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Thoughts are with the families

Posted: 14 Mar 2019, 12:09
by Airspeed
Condolences to all friends and relatives of the Lion Air and Ethiopian Air 737 Max 8 disasters.
Glad to hear that virtually every country has now grounded their fleets until potential software faults are properly investigated.

Re: Thoughts are with the families

Posted: 14 Mar 2019, 12:43
by Nigel H-J
I think they would still be flying in the States had it not been for Donald Trump signing an executive order to ground them.

This is going to cost Boeing a great deal not only on reputation but also money. I wonder whether or not we are relying too much on automation for our own good and how much pilots' rely on that. For instance, they usually take manual control of the aircraft before touchdown, I think it has been said before that pilots' should fly the aircraft more rather than rely on the auto-pilot prior to landing.

Regards
Nigel.

Re: Thoughts are with the families

Posted: 14 Mar 2019, 22:13
by nigelb
Trump only signed the executive order after the Secretary of Transportation called him and relayed the FAA's latest assessment to him. Boeing gave $1,000,000 to Trump's inaugural campaign.

NigelĀ²

Re: Thoughts are with the families

Posted: 15 Mar 2019, 00:45
by Airspeed
Obviously, I'm not an air crash investigator, but:
From what I've heard, it's not the pilots relying on the automation too much, it's that they can't over-ride it; they are at the mercy of the inbuilt system, which does not show mercy.
Again from what I've heard, it's the anti-stall device currently suspected:
The device forces the nose down, attempting to prevent a stall.
The pilots try to correct, but the device responds by pushing the nose down again.
Seems that the software thinks it knows better than the pilots.

Re: Thoughts are with the families

Posted: 15 Mar 2019, 08:25
by simondix
The thing is most crashes have been caused by Pilot Error and they are trying to eliminate that. However in this case it is turning round to bite them. Trouble is I keep thinking of 'HAL'.

Re: Thoughts are with the families

Posted: 16 Mar 2019, 04:51
by Airspeed
May be true, Simon.
*-) *-) or were they just explained as Pilot error as no other probable cause was proved?

Re: Thoughts are with the families

Posted: 16 Mar 2019, 06:22
by airboatr
1st fully automated A320 flypast in front of the viewing stand at Habsheim Air Show.
.... disastrous .


First attempt to land a A320 onto a River -
Without means of propulsion --by a human.
Successful.

:dunno:

Re: Thoughts are with the families

Posted: 16 Mar 2019, 15:09
by Nigel H-J
Well said Joe, couldn't have put it better myself! :thumbsup:

Regards
Nigel.