I like the De Havilland story in how it made the managers look like fools: 2 crashes in bad weather, +1 in good weather, a worldwide suspension of operations, r

I like the De Havilland story in how it made the managers look like fools: 2 crashes in bad weather, +1 in good weather, a worldwide suspension of operations, resumed a fortnight later with reassuring words from the management, +1 another crash, then a more serious stress test (which should have been done since the beginning), with negative results, then a bankruptcy... Fortunately, that's what happens to the wrong companies. Another aircraft story I love is the Tu-144, the copy of the Concorde: "Critical alarms were so routine that pilots had to borrow pillows from passengers to stuff the cockpit siren". The full Wikipedia article is worth reading (or the Mayday episode worth watching), it's a good laugh. Each time I fly, I internally laugh at how crazy humans are, throwing a can of the most inflammable liquid we can find, at 900km/h. "Play with fire, mum says, ..." and play with fire we do.