RR_NDB, #1031
All engineered systems are imperfect. The old joke used to be: Cost,
performance or reliability, pick any two :-). Sometimes the
imperfections are the result of well understood tradeoffs at the
design stage, but also things which have been overlooked, or not
accounted for because the designers never expected those conditions
of operation. However, the requirements spec rules the design. If
the spec misses important issues, or there is a bias in terms of
system operation, then that's what is designed into the product.
If you consider that desktop pc operating systems and apps can take
years to get all the bugs out, I wouldn't expect something as complex
as a modern a/c to be bug free, even allowing for the rigorous design
processes. They are some of the most complex engineered systems on the
planet. Note that i'm not casting aspertions in terms of blame, it's
just the way things are.
I bet there will be loads of changes to the systems design as a result
of this and the recommendations in the report. Two additional things
that would seem to make sense are that the fd's are disabled under all
conditions of UAS and other connected faults. Also, that a clear
indication of which law the a/c is running under is displayed unambiguously
at all times...