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My general practice is to assume that the engineers in a highly regulated field are competent and have good reasons for the things they do/don't do. If there is
by HeyLaughingBoy 8y ago
My general practice is to assume that the engineers in a highly regulated field are competent and have good reasons for the things they do/don't do. If there isn't a guard, then it's likely that having one would cause more problems that leaving it off or it would be ineffective. e.g., hitting a bird at 100+ kts would damage both the guard and the sensor anyway, rendering the guard useless.
- peteradio 8y agoEngineers can have their hands tied as well, limiting their options to doing the job or resignation. Perhaps putting a guard on the vane would have only been necessary if it was considered an intolerable failure and being flagged as an intolerable failure would have required a recertification of the plane or something. Just a guess.
- noir_lord 8y agoGiven they test aircraft canopies by firing frozen (after defrosting) chickens at them it's usually a safe assumption. Air travel is very safe because of literal generations of engineers working hard to make it safe, in this case the failure is one of procedure and people been people (cutting close to the wind on what was allowed). Things usually tighten up after this kind of thing and then gradually loosen until the next disaster that could have been preventable.