Live data from Hacker News

Is my plane a 737 MAX?

ismyplanea737max.com

161–170 of 579 posts

Re: Is my plane a 737 MAX?

#161
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Final aircraft assigned to the flight can be changed until the last minute. The info is most useful when booking. Presumably people might switch if the price/schedule is reasonably close while very few would turn away at the gate if they discover a max (I sure wouldn’t and I belong to the tiny minority that even think about aircraft models ever). So the info is most useful when booking. Flying an airline that doesn’t…

> Flying an airline that doesn’t operate a specific model is the most (and almost only) reliable way to avoid one. Even that could make you end up on a 737 Max, if the airline you have your ticket via actually "outsourced" (simplified and not the right word) the actual flight to another airline, which happens sometimes.

Multiply all these probabilities together and you have a better chance at winning a billion dollars in a lottery you didn't buy a ticket for.

Re: Is my plane a 737 MAX?

#162
post #131
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But at that point it's too late. I doubt people are that afraid of 737 Max that they'll cancel a flight (and forfeit their ticket) over it. Luckily the airlines I travel with only use Airbus, but if they were using 737 Max, I'd definitely book tickets that I can change at the last minute, and refuse to board if it turns out to be a 737 Max. Yes, that's probably illogical. And probably much of life is illogical. But…

>I'd definitely book tickets that I can change at the last minute, and refuse to board if it turns out to be a 737 Max. E̶v̶e̶n̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶f̶l̶e̶x̶i̶b̶l̶e̶ ̶t̶i̶c̶k̶e̶t̶s̶,̶ ̶m̶o̶s̶t̶ ̶c̶a̶r̶r̶i̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶d̶o̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶a̶l̶l̶o̶w̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶c̶a̶n̶c̶e̶l̶ ̶l̶e̶s̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶n̶ ̶2̶4̶ ̶h̶o̶u̶r̶s̶ ̶p̶r̶i̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶d̶e̶p̶a̶r̶t̶u̶r̶e̶ Also, airlines would most likely charge you the difference between the fare price, which…

Yes, that's right, that's my current feeling which may or may not change in the future.

Thanks for the summary!

Edit, as you added more content to your comment rather than just a one-liner snark:

> Even with flexible tickets, most carriers don't allow you to cancel less than 24 hours prior to departure

I guess my typical airline isn't in your personal category of "most carriers" as they allow me to change any dates for my ticket up until I've boarded the first flight. YMMV obviously.

Re: Is my plane a 737 MAX?

#163

Aviation is safe. An issue happened and appropriate steps have immediately happened and in the end an already incredibly safe industry will be even safer. If a car has an issue we don't blink and we loose nearly 40k people a year in the US alone, but a plane has an issue and we panic. Yes, panic. This is not rational or helpful and is a huge reason why aviation is so antiquated. You want flying cars? Stop panicking a…

Airlines aren't safe just because. Weakening FAA regulation, critical issues with flight controller shortages/exhaustion, culture changes at Boeing related to safety, etc all threaten to undo that safety record. The system is not working as it should and statistics don't magically maintain themselves at previous levels.

Re: Is my plane a 737 MAX?

#164
post #131
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But at that point it's too late. I doubt people are that afraid of 737 Max that they'll cancel a flight (and forfeit their ticket) over it. Luckily the airlines I travel with only use Airbus, but if they were using 737 Max, I'd definitely book tickets that I can change at the last minute, and refuse to board if it turns out to be a 737 Max. Yes, that's probably illogical. And probably much of life is illogical. But…

>I'd definitely book tickets that I can change at the last minute, and refuse to board if it turns out to be a 737 Max. E̶v̶e̶n̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶f̶l̶e̶x̶i̶b̶l̶e̶ ̶t̶i̶c̶k̶e̶t̶s̶,̶ ̶m̶o̶s̶t̶ ̶c̶a̶r̶r̶i̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶d̶o̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶a̶l̶l̶o̶w̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶c̶a̶n̶c̶e̶l̶ ̶l̶e̶s̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶n̶ ̶2̶4̶ ̶h̶o̶u̶r̶s̶ ̶p̶r̶i̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶d̶e̶p̶a̶r̶t̶u̶r̶e̶ Also, airlines would most likely charge you the difference between the fare price, which…

> you'd rather lose a few hours of your life waiting at an airport, than losing a few minutes of your life over the risk of dying from a 737 Max

I’ve chosen a less-than-ideal itinerary for comfort (e.g. lay-flat seat or direct flight).

Flying is stressful for a lot of people. As OP admits, it’s irrational. But if it means you avoid spending the flight in a panic, it’s not unreasonable to swap planes or even eat the ticket cost. (It might be a sign to talk to someone about anxiety.)

Re: Is my plane a 737 MAX?

#165
So - question - how much initial capital/expertise would be needed to make a new ground-up competitor to McDD-oeing, but with the engineering/quality focus of the old Boeing? I'd imagine there must be enough disgruntled aerospace engineers to create a fresh company w/ a blank slate rethink of airliner design.

Re: Is my plane a 737 MAX?

#166
post #26

Are you less safe on a 737 MAX than driving to the airport in a car? Genuinely curious, I’m trying to understand if this whole saga is statistically significant.

It's significant because it exposes that Boeing's assembly/QA process is not as bullet-proof as it was in the past. Assuming things work the way they should, this (combined with the other loose-bolts situation that recently happened) should trigger that process to be tightened up, much like the earlier crashes triggered a bunch of pilot training to make sure everyone was aware of the changes in the MAX. But it's not at all a sign that Boeing planes are at risk of falling out of the sky onto your house.

You're still safer on the plane than you are in your car, statistically speaking.

Something I find interesting is that this plane, with the door-sized hole in it, took the extra ~10 minutes required to run all the checklists to do a maximally safe landing before coming back in. The videos of the plane flying with a hole in it are interesting, there's a flight attendant standing talking to the people seated near the hole. If I understand correctly, this video seems to make the case that this event wouldn't actually have happened at cruising altitude, where the depressurization blast would've been worse, which is also interesting to know. https://youtu.be/WhfK9jlZK1o?si=g2QDFWSgEwkGvuiS

Re: Is my plane a 737 MAX?

#167
post #94
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38918665 I didn't bother calculating the rate for driving to the airport, but eyeballing the figures for cars, it's probably as about as dangerous if you assume that the 737 Max were 10x more dangerous than average flying. Cars are still more dangerous than planes on a per-mile basis, but at the same time you're also traveling less miles on the car trip compared to the flight…

Why would I care about per mile stats? What matters to me is the safety of the contraption and crew I'm putting my faith in each time I step foot into the machine. Airplanes shouldn't get a higher safety rating simply because the trips are 100x longer on average.

You would care because, presumably, you're deciding on a mode of transport to travel those miles. Otherwise, the measure is deaths per trip, which would prompt the conclusion that cars are thousands of times safer than air travel.

Re: Is my plane a 737 MAX?

#168
post #145

A lot of people don't realize that the fuselage of this plane isn't even made by Boeing, it's made by Spirit AeroSystems which also makes components for Airbus. We don't really know who to blame here until the investigation concludes.

Who is response for the QA of components and workmanship? It looks like its was loose bolts from information released from United Airlines and there was a notice to check for loose bolts on the Max.

> and there was a notice to check for loose bolts on the Max.

For a different part of the aircraft, yes. I don't think airlines check for every loose bolt ever when the bulletin says something specific.

Re: Is my plane a 737 MAX?

#169
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you comment on the wrong story? The submission doesn't seem to try to assign blame to either Boeing or Spirit AeroSystems, but tries to just give you a true/false depending on if they airplane you're going with is a 737 Max.

is a 737 MAX even a sufficiently specific identifier? I thought this issue was specifically to do with the 737 MAX 8

MAX 8 had the MCAS problems. The recent plug door issues are affecting MAX 9s.

Re: Is my plane a 737 MAX?

#170
post #72

Aviation is safe. An issue happened and appropriate steps have immediately happened and in the end an already incredibly safe industry will be even safer. If a car has an issue we don't blink and we loose nearly 40k people a year in the US alone, but a plane has an issue and we panic. Yes, panic. This is not rational or helpful and is a huge reason why aviation is so antiquated. You want flying cars? Stop panicking a…

/end of thread You can apply this same argument to literally fucking everything.

I disagree. Also language.
Post reply on HN