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You're showing one botched flight deck O2 tank per 30 years? That's how I read it but I may be wrong. What are the odds that that one botched O2 tank happens t

You're showing one botched flight deck O2 tank per 30 years? That's how I read it but I may be wrong. What are the odds that that one botched O2 tank happens to be on a flight with high altitude decompression?

akiselev 13y ago
If the cause of the accident is in any way related to "human error" instead of unpredictable failure (unpredictable as in photons causing a bit flip that can't be caught in error correction, not something like a part with a 15 year life span being used for 20), chances are that error is the result of an institutional problem. With 90,000 flights a day I can imagine plenty of people making mistakes during maintenance and flight checks because they're tired, having trouble with at home with the family, etc. but that's why we have so many levels of review and confirmation, checking to make sure it all goes according to plan. If the airline (the asset/floor managers specifically) don't enforce a culture that takes safety and aircraft operation seriously, no amount of reviewers will help them and when things fall apart, they do so in spades. It's not really a question of "what's the chance that this will break in 30 years." It's a question of the part's function, the added complexity/failure points it adds to the design, and the chances that the added complexity will exacerbate flaws in management when it all goes haywire.
- ekianjo 13y ago
  > I can imagine plenty of people making mistakes during maintenance and flight checks because they're tired, having trouble with at home with the family, etc. but that's why we have so many levels of review and confirmation, checking to make sure it all goes according to plan. If the airline (the asset/floor managers specifically) don't enforce a culture that takes safety and aircraft operation seriously, no amount of reviewers will help them and when things fall apart, they do so in spades. If that was really the case, planes would be failing every single day and air crashes would be as common as train wrecks and car accidents. It's far from being the case, so it says a lot as to how reliable planes are made to be, and how serious the maintenance is done on planes. Besides, companies have no incentive to skip on safety checks because they know a crash would have immediate, and serious impact on their image and direct sales of tickets.

akiselev 13y ago

If the cause of the accident is in any way related to "human error" instead of unpredictable failure (unpredictable as in photons causing a bit flip that can't be caught in error correction, not something like a part with a 15 year life span being used for 20), chances are that error is the result of an institutional problem. With 90,000 flights a day I can imagine plenty of people making mistakes during maintenance and flight checks because they're tired, having trouble with at home with the family, etc. but that's why we have so many levels of review and confirmation, checking to make sure it all goes according to plan. If the airline (the asset/floor managers specifically) don't enforce a culture that takes safety and aircraft operation seriously, no amount of reviewers will help them and when things fall apart, they do so in spades. It's not really a question of "what's the chance that this will break in 30 years." It's a question of the part's function, the added complexity/failure points it adds to the design, and the chances that the added complexity will exacerbate flaws in management when it all goes haywire.

ekianjo 13y ago
> I can imagine plenty of people making mistakes during maintenance and flight checks because they're tired, having trouble with at home with the family, etc. but that's why we have so many levels of review and confirmation, checking to make sure it all goes according to plan. If the airline (the asset/floor managers specifically) don't enforce a culture that takes safety and aircraft operation seriously, no amount of reviewers will help them and when things fall apart, they do so in spades. If that was really the case, planes would be failing every single day and air crashes would be as common as train wrecks and car accidents. It's far from being the case, so it says a lot as to how reliable planes are made to be, and how serious the maintenance is done on planes. Besides, companies have no incentive to skip on safety checks because they know a crash would have immediate, and serious impact on their image and direct sales of tickets.