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Seems like this can turn into a "customer breathing down your neck" situation. The incentives and stress probably don't mix well with a safety first attitude.

Seems like this can turn into a "customer breathing down your neck" situation. The incentives and stress probably don't mix well with a safety first attitude. Imagine going to your customers business, into the belly of the beast and they're livid that your product is broken and it's costing them $200k a day. Your job is to fix it asap. All the rules and procedures in the world won't prevent your team from feeling rushed.

nayuki 3y ago
Well yeah. From the article: > In 1978, a Boeing AOG team repaired the bulkhead of a Japan Airlines 747 damaged in a tail-drag incident. Seven years later, the repair failed in flight, resulting in an explosive depressurization that tore off the vertical fin and severed all hydraulics systems. Some 30 minutes later, the aircraft slammed into a mountainside; 520 people died in the second worst airline disaster in history. Investigators determined that the AOG repair did not comply with Boeing’s own Structural Repair Manual. Boeing accepted 80 percent of the liability for the crash, while JAL accepted the remainder for neglecting signs that the repaired bulkhead was weakening. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Air_Lines_Flight_123 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Air_Lines_Flight_123
- dotancohen 3y ago
  To be fair, that incident is extremely isolated. This team repairs on the order of 100 airplanes a year. They had one major failure in the past 50 years? I am certainly not excusing that nor the loss of lives, however I can not think of any other team working on non-trivial problems, where each problem is unique, that has a lower failure rate.
  - dawnerd 3y ago
    And it’s weird the repaired plane wasn’t given a very thorough inspection the next chance it could.
  - dtgriscom 3y ago
    > They had one major failure in the past 50 years? Citation needed...
    - dotancohen 3y ago
      The incident was citied in the fine article. And it is a well-known incident - other than Tenerif and the 9/11 incidents I can not offhand think of any other incidents with as many fatalities. The Airplane On Ground team (I'm pretty sure that's what AOG stands for, maybe it's Airliner on Ground) is more-or-less well-known in aviation communities.
landemva 3y ago
> All the rules and procedures in the world won't prevent your team from feeling rushed. While feelings are personal, team willingess to take unapproved shortcuts is a management and regulator item.

nayuki 3y ago

Well yeah. From the article: > In 1978, a Boeing AOG team repaired the bulkhead of a Japan Airlines 747 damaged in a tail-drag incident. Seven years later, the repair failed in flight, resulting in an explosive depressurization that tore off the vertical fin and severed all hydraulics systems. Some 30 minutes later, the aircraft slammed into a mountainside; 520 people died in the second worst airline disaster in history. Investigators determined that the AOG repair did not comply with Boeing’s own Structural Repair Manual. Boeing accepted 80 percent of the liability for the crash, while JAL accepted the remainder for neglecting signs that the repaired bulkhead was weakening. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Air_Lines_Flight_123 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Air_Lines_Flight_123

dotancohen 3y ago
To be fair, that incident is extremely isolated. This team repairs on the order of 100 airplanes a year. They had one major failure in the past 50 years? I am certainly not excusing that nor the loss of lives, however I can not think of any other team working on non-trivial problems, where each problem is unique, that has a lower failure rate.
- dawnerd 3y ago
  And it’s weird the repaired plane wasn’t given a very thorough inspection the next chance it could.
- dtgriscom 3y ago
  > They had one major failure in the past 50 years? Citation needed...
  - dotancohen 3y ago
    The incident was citied in the fine article. And it is a well-known incident - other than Tenerif and the 9/11 incidents I can not offhand think of any other incidents with as many fatalities. The Airplane On Ground team (I'm pretty sure that's what AOG stands for, maybe it's Airliner on Ground) is more-or-less well-known in aviation communities.

landemva 3y ago

> All the rules and procedures in the world won't prevent your team from feeling rushed. While feelings are personal, team willingess to take unapproved shortcuts is a management and regulator item.