As a frequent flyer, I like to know what’s going on behind the scenes at the airlines, so I always try to watch for those aviation documentaries about accidents, and modifications to aircraft. One of the recent ones was about a SwissAir MD11 which was lost owing to a fire on board which was started by the overheating of wiring for the personal entertainment system.
The most recent programme didn’t focus on any single incident, but on how the airlines react to events which cause them to review their equipment and safety measures. The programme made no bones about the fact that “people have to die” before revisions are made, or new procedures adopted. Whether those changes will be made is decided by a Cost/Benefit analysis, in which the life of each and every person on board is valued at $2½m. (I never knew anyone valued me so highly – lol) So, if we have an airliner that carries 300 passengers, and it is lost to an accident, the cost would be assessed at $750m. Changes to the airline fleet would be made to prevent a recurrence, but only if the cost of those changes did not exceed $750m.
They talked about how the black box came into being – designed/invented by an Australian. It seems there was resistance to this in the beginning, but of course it has saved many lives. More recently, we have TCAS – can’t remember whether they said this had been mandated by the FAA – anyone know?
But here’s something that really surprised me, and it stems from 911. The programme showed a small twin engined plane (looked like a Seneca or similar) being flown directly at a mountain. All manner of audible warnings were sounding: Whoop-whoop, “pull up! pull up!”, “more power! more power!”. And then, when the pilot did nothing, the plane turned itself away from the mountain. OK, that’s understandable, but then they went on to explain that control had actually been taken away from the pilot to execute that turn, and that this was designed as a counter hijack measure and repeat of 911.
But this taking control away from the pilot seems to quite a controversial issue – understandably, although the programme seemed to be saying that it’s no more controversial than black box recorders were in the 50s.
Another accident being discussed was the 747 on TWA flt. 800 New York to Paris. The centre fuel tank exploded because the small amount of residual fuel within it had formed a volatile vapour, and then there was a short circuit to some wires which ran inside the tank, causing them to carry a much higher than normal voltage, and a spark caused the explosion. Remedial measures at the time included a device for replacing all gases in the tank with pure nitrogen. But the idea was discounted because the device weighed 1800lbs…
…and yet the latest all singing, all dancing personal entertainment system which some airlines have weighs 3500lbs. Hmmph, I’d rather have safety than watch a B-rate movie on a 3” screen, but there it is.
Anyone else see this documentary?
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I dedicate this thread to Mr. Toad upon his homecoming, and his successful completion of the first lap of the “Mr. Toad Wild Ride”.
