Originally Posted by
Marty-Party
Seriously ? While we all know that pilot error has been involved in a number of accidents, this potential fault in the 737Max shows that the pilots can be the last line of defence if properly trained. The Lion Air accident shows that the previous day the pilots successfully managed a serious computer error and saved all those on board. Unfortunately that is not always the case. The pilots were not successful in saving the AF447 but the aircraft would certainly have crashed anyway if just the computer systems were involved.
Wrong on all counts.
a. The 737 is not a computer controlled aircraft by any stretch of the imagination. It is the original fly-by-wire aircraft (yup - 5mm steel cables).
b. The Indonesian, Ethiopian(?), A320, A340, and many other incidents demonstrate that the pilots were NOT able to be the last line of defence. Quite the reverse.
c. AF447 could easily have been saved by computer software. If Normal-law drops out because of input errors, the aircraft defaults to Alternate-law, which is a basic control system running on attitude and power. It would take Airbus a couple of years to knock up this new Alternate-law, which assumed no pilot assistance.
d. The Sioux DC10 crash was easily flown with a computer (just on engines, with no flight controls). They knocked up that new software inside a year.
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Originally Posted by
SLFinAZ
So I'm curious, exactly how would you handle both of the recent tragedies in question here. Both are the direct result of sensor malfunctions which disconnected the AP (or made AP enablement impossible) so what happens when HAL gets booted off the flight deck?
Fairly simple in computer terms. Do remember that the 737 is not a computer-driven aircraft at all. It has some auto-systems that have been hastily (and inadvisably) bolted onto an aircraft that is no more complex than a Cessna 152 (same type of flight-control system). As mentioned above, on a computer controlled aircraft, if Normal-law drops out because of input errors, the aircraft defaults to Alternate-law -- which is a basic control system running on attitude and power. It would take Airbus a couple of years to knock up this new Alternate-law, which assumed no pilot assistance.
Silver