage it was found that the
fixing holes in the wings and the fuselage didn't match up! It was actually
BAe's fault, and the wings had to be returned to our factory at great
expense and reworked.