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This is your scheduled reminder that there were 37 million scheduled passenger flights in 2023, of which one (1), a turboprop crash in Nepal, resulted in fatali

This is your scheduled reminder that there were 37 million scheduled passenger flights in 2023, of which one (1), a turboprop crash in Nepal, resulted in fatalities. There were zero (0) fatalities in commercial jet aviation, not just in the US but the entire world: https://askthepilot.com/safest-year-2023/ https://askthepilot.com/safest-year-2023/ In computing terms, that's 99.99999%, or over 7 9s of reliability, for ginormous machines flying through the sky in all sorts of crazy weather conditions. So, yeah, we've engineered things pretty damn well.

WheatMillington 3y ago
Seeing body panels repeatedly flying off Boeing aircraft and responding with "wow brilliant engineering" is truly bizarre.
- resolutebat 3y ago
  The aircraft in question has been flying since 2015, it's much more likely that this was a post-inspection fuckup (somebody fastened the cowling improperly etc) than a Boeing manufacturing/design defect. In any case engine cowlings are not safety-critical, and the airplane returned to base safely with no injuries, meaning everything else worked as intended. This would literally not be news if Boeing hadn't been in the headlines recently for entirely deserved reasons. For what it's worth, PPRuNe notes that the Airbus A320 has had over 30 (!) similar incidents: https://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/658527-southwest-738-strikes-again.html https://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/658527-southwest-738-str...
  - tolien 3y ago
    You're quoting a source-less forum post, which later on is contradicted: > Not 30 times, I can name about 3 times it happened. > Thing is, it’s a known issue to the point it prompted a design change from Airbus. Why didn’t Boeing take note and change their design? Boeing are in the process of redesigning the engine cowling on the 737NG to better handle fan blade failures, but has asked for more time to "validate specific maintenance-related failure scenarios" [1] - maybe "Southwest forgot to check they're properly latched" is one of those scenarios? :-) 1: https://aviationweek.com/air-transport/safety-ops-regulation/boeing-details-cfm56-7-nacelle-inlet-cowl-redesign-effort https://aviationweek.com/air-transport/safety-ops-regulation...

WheatMillington 3y ago

Seeing body panels repeatedly flying off Boeing aircraft and responding with "wow brilliant engineering" is truly bizarre.

resolutebat 3y ago
The aircraft in question has been flying since 2015, it's much more likely that this was a post-inspection fuckup (somebody fastened the cowling improperly etc) than a Boeing manufacturing/design defect. In any case engine cowlings are not safety-critical, and the airplane returned to base safely with no injuries, meaning everything else worked as intended. This would literally not be news if Boeing hadn't been in the headlines recently for entirely deserved reasons. For what it's worth, PPRuNe notes that the Airbus A320 has had over 30 (!) similar incidents: https://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/658527-southwest-738-strikes-again.html https://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/658527-southwest-738-str...
- tolien 3y ago
  You're quoting a source-less forum post, which later on is contradicted: > Not 30 times, I can name about 3 times it happened. > Thing is, it’s a known issue to the point it prompted a design change from Airbus. Why didn’t Boeing take note and change their design? Boeing are in the process of redesigning the engine cowling on the 737NG to better handle fan blade failures, but has asked for more time to "validate specific maintenance-related failure scenarios" [1] - maybe "Southwest forgot to check they're properly latched" is one of those scenarios? :-) 1: https://aviationweek.com/air-transport/safety-ops-regulation/boeing-details-cfm56-7-nacelle-inlet-cowl-redesign-effort https://aviationweek.com/air-transport/safety-ops-regulation...