Even if that metal tip does hit something hot, there's no place for the electricity to go.
With luck, the apprentice will catch the leader as it enters the panel, .... snip ....
and if it takes one one of the phases to ground in a piece of switchgear?
the metal head on most plastic fish tapes is an inch long... that's enough.
i've got a problem with the apprentice standing there with luck in one hand,
and trying to catch a fish tape with the other.
YOU stand there and catch it. thirty five years ago, an apprentice wasn't
allowed into live gear till their last year of apprenticeship.
today, you direct ANY employee to work something energized, in violation
of NFPA 70E, and most employers above the two man shop level will
smoke you in a heartbeat.
one of the larger shops in this area, about $75M per year in work, has a
policy of NO HOT WORK AT ALL. anyone working stuff hot is immediately
terminated.
no exceptions.
they had a guy die a few years back, and the total cost to the firm was in
excess of two million dollars... fines, wrongful death, legal fees, etc.
sorry... but you aren't worth two million dollars to an employer, alive or dead.
none of us are.