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Old 1st Mar 2009, 07:23
  #921 (permalink)  
LanFranc
 
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Infallible?

Hardcore

I have to disagree with your premise that.. "every aviation regulatory body for every country in the world which allows Airbus to fly into it's airspace subscribes to the infallibility and redundancy of the Airbus Alpha floor protection system." I don't believe you will find any agency or credible body to say that ANY mechanical system, let alone a complex engineering system such as an aircraft, is infallible. It has been my experience that the setting of standards for such comes down to acceptable probablilities, acceptable failure rates, statistical analysis and so on and so on. I mean think about it... can anyone say that every component of every aircraft is perfect, right out of the factory? No.

As we all know, accidents are most often the result of the compounded failures of several components (usually small and insignificant in and of themselves) of the system be it mechanical, training, SOP's, ATC, handling etc. So, yes there may be a problem with the Alpha Floor system with respect other failures and if so it will be need to be remedied. But if you're looking for the system to be made infallible, aviation will grind to a halt.

Cheers
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