BA038 (B777) Thread

[dxzh]

@netstruggler/FullWings

I see what you mean about this potentially applying to any aircraft and I am conscious that statistics can be used any which way by whoever chooses the assumptions and data to be analysed. I had not meant to be partisan in my choice of assumptions but perhaps I have introduced bias by trying to take into account the interim findings and you might be doing so if you do not take them into account?

To one person, a single incident of an uncommanded reduction in power of both engines is not, or is hardly, statistically significant in the general scheme of things and does not necessarily mean that any particular aircraft should be grounded or, as elsewhere suggested, restricted.

To another person, IF it can be tentatively assumed after investigation that contributory factors external to the aircraft itself such as crew and fuel can be discounted and factors specific to the aircraft such as the independence of the two engines is as certified, then the uncommanded reduction in power of both engines on an aircraft within seconds of each other and a failure to respond to further requests for power might be seen by many as either a highly unlikely event (if I may, equivalent to a sperm whale finding itself freefalling to earth with a bowl of petunias) or evidence suggestive of a flaw in its certificated design/performance. I accept the assumptions here are crucial.

Again I was only trying to consider, compared to many crash situations in which the airframe is not immediately recovered largely intact, the difficulty stakeholders may face in deciding not to ground or restrict aircraft (and no, I am not arguing for either) now that the initial investigations have been completed and so many of the other possible contributory factors have been tentatively discounted. As the airframe and crew survived, after a few months of investigation there seems to be a practical limit on the ability to obfuscate about the potential alternative contributory factors of the highly improbable uncommanded reduction in power of both engines, while apparently leaving those responsible for investigating, manufacturing and certificating the supply of fuel to the engines (whether in G-YMMM or other aircraft) in the invidious position of still being unable to explain the demonstrated critical failure in an otherwise highly reliable system and to make recommendations accordingly.