CRAB, I concede.
You are obviously much more informed than I gave you credit for.
You are clearly right and the rest of the safety system is wrong. Maybe you should be running the CAA/Government.
You do not know as much about engines as you think you do. Once a turbine blade has "crept" there is no contingency. The crystiline structure of the material has changed forever. Thats why temperature control in our engines is critical. I hope you suck eggs better than you understand gas turbine engines and materials technology. Creep causes contact with the turbine shroud, which is why during every after flight this is checked by manually rotating the turbine. If it has "crept" the hot end is in the bin. period. Continued life is not an option. Thats why the risks (real, imaginary or over emphasised) of contaminating and engine with volcanic ash has been taken very seriously.
Just what was the alternative....carry on regardless and collect data along the way, running the risk of losing airframes and lives.
I think if you sit down, crack a beer and think very carefully about what has happened you will be hard pressed to have come up with any other solution than the cautious approach shopwn by the regulators and the governments.
The link with the NS accident simply serves to demonstrate the true horror of catastrophic hot end failure. Maybe your imagination simply does not function like mine. I use mine to stay safe.
Like I said some people will never have to suffer the consequnces of their ill concieved statements.
As I have always stated I will fly when those more informed tell me it is OK to do so. Thats how the safety system is supposed to work.
If flying resumes tommorrow I hope for everybody's sake you (CRAB) are 100% correct and the threat has been overstated. Its not the result that matters here, it's the journey taken to achieve it.
DB
Last edited by DOUBLE BOGEY; 20th Apr 2010 at 20:23.