Plane Crash

[Bazile]

Plane crashes nowadays are so rare compared to decades ago , that when one occurs nowadays , it's a bit of a shock


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-47513508

Must be a terrible time for the families / friends etc of those on the plane

[rockyracoon]

A plane crash is my worst nightmare. The thought of those poor people in their last minutes, dreadful.

[anotheoldgit]

Not so rare unfortunately.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-10785301

[derek-33]

yes and it's another brand "new Boeing max 800", hope this can be sorted out soon what caused this second one in less the 1 year to fail, it could be that the 800 max has an unseen problem

[Zacs-Master]

The likelihood of being in a plane crash is roughly 1 in 11 million. It’s just that when they happen, it’s quite dramatic. Almost 34000 people were killed in car crashes in the US in 2013.

[Bazile]

In a lot of plane crashes in the past , lives / more lives could have been saved if there wasn't a subsequent fire

I remember reading some while back that investigations were being made into producing an aviation fuel that was not so explosive ( which ironically is one of the requirement of an internal combustion engine ) or designing the fuel tanks to be more resilient in an impact

I seem to recall that the idea was dropped because of the costs involved

In this case the plane burst into flames on impact with the ground - of course we don't know if it was the initial impact that was the cause of death or the subsequent explosion

[derek-33]

it was high speed impact photos on the web,

[tiggerblue10]

Those poor people, how awful :o(

It's one of my worst nightmares as well. I used to love flying years ago but since I had Little Tigs I have developed a fear. I flew up to Glasgow for work last week and although only an ours flight I was quite anxious, there and back!

[Gromit]

I know you are not very good at statistics AOG, but try and get your figures into perspective.

You cite 6 crashes in 2018. But that was out of 38,100,000 flights.

[mushroom25]

following the previous 737-max accident (JT610), the FAA issued the following airworthiness directive:-

http://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_Library/rgad.nsf/0/83ec7f95f3e5bfbd8625833e0070a070/$FILE/2018-23-51_Emergency.pdf

not suggesting the 2 incidents are linked - nevertheless.....

[237SJ]

It's way too early to speculate

[derek-33]

it is, but you have see some similarities .both new 737-800-MAX both in the air for minutes both nose dived in to ground / sea at high speed

[Smowball]

Tiggerblue I’ve also developed a real fear in the past few years after being on a flight that had bad turbulence. I got really upset and convinced we were going to crash.

[marval]

A terrible thing to happen.

[tiggerblue10]

Yes Smowball, same here. I was on a flight returning from Spain around 12/13 years ago and experienced the worst turbulence I'd ever been through half an hour before landing at Gatwick. I've only done a handful of flights since then.

[Gromit]

Attention is centring on the planes anti-stalling system, which was found to be responsible for the previous Lion Airlines crash.

// Early data from the [Lion Airlines] doomed plane's flight recorder suggests that for much of its 11-minute flight on October 29, the pilots were struggling with the craft's Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS).

This is a computer system designed to prevent the nose of the Boeing 737-Max from pulling too far up and putting the plane into a stall when under manual control. It has nothing to do with the airplane's autopilot.

According to an early analysis of the crash, based on the partial release of flight data, the MCAS appeared to have mistakenly sensed a looming stall and tried to force the plane's nose down. The pilots responded by pulling the plane's nose up to compensate, only to have the MCAS system force the nose back down again.

In effect, they were wrestling with software and hardware inadvertently trying to kill them. It is thought an angle-of-attack sensor passed bad readings to the automatic MCAS, which downed the plane as a result. //

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/11/27/boeing_737_max_mcas_lion_air/

[retrocop]

Boeing have since issued guidance notes for pilots to be aware and utilise an overide switch when necessary. Not a very satisfactory state of affairs!!

[Gromit]

^ And are working on a software patch.

[youngmafbog]

"^ And are working on a software patch"

Very comforting to those about to fly on a 738.

I somehow suspect you are not as you are being so blase.

[derek-33]

but Boeing have announced they are "working on a software patch"