Nearest RL thing I can think of that matches this are those cell-phone tower repair guys.
Of course, they can actually climb back down and retrieve a dropped wrench...

Poor thing. "Rule number six of aerostat maintenance: always tether your tools." : )

A teensy bit of further background:

Dee isn't a /complete/ idiot; she had a plan to hold onto any tools she lost. It didn't use tethers or magnets - instead, it used "gecko-tech", aka "geck" or "geck-tape". (A piece of geck is made up of flat strips, covered in microscopically fine hairs with spade-like tips. When one current is run through a piece of geck, the hairs all line up, and it becomes extremely adhesive; when the opposite current is run through, they release. Each square centimeter can support over a hundred pounds of force - that's about 50 kg in 1 gravity. Geck can replace clothes fasteners, nails, screws, duct-tape, air-mask seals, suction cups, and velcro. It costs about 65 New Attican Bucks per square meter.)

Her main flub was to not anticipate the interaction of two facts:
* Geck is controlled by electrical charges.
* An aerostat isn't grounded, and has little way of getting rid of any static charge that builds up...