Rainboe wrote:
and have produced a system that has worked fine for all the world for 25 years.........except for 1 flight.
and he misses the point. This was not a random event, not a 'stray bit in a stream of good data'.
The circumstances here were predictable based on the design of the systems. A proper evaluation of the system - as designed - would have revealed the opportunity for a malfunctioning radio altimeter to cause a reduction to idle thrust in flight.
After the final specification stage, bad fortune was all that was necessary to place this link in the chain of causes.
So, yes, those developers (and again, he does not recognise that the tasks he mentions go far beyond mere 'software development') did get it wrong. Until that 737 began its approach at AMS, they were lucky, not expert.
Lymbo,
Another interesting first post. Investigator or wannabe?
You mentioned
the finding of truth and justice
. If you wish to write so expertly about your chosen topic, you would do well to learn that while 'truth' is at the heart of the topic, 'justice' is for the courts. You, in the Netherlands, probably suffer as much as we do here in France when people confuse justice and safety.