Aviation

ET

How is the Ethiopian Airline accident different from Lion Air: mindFly

Amit Singh @mindFly

The Ethiopian Airlines accident on 10th March 2019 was the 2nd B-737 Max accident in 4 months. This created a public outcry about the safety of Boeing 737 around the world and given the fact that Boeing had not been forthcoming in its disclosure of the new software, MCAS.All  countries flying the B-737 had to ground the aircrafts flying in their airspace and the last but not the least the FAA very reluctantly followed suit. Every one tried to draw similarities between the accidents stating that the flight profile was similar and that both the aircrafts nose dived shortly after takeoff. For the first time in the history of aviation that the entire fleet around the world had been grounded on the basis of public perception and without any evidence. This also showed the lack of trust that the regulators of all the countries had with FAA and Boeing.

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ET

ET302 takeoff roll could have answers to the cause of accident: mindFly

Amit Singh @mindFly

In my opinion the primary cause of the ET302 accident lies in the take off roll , the final nose dive could have been caused due to structural failure of the elevator and in an extremely improbable case, the infamous MCAS would have had a role to play. All aircrafts are loaded with passengers, cargo and fuel and maintained within limits of the centre of gravity so that a safe takeoff, airborne segment and landing is carried out. Based on the weight and balance of the aircraft and the airport/runway and environmental conditions, the flight crew calculate how fast the aircraft needs to roll on the runway (speed) and how much engine thrust needs to be generated in order to accelerate with the given mass and other conditions to allow the wings to generate lift from the air mass flowing over the wings. All these parameters have to keep the aircraft takeoff roll within the runway length and after getting airborne keep clear of the obstacles like hills, buildings etc. around the airport.

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SAFETY

Production vs Protection,India to fly the Max despite announcing the grounding plan: mindFly

Amit Singh @mindFly

It seems that the notorious MCAS may not be the primary cause of the accident of the Ethiopian Airline B-737 max. I was consoling myself that its never too late for India to announce the grounding of B-737 Max after every other country had done so. India reluctantly followed suit. The ministry of civil aviation proudly tweeted that the DGCA had decided to ground the B-737 Max. The honourable minister also tweeted about the same and wrote about passenger safety and zero tolerance. Good to hear about passenger convenience too.

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B-737 Max

Not MCAS but lack of trust grounds B737Max worldwide:mindFly

Amit Singh @mindFly

The notorious MAS which was suspected by many to be the cause of the Lion Air accident in 2018 end may not be the cause in the Ethiopian Airlines ET302 accident. The reason why the big regulators like UK, France, Singapore, Australia and many other are imposing a ban on the B-737 Max to even enter their airspace points to a lack of trust in FAA and Boeing and the actions taken by them in the past. Read my blog "A question of safety or ethics" There was a legal case in the USA in early 2018 where the court had overruled the immunity clause that manufacturers had enjoyed for design defect. The court also documents that Boeing has been aware of known design defects in their aircrafts.

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ET302

After ET302,FAA admits MCAS is there and issues notification:mindFly

Amit Singh @mindFly

It took FAA 4 months and a second B-737 accident before admitting the presence of MCAS on board the B-737 Max aircraft. On 11th March 2019 FAA has issued a continued airworthiness notification which includes MCAS design enhancements, Training of flight crew and documentation. All these have to be implemented by April 2019. For the first time since the Max has been released to service will the pilots be able to access information on the notorious MCAS officially. Isn't that a big relief?

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ABC

Behaviour, ABC

Amit Singh @mindFly

Antecedents: What Happened Before the Behavior?Behavior: What Is the Actual Behavior?Consequences of Behaviour: What Happens...

POINTING

Prevent inadvertent slide deployment by learning from Japanese Bullet Train Drivers: mindFly

Amit Singh @mindFly

Pointing and calling Flight Safety Australia In 2014, the International Air Transportation Association estimated that inadvertent slide deployment costs the airline industry more than $20 million each year. What can aviation learn from the bullet train driver. With the horrible exception of the Amagasaki crash of 2005, which killed 107 people, Japanese railways are notably safe, with one passenger death per 51.4 billion passenger kilometres. The high-speed Shinkansen network, which is now six lines with trains running at up to 320 km/h (170 kt), has carried more than 10 billion passengers without a single passenger death from derailment or collision. In 1994, the Japanese Railway Technical Research Institute assessed pointing and calling in an experiment that asked volunteers to complete a simple, but variable, task. When no special steps were taken to prevent errors, the volunteers made 2.38 errors per 100 actions. Calling or pointing cut this error rate significantly. But the greatest reduction in error to 0.38 errors per 100 actions happened when the volunteers both pointed and called their actions. This combination reduced mistakes by almost 85 per cent.

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