People not equipment ...
https://simpleflying.com/british-pilot-falsifying-flying-records/
Just how common is it (falsification) in the transport world?

Cracked cockpit window on a Delta Airlines 757-232, flight 760 from Salt Lake City to Washington D.C. that did emergency landing in Denver.


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10676269/Delta-pilots-land-jet-safely-cockpit-windshield-cracks.html

Air France Boeing 777 aborts landing at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport, because the plane went nuts.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-06/air-france-landing-scare-prompts-french-probe-on-777-flight

A recording published on the site chronicles fraught moments when pilots struggled with controls.
On the recording, one of the pilots can be heard groaning and breathing heavily as cockpit alarms ring. “Wait! Stop Stop!” he said, before adding “I’ll call you back! I’ll call you back!”
A few moments later, a pilot said: “The airplane is pretty much going nuts.” The air traffic controller responded: “I’ve seen on the radar, it swayed to the left.”

Youtube audio from Control tower and pilots, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzCNKhFOPqU French with English subtitles.

Juan Browne says GIGO, with the possibility of ground equipment interference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cslSQB5mgyc

Juan Browne says GIGO, with the possibility of ground equipment interference.
Air France 11 B777-300 CDG 5 April 2022

Thanks for that.

Yes, Blancolirio does give a very good very clear and non-sensational report.

He's updated his comment on that incident: "UPDATE 8 April- Pilot Error- TO/GA hit 4 times by the pilots!"

However... I'm sure there is more to the story yet to unfold. There must have been some very high 'startle factor' or other effects for the pilots to act as though panicked...


One to follow up on...

Stay safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

For this month's round-up of Boeing profits:


Is Boeing ever to be 'trusted' to certify planes ever again?...

CNBC: Outgoing FAA chief Steve Dickson on Boeing Dreamliner issues and China Eastern Airlines crash


Meanwhile, has Boeing tripped over its own gaming of modern day certification safety to stay profitably cheaply (unsafely?) stuck in the past?

Maximus: FAA Warns Boeing The Max 10 Won't Be Certified This Year. Unless Congress Act's It Could Be Scrapped


And scarily for just this last month! Note that sadly, people have died...

Maximus: Boeing Planes Suffer 8 Major Incidents In Less Than 30 Days. Is There A Problem With Boeing Planes?


Blancolirio gives a very informative roundup of some of those 'incidents':

Air France 11 B777-300 CDG 5 April 2022 (Same link as in previous post. Included here for completeness.)

China Eastern Airlines #5735 UPDATE! 23 March

DHL 757-200 San Jose, Costa Rica 7 April 2022

Malaysia Airlines MH2664 737-800 Unreliable Airspeed 3 April 2022



My personal take on those incidents gives some big questions about how safely 'redundant' are those various critical flight control systems, and how the Boeing cockpit design seems to give the pilots a very hard time if anything goes wrong...

Is good robust safety really that expensive?

What cost are the lives of the passengers and crew and of people on the ground?...


Stay safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Would you trust Boeing to launch you into space?...


Another day, another glitch with NASA and SLS! Is this as bad as Boeing Starliner?


Note that the SLS and Starliner are "Human Rated" and hence supposedly are guaranteed to work fully, safely, every time, including the first time...

So, how many arms and legs is all that costing?!...

(For a very bad joke.)


Hopefully this is all silly enough that some good positive change can be made to make some good progress not too far in the future...

Stay safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

It looks very much like standards have fallen dramatically with Covid. Experience retired. Wet behind the ears in charge. Its not just in the airline industry, or transportation, but across the board.
Certified means you passed the test.
Competent means you demonstrated in the past you could do it.
Current means you are doing it frequently.
Currency is what is lost by Covid.

A little 'good' news for Boeing?...


FAA Says It's Ready To Lift Grounding Order On Boeing 777's With PW-4000 Engines
wrote:

In the wake of a series of engine explosions on Boeing 777-200 and 300 aircraft, after more than a year on the ground the FAA say's it is ready to lift the ban on these aircraft worldwide

... Except...

Are not those FAA (must do) directives what are required of a passenger aircraft design in the first place? That is, the present design has proven to be deficient...

Has Boeing developed a new business model whereby aircraft groundings have moved from the category "Unheard of!" to the new category of "Standard practice, profitably part of the business plan."?...


Stay safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Too many Boeing problems to list, you will just have to read it,
Boeing shares plunge on array of charges, 737 MAX target in doubt

More on the Air France 777 incident and all is not looking good for the pilots.

Air France pilots almost crash Boeing 777 in Paris amid struggle.

The pilots of an Air France flight from New York to Paris who struggled to control the plane before landing were engaged in a kind of tug of war – apparently unaware of each other’s inputs on the controls, according to a report.

The Boeing 777 with 177 passengers on-board was cleared to land at Charles de Gaulle Airport on April 5 when an air-traffic controller heard the pilots struggling as an alarm blared in the background, NY Post reports.

Dramatic audio captured one of the pilots exclaiming, “Stop! Stop!” and the captain told the tower the jetliner was “all over the place”.

In a preliminary report, France’s air-accident investigation agency said Thursday that the pilots “simultaneously made inputs on the controls” during the incident.

“The captain held the control column in a slightly nose-down position while the co-pilot made several, more pronounced, nose-up inputs,” the report said.

Under normal procedure, one pilot would say, “I have control” while the other would acknowledge the statement by replying, “You have control.”

It’s unclear what caused the Air France mishap.

The investigative agency classified the event as a “serious incident,” an industry term meaning it could have resulted in an accident, Reuters reported.

As with other aircraft, the Boeing 777’s control columns move in tandem with each, though only one pilot is usually expected to be actively using them to fly at any given time.

If opposing forces on the two columns pass a certain limit, the link between them is deactivated — or “desynchronised” — to prevent accidents in case one of them is jammed....

I bet that Air France's pilot training procedures will be under intense examination after that.

... I bet that Air France's pilot training procedures will be under intense examination after that.

Blancolirio gives a very good summary for that:


blancolirio - Air France 11 UPDATE BEA Preliminary Report


So... The plane behaved exactly as it should, throughout...

Sounds like BOTH pilots panicked and for a while forgot that the other pilot was there!...

More of a question is: Why?

Lack of "feel" for the aircraft? Pilot induced oscillation that continued to increase, unrecognized? Too little trust in the instruments and too much startle factor?...

Or are Boeing cockpits just a little too 'difficult'?


Stay safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Airbus has a pitch up problem sounds like Boeing.

Thanks for that one.

Indeed so... Except... To what extent?


All jets with such big under-slung engines have the convenience of easy maintenance but the compromise of revving up the engines causing the nose to push upwards.

For that Airbus example, that list adds up to pretty much the worst case scenario, regardless, which must still be handled.

Very good that Airbus have identified that and are proactively putting in a fix to keep the jobs of the pilots easy and less stressful.

Also note that Airbus have fully independent triple redundancy by design on the critical sensors needed to coordinate keeping the aircraft pitch safely controlled.


Shame Boeing had to wait for hundreds of people to be killed, and still procrastinated yet further, for yet more people to be killed, before reluctantly putting in place some partial fixes with incomplete redundancy. All just to keep the pilots hot in their hot seat?

Quite a different approach...


All just my uneducated humble personal observations as always,

Stay safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Considering how airlines around the world these days are complaining about staff shortages I wonder if fatigue was an issue.

This is quite a debacle of Boeing profits and politics vs good modern design and safety:


Maximus - Chairman Says NO To Max-10 Certification Extension Raising Real Risk The Program Could Be Shut Down
wrote:

Chairman Peter DeFazio says he is voting "no" to a Boeing [737] Max-10 certification extension. So what does this mean for the future of the program? In my biggest Max video yet I will explain everything you need to know about the Max 10 and why the certification of Boeing's largest 737 has become Boeing's most recent headache.

Note especially the comments about modern day cockpit design and safety, and how the old yet still being made Boeing aircraft simply do not have that modern day safety in the cockpit...

How can that be?...


Stay safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

How can that be?...

Same way everything out of Textron is legacy. Hint the answer is three letters and one of them is repeated.

Boeing set to move headquarters to Arlington, Virginia, sources say

WASHINGTON/SEATTLE, May 5 (Reuters) - U.S. planemaker Boeing Co (BA.N) is set to move its corporate headquarters from Chicago to Arlington, Virginia, two people familiar with the matter said.

The move, likely to be announced as early as next week, comes as Boeing works to emerge from successive crises and industrial problems that have deepened its focus on repairing relationships with customers, U.S. regulators and lawmakers.

The move to Arlington - across the Potomac River from the U.S. capital - will place Boeing senior leaders close to the Federal Aviation Administration, lawmakers and the Pentagon.

All cynical comments welcome.

Not too close, I hope.

You don't want the boardroom heavies close to the regulators: you want the designers, engineers and builders under close scrutiny, for the next few decades at least.