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Rudder issue that plagued the Boeing 737 throughout the 1990s

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Re: Rudder issue that plagued the Boeing 737 throughout the 1990s

#261
post #258

This news cycle is surreal... just a few months ago my opinion of US aviation safety couldn't have been higher, and now that view is totally shattered.

Don't pay attention to the news. It reports statistically rare events that are unlikely to affect you. Pay attention to the statistics[0,1,2]. US aviation is still remarkably safe[3]. Just don't be this guy[4]. [0] http://ipa-world.org/society-resources/code/images/95b1494-L... [1] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm [2] https://www.bls.gov/iif/oshcfoi1.htm [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A…

I'm not worried personally about flying on this plane, I wouldn't change my plans to avoid it. I just had held a very high opinion of the engineering discipline and regulatory practices that has been suddenly re-evaluated.

Re: Rudder issue that plagued the Boeing 737 throughout the 1990s

#262

Wow and this content is just posted on imgur with no link to sources? Is anyone already working on posting this through a legit source? If this content is real, it seems wild that it's not even published somewhere that is searchable online.

The source is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/comments/adl0jk... I wrote this. I noticed it jumped 12,000 views and I got no username mention on Reddit, so I asked around and found it came from here. Made an account just to post the source. I'm pretty pissed that someone linked it completely without credit. As for what it is, it's part of a series I write for reddit where I read as many sources as…

Thanks for doing this Admiral_Cloudberg, you have definitely opened peoples eyes in ways that the FAA and Boeing have not.

Re: Rudder issue that plagued the Boeing 737 throughout the 1990s

#263

While we're bashing Boeing, let us not forget how they tried to swindle taxpayers into buying their tankers... a scandal which led to their CFO going to prison. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/2003/10/06/t...

And MrHands[0] was a Boeing engineer. Over extending rods indeed... 0) Nope.

In case anyone hasn't heard of Mr. Hands and is wondering why syn0byte didn't provide a citation...

It's extremely NSFW. Suffice to say, a man and a horse are involved, and the man did not survive. Google/Duck it at your own risk.

Re: Rudder issue that plagued the Boeing 737 throughout the 1990s

#264

Boeing certainly hasn't been inspiring a lot of confidence lately, given that decisions like this: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/boein... have apparently been leading to decisions like this: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/air-f...

"Best" part of the first article:

> Aero Mechanic, the District 751 monthly newspaper, accused Boeing of “essentially masking defects,” by pressuring inspectors to not record defects when found but instead to simply have them fixed, then afterward produce data to the FAA showing a big decrease in defects as a justification for cutting out inspections.

Re: Rudder issue that plagued the Boeing 737 throughout the 1990s

#265
post #174

To add a human element to this story, I'm from north of Pittsburgh and the crash of flight 427 is one of the events from my childhood that I can determinedly recall. One of my classmates--eight or nine years old--lost her father in that crash. Our class planted a tree outside our middle school with a plaque to memorialize him. I bother saying this only because, while air travel is impressively safe overall (hats off…

Also from Pittsburgh, and my wife lost her dad in this crash.

The top comment on this thread (re: "acceptable loss"), is infuriating.

Re: Rudder issue that plagued the Boeing 737 throughout the 1990s

#266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not justifying how this was linked here, but I'd recommend putting your own attribution on the original source of the content (in this case, Imgur) rather than relying on everyone to access it through the specific forum you originally posted it on. Also, Hacker News doesn't have submitter filled "descriptions" for linked pages, so there literally is no way to add attribution meta-data when posting a link.

More recent ones do have my username in them. I just never expected anyone outside of Reddit to read it so I didn't structure it in a way that would make that convenient.

Out of curiosity, does Imgur not allow you to modify the text passages in the album after you create it? If it does and I was the author, I would certainly be putting my name/username and a link to the Reddit post in there!

Re: Rudder issue that plagued the Boeing 737 throughout the 1990s

#267
> A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.

- Narrator, Fight Club

Re: Rudder issue that plagued the Boeing 737 throughout the 1990s

#268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More recent ones do have my username in them. I just never expected anyone outside of Reddit to read it so I didn't structure it in a way that would make that convenient.

Out of curiosity, does Imgur not allow you to modify the text passages in the album after you create it? If it does and I was the author, I would certainly be putting my name/username and a link to the Reddit post in there!

Since I'm not logged in to Imgur when I post the albums, it allows me to modify the text only within 12 hours after posting. This annoys me a lot but I've yet to find a better platform that has all the attributes I want. (I don't want to make an account and actually upload it there because then I'm submitting it to an audience that I have no intention of engaging with and know nothing about.)

Re: Rudder issue that plagued the Boeing 737 throughout the 1990s

#269
post #12

Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.

Are there a lot of these kinds of accidents?

Re: Rudder issue that plagued the Boeing 737 throughout the 1990s

#270
post #205

Aviation has an well known acceptable risk level at around 10^-9 for each issue. That's the number that leads government intervention, pilot procedure designing, aircraft designing and everything else. It's expected to lead to a less than 10^-6 chance of accidents per flight. (Somebody calculated the B783 Max odds on 4*10^-6 yesterday, what is a crazy high level.) That number has been higher in the past, and is movin…

Is that 10^-6 figure is for any sort of accident, or just catastrophic ones?

It is called "accident" is when there is severe damage to the airplane or fatality. In aviation, the other are called "incident" when there is some damage, or merely "occurrence". But that last one is overloaded with way too many meanings.
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