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How ordinary failure could have a seismic effect on an industrial giant (www.bbc.com)

submitted 3 months ago by Womble@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Earlier this year, a Boeing aircraft's door plug fell out in flight – all because crucial bolts were missing. The incident shows why simple failures like this are often a sign of larger problems, says John Downer.

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[–] Creat@discuss.tchncs.de -2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

This is still not an ordinary failure by your definition of it being a single point that failed. It's was like half a dozen "things" that went wrong for that plane to get into the air without those bolts. From not putting them in, to missing inspections, missing cross-checks. Sounds extraordinary to me. Which is the whole point of why it's a deeper issue, showing systematic problems at Boeing and it's partners, and the FAA not doing it's job, too.

[–] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Ordinary failure in that ordinary process went wrong as opposed to some black swan event like the bolts broke when struck by lightning.

They’re failing on the easy stuff, while air travel demands they get the hard stuff right 100% of the time.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Exactly. That's why there's redundancy in everything on airplanes. Most commercial airliners can land with one functioning engine and half (most) of the steering systems offline, but they'll make an emergency landing at a nearby airfield if just one of those fails. There's an automatic, digital, and practical override for pretty much everything.

There's a reason commercial flight is the safest method of transportation, and it's because of all that redundancy.

A door shouldn't just blow out, there's supposed to be checks and rechecks of all safety equipment.