Dirty
I understand where you are coming from. But, many (most?) of the posts are 'how and why' - learning from our (collective) mistakes in order to prevent future mistakes. How the heck could a professional flight crew do a CFIT of a modern jetliner doing a visual approach on an ideal summer day, and how do we make sure it doesn't happen again?
20 years ago, I was directly involved in the investigation of the Lauda 767 that crashed when the thrust reverser deployed in-flight. It was the first fatal on a 767 - an airplane that - at the time - I'd worked most of my professional life. Initial reports pointed at a bomb, or other terrorism. While it still bothered me, designing an airplane that is 'terrorism proof' isn't reasonable. Then, several days after the crash, we got data (I was among the first to see) that said, definitively, it was an in-flight T/R deployment. Something we'd designed to "never happen". We'd missed something.
I will
never forget that feeling - even though it wasn't my system. An older supervisor - who had been involved in several fatal accident investigations over the years - told me "you'll never look at your job the same way again". Truer words have never been uttered. I went home that night and downed the better part of a bottle of Scotch. The only way it could have been worse is if it had been my system
.
So I have an idea how those involved in Asiana feel. By most accounts, the cabin crew performed admirably - but they will still have nightmares - for the rest of their lives - about what they might have done differently that might have saved a life or prevented a serious injury.
I want to either laugh or cry when I see press speculation that Boeing employees have 'covered up' the cause of a crash. My second worst nightmare is that my system causes a fatal crash. My
worst nightmare is that I know there is a problem with my system and I covered it up, resulting in a fatal crash.
I've done my professional best to make sure my second worst nightmare never comes true. Not only do I know my worst nightmare will never come true, if there is an engineer that would allow it to happen, I've never met him or her.