[HN Gopher] Sriwijaya Air flight SJ182, a Boeing 737, has disapp...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Sriwijaya Air flight SJ182, a Boeing 737, has disappeared from
       radar
        
       Author : blacktulip
       Score  : 237 points
       Date   : 2021-01-09 10:56 UTC (12 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (twitter.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (twitter.com)
        
       | bdz wrote:
       | http://avherald.com/h?article=4e18553c&opt=0
        
         | fblp wrote:
         | Very informative article, thank you ^ "The water is about 15 to
         | 16 meters deep at the crash site" Although this is tragic, the
         | relatively shallow water will make this a faster cleanup and
         | investigation compared to other recent crashes.
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | United857 wrote:
         | Mods can we change the link to this avherald page instead of a
         | tweet which is just a headline?
        
       | arnon wrote:
       | 26 year old 737-500. Weather is pretty bad in the area right now.
        
         | raverbashing wrote:
         | Not a 737 Max, just to be clear
        
           | arnon wrote:
           | It's also not a DC-10, while we're making clarifications
        
             | olliej wrote:
             | contextually the 737 vs 737-max distinction is important.
             | 
             | The 737 vs DC-10 distinction is not :D
        
               | arnon wrote:
               | "Ubuntu 20.04 caused outage"
               | 
               | - "It's worth mentioning this isn't Ubuntu 16.04"
               | 
               | Feels pointless to me.
        
               | totalZero wrote:
               | Fair point, but consider this:
               | 
               | When I first saw this story on Bloomberg, I opened the
               | article searching for the variant of 737 aircraft
               | involved. Given the accident history of the 737 MAX, it's
               | important for people to understand that this aircraft
               | does not tie in to the MAX saga.
               | 
               | The fact that this is not a MAX aircraft is relevant both
               | to travelers and also to BA stockholders.
        
               | arnon wrote:
               | Understood, and as I mentioned, it was a 737-500 that is
               | 26 years old.
        
               | sokoloff wrote:
               | The difference is not nearly everyone knows the series
               | number of the Max (thus doesn't get the full signal you
               | intended from saying it was a -500). Precisely the
               | lightly informed people whom you were trying to help are
               | the ones most prone to this error.
               | 
               | It's more like saying "this article involves Ubuntu
               | 16.04" when "Ubuntu Focal Fossa" has been all over the
               | news for 18 months.
        
               | arnon wrote:
               | Alright. Point taken.
        
             | [deleted]
        
           | tareqak wrote:
           | It might be worth adding that to the post title somehow e.g.
           | 737 (not Max).
        
         | Erlich_Bachman wrote:
         | A well-maintained airplane can work for many more years than
         | this. They are not like cars. All the important functional
         | parts are being replaced regularly and the structure of the
         | frame is checked and repaired if needed.
        
           | BoorishBears wrote:
           | The airline has constant safety complaints and was a week
           | away from losing the ability to fly over safety concerns some
           | time in the last year
           | 
           | https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/air-
           | transport/2019-1...
        
           | jmnicolas wrote:
           | Yes if I'm not mistaken B52 bombers are at least twice this
           | age!
        
           | dopamean wrote:
           | A car could work this way too.
        
             | ThinkingGuy wrote:
             | This post on reddit from a few years ago describes what all
             | would be required to maintain a car the same way as an
             | airplane:
             | 
             | https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/3v1hzj/how_do_ol
             | d...
        
             | manojlds wrote:
             | Could is the keyword
        
             | wiz21c wrote:
             | Given the little environmental issues we have these days, a
             | car _must_ work this way.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | hedora wrote:
               | I was shocked when I saw that what percentage of car
               | emissions are due to manufacturing. "Only" driving a car
               | for something like 100,000 miles doubles the per-mile
               | carbon emissions. (I can't remember the exact number.).
               | EV's have more embodied carbon, so they're removing less
               | than half the emissions in that part of their life.
               | 
               | This will drastically improve as the grid decarbonizes.
               | However, we really should be focusing on swapping out the
               | drive trains on 2000-2020's most popular models.
        
             | HPsquared wrote:
             | In theory it could, the same principles and judgements are
             | in play - it's just that the relative prices of keeping an
             | old car vs. replacement are different to that of an
             | airliner so the decision tends to be more towards replacing
             | old cars. The equation is of course different for valuable
             | collector's cars.
        
               | notahacker wrote:
               | More importantly, you are _allowed_ to drive a car
               | without aircraft-style inspection and part replacement
               | regimes and periodic total rebuilds.
               | 
               | If you weren't, few car accidents would occur due to
               | poorly maintained vehicles, but fewer people would be
               | able to afford to drive.
        
               | quesera wrote:
               | As it is already, very few car accidents are caused by
               | poorly maintained vehicles.
               | 
               | Humans are the weak link.
        
           | ashtonkem wrote:
           | Average flight length matters. The airframe wears out based
           | on pressurization and depressurization cycles, not just age
           | or flight hours. Planes associated with short hop routes tend
           | to wear out faster.
        
           | temporallobe wrote:
           | Indeed, a regularly maintained older aircraft is a virtual
           | Ship of Theseus.
        
             | rtkwe wrote:
             | The airframe of the fuselage still remains largely the same
             | though right so there's never really the moment where
             | there's no original parts left.
        
             | 14 wrote:
             | I love the Ship of Theseus story it reminds me of a
             | Chrysler I used to own. Always replacing parts. I finally
             | named my van Theseus. Then I got rid of it and went into a
             | Toyota.
        
           | Aloha wrote:
           | A well maintained car can outlast an airplane ;-)
        
             | Daho0n wrote:
             | Not in kilometers "driven".
        
           | dehrmann wrote:
           | You're still subject to max pressurization cycles, though.
        
         | postingawayonhn wrote:
         | The weather looks pretty calm in the pictures of the debris.
        
           | rurban wrote:
           | It was only raining. No storm or such.
        
             | cpncrunch wrote:
             | METARs at the time from avherald:
             | 
             | WIII 090800Z 28008KT 4000 -RA BKN016 OVC018 26/24 Q1006
             | NOSIG= WIII 090730Z 30006KT 5000 -RA FEW017CB OVC018 25/24
             | Q1006 NOSIG=
             | 
             | So, light rain and light winds, 4km vis and broken at
             | 1600ft. Very benign conditions for any plane, never mind a
             | well maintained 737.
        
       | ffpip wrote:
       | Sriwijaya Air flight #SJ182 lost more than 10.000 feet of
       | altitude in less than one minute, about 4 minutes after departure
       | from Jakarta.
       | 
       | https://twitter.com/flightradar24/status/1347850078644563969
       | 
       | https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/pk-clc#26860e0e
        
         | helsinkiandrew wrote:
         | If the flightradar route ends where it crashed (and it wasn't
         | just when the ADS was turned off) then that is only in 15-20M
         | of water so wreckage and black box will be retrievable.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | K0balt wrote:
         | Wow. that rate of descent, and so shortly after takeoff (no
         | time/altutude for hypoxia, etc) points strongly to a major
         | structural failure or at least a catastrophic failure of flight
         | control systems.
         | 
         | In that phase of flight, pressurization would be just starting
         | to build, I wonder how many cycles that 26 year old airframe
         | has on it?
         | 
         | Also, is it known if there was anyone of major political or
         | financial consequence on board? Getting to that altitude is
         | also a common trigger for barometric switches.
        
           | wp381640 wrote:
           | 25+ yo airframe, Island hopping, budget airline, Indonesia
           | 
           | All points to fuselage maintenance
        
             | numpad0 wrote:
             | Did they figure the pickle fork issue?
        
               | HarryHirsch wrote:
               | Not applicable, that problem was introduced in 1997 with
               | the 737-NG. This aircraft here was manufactured in 1994.
        
               | nealabq wrote:
               | https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/nov/01/boeing-7
               | 37-...
        
             | xvf22 wrote:
             | Or wiring given the 737 history but then again, it's a shot
             | in the dark.
        
               | flatiron wrote:
               | What wiring issue would get you nose down?
        
               | quattrofan wrote:
               | A fire and then damage to control surface connections.
        
               | coredog64 wrote:
               | 737 isn't FBW.
        
               | xvf22 wrote:
               | Plenty of wiring in and around the fuel system and
               | running close to control cables.
               | 
               | Are you implying that fire couldn't interfere with
               | control of a non FBW aircraft?
        
               | verelo wrote:
               | No fbw on the concord yet they lost control of air
               | surfaces seconds after the fire started.
        
               | clon wrote:
               | Elevator are hydraulically operated, while trim is
               | actuated by steel cables + electric trim. I imagine an
               | electrical short with the trim mechanism cannot be ruled
               | out. But this is all pointless armchair speculation,
               | borderline bad taste.
        
               | cjbprime wrote:
               | In case anyone gets the wrong impression: there is
               | mechanical control of trim too, and "runaway trim" has a
               | checklist item set of responses that every pilot trains
               | for. You can lose electric trim without crashing.
        
           | TedShiller wrote:
           | True. That happened to Atlas-Air 3591. Investigation
           | conclusion was basically bad pilot.
        
           | imaginenore wrote:
           | Or an intentional suicide by pilot.
        
           | Reason077 wrote:
           | Suicide by pilot is another possibility. It's certainly
           | happened before (SilkAir 185, EgyptAir 990, Germanwings 9525,
           | possibly Malaysian 370)
        
             | w0utert wrote:
             | Judging from the flight path and altitude data that seems
             | extremely unlikely, it looks like the plane just fell apart
             | and came down like a brick in an instant.
        
               | Reason077 wrote:
               | I'm not sure that alone rules anything out. If we look at
               | the flight profile of EgyptAir 990, for example, it
               | dropped 15,000 feet in about 30 seconds:
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EgyptAir_Flight_990#/media/
               | Fil...
        
               | cm2187 wrote:
               | Also you wouldn't expect a single pilot to be in the
               | cockpit at that stage of the flight.
        
               | e_proxus wrote:
               | What damage could a co-pilot cause even with another
               | pilot present? A steep enough descent might not be
               | recoverable under certain conditions?
        
               | asd4232 wrote:
               | Even if another pilot was present, from that altitude a
               | suicidal co-pilot could easily cause an unrecovable dive
               | and crash. If two pilots pull/push controls to opposite
               | directions they kind of neutralize each other, and
               | obviously the suicidal one would have element of surprise
               | as an advantage.
               | 
               | In fact just that happened on EgyptAir flight 990. A
               | suicidal copilot was able to crash the plane even with
               | another pilot present, and that happened from a higher
               | altitude.
        
               | DaiPlusPlus wrote:
               | Aircraft are designed to not enter those "certain
               | conditions" by default - I understand the PF needs to
               | override the flight-control-law to intentionally crash
               | the plane, but I don't think there's a two-person-rule
               | before that can happen.
               | 
               | Anyway - this is why I'm glad I'm not involved in safety-
               | engineering because supposing that setting sensible
               | defaults that reduce accidents in 99.999% of cases
               | _would_ lead to horrible terrifying deaths in 0.001% of
               | cases (e.g. one-way lockable reinforced cockpit doors)
               | would be too much on my mind.
        
               | asd4232 wrote:
               | Some more modern aircraft indeed have such protections,
               | but this was an old 737 without any such stuff. Simply
               | pushing the control column fully forward would send the
               | plane into a dive pretty quickly.
        
               | coredog64 wrote:
               | The controls are mechanically linked. Unless the
               | perpetrator incapacitated the other flier, it's a test of
               | strength. There's no method for disconnecting the second
               | set of controls in a 737.
        
               | FeeJai wrote:
               | That is incorrect. There is a friction clutch between the
               | controls in case there is a mechanical jam the other
               | pilot can at least control half the control surfaces. It
               | needs a significant amount of force to detach, though. It
               | is documented on Egypt Air 990 however that both elevator
               | surfaces turned into opposite directions.
        
               | RolloTom wrote:
               | Like @FeeJai already wrote, that's incorrect. Look up for
               | Atlas Air Flight 3591 crash, boeing 767. Spatial
               | disorientation, dual imputs on yokes, split elevator.
               | https://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/628156-atlas-
               | air-3591-nt...
        
               | vidanay wrote:
               | I am not disagreeing with you, but I just want to point
               | out the absolutely stunning safety of modern air travel.
               | Using your 99.999% number against the number of FAA
               | flights of 16,405,000[1] per year (that's just US FAA,
               | not global). This would result in 16405 "incidents" per
               | year. Luckily for us, the actual number is far lower than
               | 16405.
               | 
               | [1] https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/by_the_numbers/
        
               | ericbarrett wrote:
               | Germanwings Flight 9525[0]
               | 
               | [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanwings_Flight_9525
        
               | numpad0 wrote:
               | That was F/O without another pilot present
        
               | hnarn wrote:
               | How does that make a suicidal pilot "extremely unlikely"?
               | That's exactly what I'd expect a plane directed downwards
               | to look like.
        
               | VLM wrote:
               | What an odd time to do it, unless for some crazy reason
               | the lat/lon location mattered.
               | 
               | I'm just saying it takes less than a second to hit a
               | ditch or another plane or commo tower while taxi-ing on
               | the ground. Or suddenly do almost anything when you're 50
               | feet off the ground at takeoff surrounded by all sorts of
               | interesting ground targets to hit. Drop the landing gear
               | or flaps at the wrong speed at a low altitude. I suppose
               | someone indecisive or having medical / drug issues could
               | take a long time to talk themselves up to it hours into
               | the flight.
               | 
               | There is one situation I'd expect a crash halfway thru
               | climbout right after takeoff and from military experience
               | if a load is incorrectly lashed down in the cargo hold
               | and lets say the strapdowns in the front of a tank or
               | howitzer are installed correctly but the ones in the back
               | snap or were incorrectly attached or the tiedowns rusted
               | off LOL (I suppose it happens) then sliding a tank or an
               | artillery piece thru the nose of the plane while in
               | flight will make quite a mess. Yes I'm well aware a civie
               | 737 is not a military C130 but the general case holds
               | that's just about the right time in a flight profile for
               | something in the cargo hold to start sloshing around if
               | not strapped down correctly.
               | 
               | Plenty of opportunity for cascading failure. Trivial to
               | engineer a cargo system where one thing breaking loose
               | cannot screw up weight/balance enough to crash the plane.
               | But one thing breaks loose, slides at high speed into
               | another thing breaking it loose, now you got two
               | uncontrolled loads sloshing around in turbulence, repeat,
               | repeat...
               | 
               | I'm also well aware that a 737 is not a military
               | transport in WWII but there was a documented problem with
               | sabotage in WWII where enemy agents dumped water into the
               | rotary engine oil system and the water eventually boiled
               | about ten minutes into flight, steam popped open the oil
               | system, the engines seized without oil, the mechanics got
               | blamed and the agents continued their work because no
               | evidence just water... Obviously almost certainly not the
               | situation now, but the general idea of "it gets up to
               | full temp a couple minutes into flight" remains valid. I
               | wonder what happens to the airframe if an engine bearing
               | catastrophically seizes and cold welds itself in flight.
               | At minimum I bet the entire engine tears itself off the
               | pylon. Worst case maybe the engine takes the wing with it
               | even if its not supposed to. AFAIK the shroud around
               | engines is supposed to be able to eat a turbine blade
               | that snaps off to prevent damage to the wing, but maybe
               | there's a freak situation of the engine disassembling
               | itself in flight such that the shield shroud thing is
               | blown off milliseconds before the turbine blades are shed
               | into the wing...
               | 
               | I'd extend my remarks based on radar data from
               | 
               | http://www.b737.org.uk/incident_pk-clc.htm
               | 
               | This is a very low performance aircraft (In the sense of
               | not like a F-16) and 11 seconds isn't long enough to
               | intentionally maneuver from a normal climbout based on
               | radar transponder data into falling out of the sky. A
               | F-16 could turn 40 degrees and point straight down in 11
               | seconds but a 737 literally can't, so essentially it went
               | from a normal climbout to cloud of parts falling from the
               | sky slower than the plane at cruise. The radar
               | transponder profile looks a lot different for a plane in
               | one piece under control pointed at the ground. Pieces of
               | aircraft are not aerodynamic at all, which is why parts
               | fell at 10K to 20K feet/min but the groundspeed collapsed
               | from 300 kts to 100 kts in eleven seconds. I'm honestly
               | not sure even a F-16 can drop from 300 kts to 100 kts in
               | eleven seconds in a steep dive, although a random
               | collection of torn metal falling from the sky can do
               | that.
               | 
               | Its interesting that if you google for the flight manual
               | data for a 737, best maneuvering speed to handle maximal
               | turbulence loads is just a couple knots below best climb
               | speed, which the plane was at. So if a pilot was
               | suicidal, he tried to pull the wings off at exactly the
               | flight condition where the plane was strongest; no pilot
               | is uneducated enough to make a noob error that huge. Pull
               | up as hard as you can at cruise, sure. Wiggle the rudder
               | as hard as humanly possible (usually due to crosswind)
               | while landing has torn tails off planes. But try to pull
               | the wings off when flying at manuevering speed? That's
               | just dumb. So no the pilot almost certainly was not
               | suicidal.
        
               | coredog64 wrote:
               | The area under the passenger cabin is pretty constrained.
               | 737 operators pretty much just chuck luggage into the
               | hold. And because it's a manual operation, nobody is
               | going to sneak a huge chunk of tungsten or DU onto the
               | plane, at least not in quantities that would throw off
               | weight and balance on a 737.
        
               | FeeJai wrote:
               | There is a documented accident like this of a civilian
               | B747 cargo plane carrying military equipment that shifted
               | to the back. National Airlines Flight 102
               | 
               | Very scary and impressive videos of the crash on YouTube
        
               | sonofhans wrote:
               | This type of comment is one reason I keep coming to HN.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | DaiPlusPlus wrote:
               | Does the airline have a two-person rule for the flight-
               | deck and/or lockable doors though?
               | 
               | What concerns me about the cockpit lockable doors is how
               | obviously it would lead to tragedy (e.g. Germanwings) -
               | I'd have hoped that the locks would open if unusual
               | aircraft attitude changes were detected - because what's
               | the point of keeping the cockpit door locked if the
               | aircraft is _already_ erratic? Chances are something
               | weird is going on in the flight deck and it's in the pax'
               | best-interests if the cabin-crew can get in.
        
               | nOObie1 wrote:
               | If the plane was in a steep dive, the G-forces would be
               | pushing you toward the tail of the aircraft making it
               | very hard to get into the cockpit.
        
               | amelius wrote:
               | I wonder how "walkable" a plane is after it takes a
               | nosedive, and if the type of doors would make any
               | difference in one's ability to reach the cockpit.
        
               | lolc wrote:
               | Zero-g is very disorienting to humans. But an experienced
               | pilot could probably handle it and push themselves
               | towards the cockpit.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | stretchcat wrote:
               | An experienced airline pilot almost certainly has zero
               | experience moving around in zero-g. Pilots just aren't
               | trained for moving around a freefalling airplane. There
               | are only a handful of 'vomit comets' in existence that
               | could provide such training, and I've never heard of
               | airline pilots being trained in them.
        
               | lolc wrote:
               | I didn't mean to say that pilots have zero-g training. I
               | just assume that most pilots could handle zero-g enough
               | to orient themselves towards the cockpit. But maybe
               | that's optimistic.
        
               | FeeJai wrote:
               | As long as there is air friction complete zero-g is
               | highly unlikely. It takes a lot of training to set the
               | engines correctly to cause zero g by compensating exactly
               | the air friction
        
               | stretchcat wrote:
               | A malicious pilot could injure/incapacitate anybody who
               | wasn't strapped into a seat with aggressive maneuvering.
               | I expect it takes a lot of training for a 'vomit comet'
               | pilot to _not_ toss everybody around like ragdolls, but a
               | suicidal pilot trying to kill everybody wouldn 't be
               | gentle about it..
        
               | twelve40 wrote:
               | Apparently, some manage to make it to the cockpit (that
               | was before reinforced doors):
               | 
               | > the aircraft suddenly went into a rapid dive nose-
               | first, resulting in weightlessness (zero-g) throughout
               | the cabin. Despite this, the captain was able to fight
               | the zero-g and re-enter the cockpit
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EgyptAir_Flight_990
        
               | asd4232 wrote:
               | Usually when a plane "falls apart" you'll have an
               | accident scene with larger pieces intact compared to a
               | plane nosediving to the ground in one piece.
        
             | cambalache wrote:
             | If you look at my comments you will see that I am generally
             | against American powerful institutions and the sadly common
             | American arrogance, but in these kind of things I am 100%
             | behind the American mindset. How convenient that all these
             | clearly suicide-by-pilot incidents are called
             | "inconclusive" by the national , non-US, agency. Is saving
             | face a price worth paying for? This does not help anybody
             | and basically protects a person, who no matter how troubled
             | and depressed, was in essence a mass-murderer.
        
               | kepler1 wrote:
               | BTW what do you mean by the American mindset?
        
               | cambalache wrote:
               | truth over feelings, appearances or face saving. Not
               | always true, but pretty much spot on in air disasters
               | investigations
        
               | Denvercoder9 wrote:
               | > How convenient that all these clearly suicide-by-pilot
               | incidents are called "inconclusive" by the national ,
               | non-US, agency.
               | 
               | The French and German agencies investigating Germanwings
               | 9525 ruled it a suicide.
        
               | cambalache wrote:
               | I thought about saying "western" mindset, but I didnt
               | want to open that can of worms
        
             | dehrmann wrote:
             | The 737-Classic is more reliable than humans, so some
             | amount of human error would be my first guess.
        
             | TeaDrunk wrote:
             | I think this might be ruled out- Indonesian news sources
             | have cited sounds of explosions as well as an eyewitness
             | account of the plane exploding in midair. If it's pilot
             | suicide, it's certainly unconventional.
        
             | clon wrote:
             | Please don't. This is unsubstantiated bullshit at this
             | point. It is a lot more likely that they fought the plane
             | (or their own somatogravic illusion, or ..?) to the bitter
             | end. To put pilot suicide out there, requires some
             | supporting evidence on your part.
        
               | stingraycharles wrote:
               | I think most of speculation in this thread is mostly
               | unsubstantiated, as we know nearly nothing. I think it's
               | fine that the parent points this out, at the very least
               | should not be berated like this.
        
           | asd4232 wrote:
           | If the weather was bad it could also be caused by a pilot
           | getting disoriented, or perhaps an instrument failure. Plenty
           | of aircraft with perfectly working flight controls have been
           | nosedived to the ground either due to spatial disorientation,
           | or pilots believing a faulty attitude indicator.
           | 
           | Of course suicide is another possibility in such cases.
        
       | mysterydip wrote:
       | The flight path shows a sharp right turn before the crash:
       | https://twitter.com/omrockett/status/1347856795239292929?s=2...
       | based on the curve before that it doesn't seem part of the
       | scheduled path. Possibly manul course change or part of losing
       | control?
        
         | Shorel wrote:
         | Maybe the right turbine had a malfunction.
        
           | bluGill wrote:
           | Seems unlikely. All airplanes can take off with one engine
           | failed, and pilots generally practice one engine failure
           | situations often. Unless you are suggesting the pilots were
           | poorly trained?
        
             | cco wrote:
             | An engine disintegrating and taking control surfaces with
             | it is what I assume they meant.
        
       | damniatx wrote:
       | They found the debris
       | 
       | https://twitter.com/HZLABZ/status/1347859200135868418?s=19
        
         | kjakm wrote:
         | Anything to back this up? The account tweeting it seems
         | unrelated to the people in the images and I can't see a source.
        
           | rurban wrote:
           | If you read the proper news, ie avherald, you will read that
           | two fisher boats were 5nm from the crash site. They heard two
           | explosions, saw the parts falling down, went there, picked up
           | the debris. One stayed there, in shallow water, easy to check
           | the cause of the explisions, the other went 2hrs to report to
           | police. A bomb is very unlikely, lots of better explanations.
           | We'll see.
        
             | peteretep wrote:
             | > A bomb is very unlikely
             | 
             | Why?
        
             | cjbprime wrote:
             | I expect you're overstating how unlikely it is: there are
             | not that many better explanations for a plane suddenly
             | falling out of the sky.
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | netsharc wrote:
             | Now that you wrote "bomb", my brain just chimed with the
             | info that the Indonesian government banned an extremist
             | Islamist group a week or 2 ago...
        
           | raihansaputra wrote:
           | The video is making rounds. Seems like it's legit, the
           | Basarnas (Indonesian National SAR) and KNKT (Indonesia's
           | NTSB) is still confirming the findings.
        
       | refurb wrote:
       | Wow. Considering most airlines are operating at >20% of normal
       | volume it's amazing we'd see a crash right now.
        
         | raffraffraff wrote:
         | I know two pilots in their 50s (husband and wife, who met
         | through their work). Because of covid, they're back in flight
         | simulators. For them, it's very very weird to be in a simulator
         | unless it's for extreme scenarios like zero visibility,
         | treacherous wind, engine failure etc. He's had a handful of
         | flights in the last few months so his licence is ok, but she's
         | got to fly as co-pilot for a while because she hasn't flown for
         | 3 months. There's a critical mass issue though... If an airline
         | doesn't have enough pilots who can fly, it takes a while for
         | the rest to get the co-pilot fly time. So now she's in the
         | simulator, and the instruction is simply "Take off from London,
         | touch down in Dublin".
         | 
         | I thought it was like riding a bicycle - you don't forget.
         | While that's true to an extent, I was told that you do "lose
         | your edge" without constant practice. (I'm sure every developer
         | knows what is like to go back to a language after a year of not
         | using it).
         | 
         | I'm not suggesting that it's a factor here, just wanted to give
         | a different angle to the low flight volume.
        
           | dehrmann wrote:
           | I don't feel like I'm as good of a driver after only driving
           | a few miles per week. I can do it, but I definitely feel a
           | little out of practice.
        
           | dmitrygr wrote:
           | It is not like riding a bike at all. A few weeks of not
           | flying, and I notice my landings getting sloppier and less
           | smooth.
        
           | mulmen wrote:
           | This reminds me of Blancolirio speaking of "perishable
           | skills" in a recent video:
           | https://youtu.be/u19R0zfusiQ&t=14m30s
           | 
           | That was in regard to mid-air refueling but I'm sure it
           | extends to other skills as well.
        
         | marcyb5st wrote:
         | Wouldn't surprise me if to save some money airlines become more
         | lenient in maintenance. Especially in less regulated airspaces.
         | 
         | Not saying this is the reason of the crash, but just it
         | wouldn't surprise me if that was the case.
        
           | VLM wrote:
           | Beancounters have always been complaining about beans, but
           | for the first time in aviation history (well, maybe a couple
           | weeks around 9/11) operations is not driving maintenance
           | insane with demands to keep em in the air.
           | 
           | There is a valid counter argument that planes are built to
           | fly and nothing seems to attract problems like hanger queens
           | that just sit there. Seals dry out, birds nest, corrosion is
           | arguably worse on the ground that on flying planes...
           | 
           | Its interesting that the linked airline has no documented
           | google-able history of maintenance related problems, but
           | their pilots have repeatedly historically done some real
           | cowboy stuff like land at the wrong airport and several
           | episodes of "the weather isn't really that bad" turning out
           | to be vastly optimistic. I would guess past performance
           | predicting future performance would indicate it is much more
           | likely to be an operations failure rather than maint...
        
         | elwell wrote:
         | Do you mean '<'?
        
         | siva7 wrote:
         | Operating at such a low volume introduces other problems
         | similiar like surgeons doing too few procedures and therefore
         | not gaining enough routine
        
           | mrandish wrote:
           | Agreed. This is an under-appreciated impact of widespread,
           | long-term lockdowns. It disrupts basically everything in both
           | obvious and non-obvious ways ranging from subtle to severe.
           | 
           | I've been reading some concerning analyses by supply chain
           | experts documenting the increasing stresses and failures in
           | supply chains throughout the economy. Basically, you can't
           | change this much, this fast, across so many interlinked
           | systems and not cause significant unexpected failures.
        
           | blantonl wrote:
           | Also their equipment sitting idle
        
           | manojlds wrote:
           | A reason why I have been avoiding restaurant foods here in
           | India due to covid - it's not because of covid per se, but
           | due to possible other cuts being done due to lower volumes
           | and I just can't rely on quality of food.
        
           | overscore wrote:
           | Yeah. I am a SAR medic and due to rolling lockdowns, was only
           | able to get to sea for training about 10% of the norm last
           | year (4 times vs ~40 in 2019). The same is true for clinical
           | placements (0 vs 4), classroom training (2 vs ~50), etc.
           | 
           | They're all perishable skills and it's left me rusty on
           | everything from boat handling to nav to CPR (BLS is an
           | _extremely_ perishable skill - used to do BLS refreshers
           | every two weeks). On call outs, I can the difference in all
           | the crew - even those on the job for decades. Things just
           | aren 't as smooth.
           | 
           | I can't wait to get vaccinated and back into training.
           | Otherwise, I worry we're going to start making mistakes.
        
             | mantap wrote:
             | What is BLS?
        
               | FlyMoreRockets wrote:
               | BLS = Basic Life Support
               | 
               | https://cpr.heart.org/en/cpr-courses-and-kits/healthcare-
               | pro...
               | 
               | From the linked page:
               | 
               | What does this course teach?
               | 
               | High-quality CPR for adults, children, and infants
               | 
               | The AHA Chain of Survival, specifically the BLS
               | components
               | 
               | Important early use of an AED [Automated External
               | Defibrillator]
               | 
               | Effective ventilations using a barrier device
               | 
               | Importance of teams in multirescuer resuscitation and
               | performance as an effective team member during
               | multirescuer CPR
               | 
               | Relief of foreign-body airway obstruction (choking) for
               | adults and infants
        
               | overscore wrote:
               | Sorry - Basic Life Support. It's the certification all
               | medical practitioners must keep as a prerequisite for
               | working with patients, and covers CPR, advanced airway
               | management, defibrillation, and the chain of survival.
               | Most countries issue two-year certifications, but every
               | frontline service I ever worked with have monthly or
               | fortnightly refresher training.
        
           | rdgthree wrote:
           | Is this just an assumption? It's an interesting thought, I'm
           | curious if there's some sort of data to back it up.
        
             | bigbaguette wrote:
             | There is a variety of anticipated risks linked to the
             | reduced activity during the pandemic and its effects on air
             | travel as a whole. However, this kind of oversight might
             | not be equally managed everywhere in the world
             | 
             | https://www.easa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/dfu/review_o
             | f...
        
             | raihansaputra wrote:
             | I personally don't know about the not enough
             | routine/repetition step, but the FAA did have a
             | recommendation for pilots to reduce the use of autopilots
             | due to similar reasoning.
             | 
             | https://nbaa.org/aircraft-operations/safety/faa-
             | recommends-p...
        
               | sokoloff wrote:
               | That is from 2013 (not saying it's invalid advice, just
               | that it's not related to current flying schedules).
               | 
               | Children of the Magenta Line is a great presentation on
               | automation dependence and quite funny at moments.
               | https://youtu.be/5ESJH1NLMLs
               | 
               | (The GPS flight plan track is standardized to be drawn in
               | magenta.)
        
         | chrononaut wrote:
         | Interestingly even though there have been a significant
         | decrease in the number of flights and passengers flying, the
         | number of absolute fatalities was higher in 2020 than 2019:
         | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-55515525
        
           | woutr_be wrote:
           | 2020 did have fewer accidents than 2019 (https://en.wikipedia
           | .org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incident...), with a major
           | accident early January. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine
           | _International_Airlines...
           | 
           | And most accidents happened before June, which was still
           | relatively early on in the pandemic.
        
             | scoopertrooper wrote:
             | 2020 was so wild I forgot Iran shot down a Ukrainian
             | airliner.
        
           | Recursing wrote:
           | As the article says, 176 out of the 299 fatalities in 2020
           | were due to the "shooting down of a Ukraine International
           | Airlines flight by Iranian armed forces last January". So
           | that's the only reason
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | nobrains wrote:
       | The area around Indonesia is the new Bermuda Triangle (yes yes,
       | while noting that there was nothing significant or statistically
       | significant about the Bermuda Triangle)
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | gumby wrote:
       | BTW it's a 30-year-old airframe, not a recent 737-Max.
        
       | dirtyid wrote:
       | After seeing images of passenger fleets grounded in storage
       | outside during covid, Im personally reluctant to fly until air
       | travel gets back to pre pandemic levels and all the maintenance
       | kinks thoroughly addressed.
        
         | dehrmann wrote:
         | I halfway agree, but storing planes in the desert for a while
         | is a pretty standard thing, so we know how to do this, and it's
         | not like we're bringing the entire fleet back over a month;
         | it'll be more gradual.
        
         | pierrefermat1 wrote:
         | This is plain stupid, do the maths and you'll realise the cab
         | ride over to the airport gives you a higher chance of death
         | than flights themselves. You can't just worry endless about low
         | probability events
        
           | notwhereyouare wrote:
           | During normal travel, I would agree. But planes are meant to
           | be flown, not sit grounded like a large number did for 6+
           | months
        
           | crubier wrote:
           | Not really. If my memory serves me right, Planes are much
           | safer than cars in terms of fatalities per km, safer than car
           | per hour, and on par with cars in terms of fatal accident per
           | flight. Planes flights are faster and longer than car trips.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | anshumankmr wrote:
       | Never flying a Boeing ever again.
        
         | eloff wrote:
         | Because Airbus never crashes? Or are you going to drive
         | everywhere and accept the much higher risks that involves?
         | 
         | Note this was not a 737 Max, it's unrelated to those crashes.
         | That's a knee-jerk emotional reaction.
        
           | sesuximo wrote:
           | We cannot be sure it's completely unrelated. We'll know more
           | soon enough
        
           | anshumankmr wrote:
           | Boeing has been repeatedly undermining its engineers and has
           | been finding way to cut costs, that has killed hundreds so
           | far. They just settled in a court case a few days ago. And
           | you wonder why I don't want to fly Boeing? Source: https://ww
           | w.youtube.com/watch?v=EESYomdoeCs&ab_channel=Bloom...
           | 
           | https://www.wsj.com/articles/boeing-reaches-2-5-billion-
           | sett...
           | 
           | And the cars are in my control. I can choose the best
           | possible car I can afford, I can drive responsibly. I can use
           | public transport whenever I can. Planes may be statistically
           | safer, but when companies cut costs to undermine people's
           | lives, they deserve to pay for it.
        
             | netsharc wrote:
             | This page says 16+ million flights in the USA occur yearly:
             | https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/by_the_numbers/
             | 
             | Sure, maybe it's pre-COVID info. Let's do a Fermi "how many
             | piano tuners" and say subtracting the small private jets
             | and Airbus, there are 5 million flights on Boeing hardware,
             | in the USA alone. Let's say maybe 20 million worldwide
             | (probably way too low a number). There were 20 million
             | successful flights with Boeing hardware per year, year
             | after year. 1 of them crashes, and you say "Never flying a
             | Boeing again?".
             | 
             | Anyway, why should I take some random Internet outburst
             | seriously. How about I make a $1000 bet that you'll find
             | yourself on a Boeing flight between now and Jan 1, 2026?
             | Would you be willing to do that?
        
             | weaksauce wrote:
             | in all reality it's probably not on boeing. it's a 26 year
             | old plane that operates in a company that had a checkered
             | past wrt safety and was in danger of losing their license.
             | no plane is safe if they skip out on maintenance or pilot
             | training.
        
               | eloff wrote:
               | Yeah, let's put it this way, if it is a Boeing problem
               | it's surprising that it goes 26 years undetected and it's
               | worrying because that's the most popular airframe out
               | there today.
               | 
               | This is much more likely to be related to the specific
               | maintenance of the plane, actions of the pilots, or a
               | terrorist thing - Indonesia is a Muslim country that
               | recently banned some extremist groups.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-01-09 23:02 UTC)