I used the example of Airbus, because is what I ride.
But I believe that no aircraft manufacturer is going to ground any fleet, even for one or two days. The economic pressure is very high.
Think about the B777 accident at Heathrow, what if the engines stopped over siberia or on a go around?
What if the Iberia A340-600 at Quito stopped 45 meters far away after the cliff?
What if QF72 control failure ocurred in a high congested traffic area?
We have the tendency to lesser the things and start calling serious accidents incidents if there is not casualities. But in the 60s, 70s no aircraft manufacturer had fear of grounding an entire fleet.
Yes, the industry is very safe and fail proof, but are we going to resign safety now? Are we happy with the safety level or we want more.
Here in Spain two months ago 162 people died in an aircraft crash. The problable cause was the reason another accident 20 years ago and this problem was well know by the industry.
I believe that we are resigning safety. In the Spanair flight the F/O was flying. He was only fliying that aircraft from one year, and probably he did the minimum sims to obtain the rating to saving costs. Probalby he didnt made any sim related to the first MD82 flaps accident, windshear or abnormal config recoveries during take off, and probably he only made one refesher sim before the accident.
We used to do that, but this was long time ago. I remember when I was in my 20s crashing a lot of times in the B727 SIM, due to uneven or unknow problems that I never experienced before.
I learn a lot then, but things have changed.