Posted on 05/06/2019 5:23:39 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
An Aeroflot passenger jet burst into flames during an emergency landing at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport yesterday, resulting in a conflagration that left 41 of 78 people aboard the plane dead.
While the plane was not a Boeing and did not involve a control system like the one implicated in the recent crashes of Lionair Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, the overall circumstances eerily echo the conditions that led to the loss of the two 737 Max jets. In all three cases, pilots suffered a dangerous and unexpected emergency during takeoff, lost the automation that they were used to relying on, and lacked the necessary skills to adequately handle the ensuing crisis. As such, these crashes illustrate the dangers of poorly integrating human and automatic control...
“A constant theme of mine is that designers of electronic systems on airplanes assume that if something goes wrong, pilots will calmly take over,” says aviation journalist and aircraft designer Peter Garrison. “That’s not what happens. The first reaction is bafflement.”
One solution to the problem would be to make sure that pilots have more training and more flight experience. That’s not the direction the world is moving, however. Global air traffic has surged in recent years...For plane makers, the challenge will be to make planes that can be flown safely by less-qualified pilots, but that also won’t dump those pilots into tough-to-handle crises when the systems malfunction.
(Excerpt) Read more at nymag.com ...
It's also about the crises of ethics inherent to the aviation industry: cutting corners during inspections, manufacturing things on the cheap, outsourcing maintenance work, and rushing through the approval process for new planes.
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how far can things be stretched? There’s no similarity except all three aircraft crashed. Geez.
Before anyone goes completely over the edge, try to remember that there are other issues too:
Developing new aircraft is very expensive, made more so because of the demand for even greater automation, greater efficiency, and ferocious competition. Boeing is the last major American passenger aircraft manufacturer, Lockheed, Mcdonnell Douglas and others long gone, thanks to intense competition, expense of production and liability.
Airbus is government- supported and competing unfairly. They have also had numerous accidents attributed to failures of sensors, computer-induced problems, and bad luck.
We demand aviation safety and that our companies remain competitive in a cut throat market. Fair enough - but don’t assume that anything was done deliberately to kill people.
Are these terrorist attacks? Are these aircraft being hijacked electronically?
How far can things be stretched? There’s no similarity except all three aircraft crashed. Geez.
Are you joking!?
These aircraft can cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
There’s no shortage of money being spent. The cost per airframe is already totally out of control. It’s another example of technological feature creep. Just because the aircraft CAN have a feature may not mean it should. The problem lies with both over regulation and too thin margins without adequate breathing room to just “operate.”
In the quest for ultimate efficiency per flight aircraft design has changed. We need to be asking ourselves if, for commercial aircraft, the aerodynamics need to be constrained to only designs that meet more stringent standards for inherent stability in flight. That means, FLYABLE, even when all automated assistance is turned off. If a pilot turns all the assistance off and has nothing but control of airspeed, pitch, roll and yaw can he easily fly the aircraft without knowing about two dozen killer quirks in the flight envelope?
There shouldn’t be more than one or two oddities in the flight characteristics but those should be easily managed MANUALLY if necessary. If they aren’t easily managed manually then the design needs to be changed.
If that means airframe design has to be kept simpler, that designs can’t carry as much weight per flight or are 5% less fuel efficient because of that simplification of aerodynamic design... then maybe that would still be a good thing.
I’m not saying we should do it this way, but it is worth considering.
Ping-a-ling
I have a question? Living on the border here in Tx WHO approves Mexican commercial airlines to use our air space..these are NOT American planes but Mexican. You can tell because those planes fly over our area so extremely low you can see their blue logos. There is an airport close to our border but never flew over our properties before until recently. Someone designated our area as a circling landing path for those planes...who? Not only do I feel those planes are unsafe, I’m ticked off because those bastards do not want to help stop the invasion but are granted rights to fly over our space without consequence!! Screw that!! With all the plane problems from third world countries why would our government endanger their citizens...sorry but I don’t trust Mexican pilots one iota!!! ANY ADVICE IS WELCOMED!!
The writer doesn’t know jack$h1t about aviation.
I just read a report that said the Russian Plane crash was caused by lightning.
Complexity brings increasing demand for training. The system (design.manufacture,training) in aviation assumes an inertia all its own. Remember that time and resources will fill whatever time and resources exist—it is the reality of all organizations.
Pilot training does overlook the simple for the needlessly complex. Electrical system issue? Why not look for the simple—battery off generators off-—and fly the thing like a Cub. It will (other than fly by wire etc) fly—though with some muscle input until the genius (s) up front figgers it out. Do not let the machine fly you. You Mr pilot are in charge.
Back to the rockin chair.
I knew it was just a matter of time before some idiot started drawing parallels between Aeroflot and the current msm obsession with Boeing.
Oh please JohnBrowdie. Just one as example, Boeing donated a cool 10 million dollars for Obama to construct his presidential library and they have plenty of financial ties to media elites as well.
The media is NOT covering the Boeing scandal thoroughly at all; nor any of Boeing’s or FAA’s or air industry’s criminal business practices in general. Hence why their corrupt leaders can get away with so much without a fear of genuine consequences. Who needs lawyers when consumers like you come to their defense so quickly?
And you would rather side with the corporate heads over the interests of the general flying public and likely won’t budge on your position until a major accident happens on US soil or directly impacts you in some way. Till then it’s just ‘pilot’s fault.’ And ‘sh*t happens’ ? What’s a measly 346 lives anyway right?
Boeing could be a great company again if its swamp were drained. But clearly you think they are just dandy as they are.
ah. now I understand why you post 14 semi-mindless 737 threads a day. you’re a one man ad campaign for airbus.
two third world airlines with sh*tty training programs and abysmal safety records nose on into the dirt, and you go on a holy jihad against boeing.
good luck with that.
Boeing in its current state yes. And if you cared about its future, you would also want it under better leadership.
no, I just don’t have a mysterious, boeing sized weed stuck in my tailpipe, and I generally think that jihads on internet message forums are just a huge waste of time,
Aside from the fact that Boeing’s leadership swamp needs draining, in terms of airlines for what it’s worth: Ethiopian Airlines has a strong safety record...it is one of the few well functioning things in Africa.
Unlike Russia’s Aeroflot, which actually has improved in recent years.
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