Spanair accident at Madrid

[justme69]

Sure, but it's a game that can be played both ways. I.e.

1) If the crew would've carried out procedures as trained.
2) If Boeing would've made sure all operators of its airplanes knew about recommendations after manufacturing.
2a) If air safety regulation bodies would've made mandatory those recommendations.
3) -
4) If engineering manuals gave more clear information to assist diagnosis ...
4a) If Boeing would've developed a knowledge database that could be downloaded on a laptop, type in: "RAT probe heater activates on the ground" and it would respond: check LEFT GRD CTRL RELAY C/B pushed in, check R2-5 relay operative, run additional TOWS check.
5) -
6) -

etc etc

BTW, just to make clear, I think the anticollision lights on the ground is only a sign of a distracted crew not completing parking checklist. It doesn't seem to me related to faults in the circuits, etc.

Also, ultimately, it's all in the hands of the crew. Whether TOWS checks are mandatory or not, if the crew fails to carry out the checklist (i.e. Northwest), then they could as well just skip the TOWS test.

Also, even if not mandatory, and knowing their own lifes are at stake, nothing prevents the crew from making a test more than once a day or once every change of pilots or long stop overs.

Lastly, even if the check is carried out and the TOWS works fine, the crew could still "ignore it" (i.e. LAPA accident). Or the TOWS could fail at any given moment in time, like anything electric. I.e. you test it with the flaps in ... you taxi for 20 minutes to line up ... TOWS fails around that moment ... you forget to deploy flaps ... you take/off.

Of course testing TOWS before each takeoff is the best "solution" as it decreases chances of clean TO a lot ... but still, the only true way to avoid this accident, is making sure the pilots just do not ever attempt to take off without the flaps deployed for sure (as sure as humanly possible).

If they fail to check this, they can just as well fail to test the TOWS, and then all recommendations (or requirements) by Boeing, Spanair or the FAA won't matter at all.

My PERSONAL take on this as an ignorant layman not related to the industry:
-Remind pilots/industry of the "killer items".
-Improve operational procedures so that they are harder to miss.
-Make Boeing build in some more redundancy on this system/more diagnosis (even a little "TOWS inop" light could help).
-Make a requirement that crews perform a TOWS test before each flight.
-Warn/train crews on take offs with wrong wing configurations.

It would also be nice if Boeing improved the engineering support of these older planes (if they are not doing it now) and trained technicians to better recognize TOWS failures.

So we may all be a little safer ... hopefully.