Boeing 737 MAX 8 - the flying Yugo. Canada finally joins the civilised world in grounding these death traps. It took long enough.
Technical problems can come and go. Aircrew training can be dealt with. The real problem here is Boeing. Boeing is the aerospace equivalent of Donald Trump, an unethical, ruthless, sleazy organisation that would be happy to see thousands end their lives in a smoking hole rather than risk a hiccup in their profit projections. As late as today, they were still lobbying the US Administration not to ground this killer aeroplane. There was an interesting comment from an aviation expert on Radio-Canada this morning on the different ways Boeing/FAA evaluate risk: they include factors such as passenger inconvenience, loss of revenue, damage to reputation, insurance costs, legal costs, technical costs, as well as loss of life. The EU, UK, and other international carriers consider loss of life only. Make mine Airbus, or, Bombardier, or, Embraer, or whatever the Chinese and Russians are building these days. I hope that these lives were not lost in vain and that at least Boeing is put out of business by this fiasco.
The real problem is “Operators” of Computer controlled airliners may not be good“Pilots”...
when “ plan A” isn’t working... Take it off Autopilot and fly the plane manually.
There's an override switch but the pilots are not adequately trained in its existence and when and how to use it. My guess is there's a race condition in the software's reading of sensor data that gets triggered by a very specific set of conditions, and effectively confuses the bejesus out of the pilot and then will not yield control or obey his commands. The software fix and education about the manual override should solve the problem.
It's a case of putting too much confidence in fly-by-wire. I once owned a car with a similar problem, it was a new model with a new-fangled computer system interpreting your requests via the accelerator pedal and the damn thing stalled out in the middle of an intersection twice and wouldn't respond -- once with a tractor-trailer bearing down on us.
I made THEM drive it for a couple of weeks and they finally figured out it was "a faulty L5 sensor on the crankshaft" causing the intermittent problem. This insight required a visit from a factory engineer to the local dealership because I refused to take the car back until they got to the bottom of it. He took one look at the oscilloscope and saw it at once, but it was beyond the ken of the local technicians.
I fear that with the advent of self-driving cars we're going to lose even the option of a direct physical connection between the controls and the vehicle mechanicals. And as a software engineer I can guarantee there will be times when cars will drive themselves into trees for inexplicable reasons as a result.
That doesn't mean I oppose self-driving or partially self-driving cars, as the overall safety is statistically better. However ... one can never let down their vigilance in the engineering, particularly the software and sensor parts. And I think that in the short term, the notion of totally autonomous vehicles with no steering wheel and a living-room like interior where people read and sleep and converse their way to destinations is a bit of a pipe dream.
Posted by 1patriotUPDATED: CALL TO ACTION - On March 2, 2024, Paul Fischer, a witness to Human Trafficking charges was unlawfully and criminally assaulted in his home and tasered 4 times by RCMP CST.
Posted by bookofmoronsAnyone else see a potential Trump/Putin type connection here?
Posted by bookofmoronsAnyone else see a potential Trump/Putin type connection here?
Posted by bookofmoronsJust remember - we are all sworn to secrecy but maybe we should send some to Mexico
Posted by 1patriotWhen he says our Senate is diverse and representative of Canada, he omitted this reality.
Posted by 1patriothow liberals get rich!
Posted by 1patriotso he killing the old stock europeans off in canada. I just never thought that was what he ment in this statement. My family has been here for 125 years. my wife family has been 395 years
Posted by 1patriot great job CBC you covered all the bases. Bonuses for 1200 more of you coming soon
Posted by 1patriot[thegatewaypundit.com] another brain dead fucker, he just like screwing Margret Turdeau Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger Mercilessly Booed By Crowd After Praising Justin Trudeau (VIDEO)
Posted by 1patriotCanadians can say the same about the great turd
Posted by 1patriot[streetpolitics.
Posted by 1patriot[streetpolitics.
Posted by 1patriot[streetpolitics.
Posted by 1patriot[streetpolitics.
Posted by 1patriotHere’s a reminder of the amount that each province will receive, or not receive, under the unfair federal equalization program.
Posted by 1patriotRoad Captain writes: This is already happening in Canada and has been for some time ,,well kept secret ,MEDIA ,POLICE ,and the CORPORATE Government called CANADA are silent ,,wake up folks ,,this is ...