4 ms·

The article says that this was a checklist item for both the ground crew and the pilot, and yet it wasn't spotted/fixed (did they even conduct the checks?). Mul

The article says that this was a checklist item for both the ground crew and the pilot, and yet it wasn't spotted/fixed (did they even conduct the checks?). Multiple heads are definitely going to roll on this one. But two things can be true: - Procedures/checklists should have stopped this (and should be the primary way). - The flight computer should know that air flowing into the engine is unusual when a cover is blocking it. Also keep in mind that if both are fixed, this would be fixes from two different organizations (the British Navy and Lockheed Martin/F-35B's manufacturing chain). This happened at peace time. I can imagine during a stressful wartime situation human error is more likely to occur, which is even more reason why computer sanity checks can be advantageous.

ChuckNorris89 5y ago
>The article says that this was a checklist item for both the ground crew and the pilot, and yet it wasn't spotted/fixed (did they even conduct the checks?). Multiple heads are definitely going to roll on this one. As it should be. If you're just ticking boxes on a checklist of a weapons system responsible for life and death situations, without actually performing said checks, you shouldn't be entrusted with this job. This is beyond incompetence.
- elliekelly 5y ago
  It depends on how the checklist was structured/phrased though doesn’t it? “Check for rain cover” isn’t as clear as “Remove rain cover from engine and stow in compartment labeled ‘Rain Cover’.”
  - tamaharbor 5y ago
    In all fairness, Lockheed Martin made the cover bright red.
    - WalterBright 5y ago
      "Remove before flight" items often also have a long red streamer attached. One possible engineering solution would be to make the cover out of a material strong enough to keep out the weather, but flimsy enough that if the engine was running it would suck it in and harmlessly shred/burn it.
      - ngcc_hk 5y ago
        It is non-excusible. It is bloody red cover, sorry for the British f word. Just look ! It is strange to have that red thing. Head rolling needed. Life and death in fighting situation. Having said all that may be we should have that to baby sit these pilot. And ground crew.
        mhh__ 5y ago
        Well, the British f-word is just that.
foxyv 5y ago
There are a ton of ways that checklists can fail. For instance, when an item is 2x instead of separate items for left and right. When items are done in a series instead of one at a time. When time constraints force a rush. When items aren't read aloud. When checklists aren't completed. When those responsible for completing the items aren't present for the checks. When no one is following behind double checking each item. There is a whole science behind checklists like this. Surgeons have been learning this lesson for over a decade now: https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2015/08/04/checklists https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2015/08/04/checklist... Also it is possible that the cover did not restrict air flow until the aircraft entered a cruise flight regime or a certain altitude. Often aircraft will have different intake bypasses for different flight regimes. However, a cover like this SHOULD have a pin and momentary switch similar to lockouts for flight controls. But if the cover was an afterthought, implemented by crews and not the engineers, that may not have been accounted for.
- kamaal 5y ago
  Things can get complicated when checklists have if-else-branches and loops. Anything that has a list of lists, and if-else-branches can be really hard to get right. You walk into one wrong branch due to human error, mistakes just multiply from there. Also the worse thing is- you are confident that you are doing the right thing, while just making more mistakes.
  - foxyv 5y ago
    Don't forget checklist and alarm fatigue. When an alarm goes off every 2 seconds "Check air intake" because of changes in atmospheric pressure etc... When a checklist is 200 items long and your commander is asking why you aren't in the air yet. Organizational failure, when every other pilot in the wing is waiting to taxi because they skimmed the checklist and you are still checking freeze plugs and fuel. Anyone in charge of this sort of mission critical stuff has to be willing to take it on the chin to ensure safety. If top brass isn't willing to take "safety" as an excuse for a delay or cancellation it's just going to propagate down and cause an accident.
WalterBright 5y ago
The Air Force had so much trouble with pilots attempting to land without lowering the landing gear (and it was on the checklist) that during flight ops an officer was stationed at the end of the runway whose sole job was to check each landing airplane having the landing gear lowered.
sundvor 5y ago
Looking at the picture that cover is hardly what I'd call signal yellow. I can imagine that on a dull day, at the end of a long shift, your brain could play some funny tricks with you causing you not to see them. It boggles my mind they wouldn't have put some kind of NFC chips in it at least to chime an alert "check intake cover". It also is truly strange it couldn't detect the airflow anomaly on spool up, and at least alert the pilot / launch officers. Could have a pattern embedded for super easy image recognition and a simple computer running continuous recognition of aircraft taking off (I'm sure there's cctv)... There's just so many ways to help prevent such a mistake! I don't envy the crew explaining this.

ChuckNorris89 5y ago

>The article says that this was a checklist item for both the ground crew and the pilot, and yet it wasn't spotted/fixed (did they even conduct the checks?). Multiple heads are definitely going to roll on this one. As it should be. If you're just ticking boxes on a checklist of a weapons system responsible for life and death situations, without actually performing said checks, you shouldn't be entrusted with this job. This is beyond incompetence.

elliekelly 5y ago
It depends on how the checklist was structured/phrased though doesn’t it? “Check for rain cover” isn’t as clear as “Remove rain cover from engine and stow in compartment labeled ‘Rain Cover’.”
- tamaharbor 5y ago
  In all fairness, Lockheed Martin made the cover bright red.
  - WalterBright 5y ago
    "Remove before flight" items often also have a long red streamer attached. One possible engineering solution would be to make the cover out of a material strong enough to keep out the weather, but flimsy enough that if the engine was running it would suck it in and harmlessly shred/burn it.
    - ngcc_hk 5y ago
      It is non-excusible. It is bloody red cover, sorry for the British f word. Just look ! It is strange to have that red thing. Head rolling needed. Life and death in fighting situation. Having said all that may be we should have that to baby sit these pilot. And ground crew.
      - mhh__ 5y ago
        Well, the British f-word is just that.

foxyv 5y ago

There are a ton of ways that checklists can fail. For instance, when an item is 2x instead of separate items for left and right. When items are done in a series instead of one at a time. When time constraints force a rush. When items aren't read aloud. When checklists aren't completed. When those responsible for completing the items aren't present for the checks. When no one is following behind double checking each item. There is a whole science behind checklists like this. Surgeons have been learning this lesson for over a decade now: https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2015/08/04/checklists https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2015/08/04/checklist... Also it is possible that the cover did not restrict air flow until the aircraft entered a cruise flight regime or a certain altitude. Often aircraft will have different intake bypasses for different flight regimes. However, a cover like this SHOULD have a pin and momentary switch similar to lockouts for flight controls. But if the cover was an afterthought, implemented by crews and not the engineers, that may not have been accounted for.

kamaal 5y ago
Things can get complicated when checklists have if-else-branches and loops. Anything that has a list of lists, and if-else-branches can be really hard to get right. You walk into one wrong branch due to human error, mistakes just multiply from there. Also the worse thing is- you are confident that you are doing the right thing, while just making more mistakes.
- foxyv 5y ago
  Don't forget checklist and alarm fatigue. When an alarm goes off every 2 seconds "Check air intake" because of changes in atmospheric pressure etc... When a checklist is 200 items long and your commander is asking why you aren't in the air yet. Organizational failure, when every other pilot in the wing is waiting to taxi because they skimmed the checklist and you are still checking freeze plugs and fuel. Anyone in charge of this sort of mission critical stuff has to be willing to take it on the chin to ensure safety. If top brass isn't willing to take "safety" as an excuse for a delay or cancellation it's just going to propagate down and cause an accident.

WalterBright 5y ago

The Air Force had so much trouble with pilots attempting to land without lowering the landing gear (and it was on the checklist) that during flight ops an officer was stationed at the end of the runway whose sole job was to check each landing airplane having the landing gear lowered.

sundvor 5y ago

Looking at the picture that cover is hardly what I'd call signal yellow. I can imagine that on a dull day, at the end of a long shift, your brain could play some funny tricks with you causing you not to see them. It boggles my mind they wouldn't have put some kind of NFC chips in it at least to chime an alert "check intake cover". It also is truly strange it couldn't detect the airflow anomaly on spool up, and at least alert the pilot / launch officers. Could have a pattern embedded for super easy image recognition and a simple computer running continuous recognition of aircraft taking off (I'm sure there's cctv)... There's just so many ways to help prevent such a mistake! I don't envy the crew explaining this.