Originally Posted by
PiggyBack
It is a sweeping generalisation and in my case at least completely false that all people divide safe and unsafe as black and white, and I often work developing safety related products. In my industry (medical devices) safe is defined as 'free from unacceptable risk' which begs the question as to what is acceptable but also makes it clear that everything has risk and we are trying to make sure that the risks are low and proportionate given the benefits and what is achievable.
It's the same in aviation, risk management is all about identifying and reducing risks to an acceptable level.
It always starts with the brainstorm, where you simply throw everything out there that you may even think of can go wrong, then you start grading it according to risk of accidents and so on, in the end figure out how to mitigate the risks, that could be via inspection routines, re-programming, etc. In the end you have this fine schematic showing, hopefully, everything that can go wrong, and what has been done to mitigate it.
I love making these assessments, my first line is always "Nuclear detonation nearby"...... for some reason I don't do them anymore?