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That, and I also heard from an Airbus engineer friend, that airlines try to diversify their planes so that in case a specific plane model is grounded by the FAA

by byroot 9y ago

That, and I also heard from an Airbus engineer friend, that airlines try to diversify their planes so that in case a specific plane model is grounded by the FAA (or equivalent) the impact is less severe.

valuearb 9y ago
That's impossible. Edit: As CoreDog said, it would be a cost nightmare. Already airlines would suffer massively if any type is grounded. Ground 737s or A321s? It would be like 9-11 all over again, shut down most every flight of almost every airline. Even grounding a specific version of a type, like 737-700 would be difficult to handle for the airlines that fly them. Alaska would have to cancel nearly 10% of their flights. And it's hard to imagine how the FAA could ground the 737-700 and not the 737-800 at the same time given they are almost identical, which would ground 2/3s of Alaska's fleet. Airlines can consolidate their fleets around a few specific models because it's super cost effective, and the chances of grounding any single model are virtually nil. 737s and A3xx have flown many billions of miles safely since their last incident, it's almost impossible to imagine a problems so urgent and dangerous it would require grounding an entire fleet of planes that flies safely every single day.
- PhantomGremlin 9y ago
  airlines would suffer massively if any type is grounded It's been done before, but IIRC not recently. Sometimes you have to slap a manufacturer and an operator with a gigantic clue-by-four in order to get them to take things seriously. In 1979, after a crash where 271 people were killed, all DC-10s were grounded for about 5 weeks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_DC-10#American_Airlines_Flight_191 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_DC-10#Americ...
coredog64 9y ago
Yes and no. The downside is that there's a limit to the number of type ratings your pilots can have. Then there's the operational nightmares that come with having to support all kinds of different airframes. Southwest only flies 737s. In fact, they were so fussy about aircraft that Boeing had to _make_ them take an autopilot on the 737-700s that they bought.

by byroot 9y ago

valuearb 9y ago

That's impossible. Edit: As CoreDog said, it would be a cost nightmare. Already airlines would suffer massively if any type is grounded. Ground 737s or A321s? It would be like 9-11 all over again, shut down most every flight of almost every airline. Even grounding a specific version of a type, like 737-700 would be difficult to handle for the airlines that fly them. Alaska would have to cancel nearly 10% of their flights. And it's hard to imagine how the FAA could ground the 737-700 and not the 737-800 at the same time given they are almost identical, which would ground 2/3s of Alaska's fleet. Airlines can consolidate their fleets around a few specific models because it's super cost effective, and the chances of grounding any single model are virtually nil. 737s and A3xx have flown many billions of miles safely since their last incident, it's almost impossible to imagine a problems so urgent and dangerous it would require grounding an entire fleet of planes that flies safely every single day.

PhantomGremlin 9y ago
airlines would suffer massively if any type is grounded It's been done before, but IIRC not recently. Sometimes you have to slap a manufacturer and an operator with a gigantic clue-by-four in order to get them to take things seriously. In 1979, after a crash where 271 people were killed, all DC-10s were grounded for about 5 weeks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_DC-10#American_Airlines_Flight_191 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_DC-10#Americ...

coredog64 9y ago

Yes and no. The downside is that there's a limit to the number of type ratings your pilots can have. Then there's the operational nightmares that come with having to support all kinds of different airframes. Southwest only flies 737s. In fact, they were so fussy about aircraft that Boeing had to _make_ them take an autopilot on the 737-700s that they bought.