"Sylvia Else" wrote in message
news:4182181d$0$25053$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au...
>
> I wrote:
>
> > It's probably not just a problem in aviation. There are things that seem
> > so blindingly obvious to engineers that it's difficult for them to
> > conceive the notion that a non-engineer might not recognise the truth.
>
> Alaska Airlines Flight 261 might be an example. You have a flight
> control system element that's jammed for no apparent reason.
>
> Therefore you have no idea what it might do if you mess with it, so if
> you can land with it in its current state, then leave the damned thing
> alone, and land.
Apples and oranges. The crew and the mechanics on the ground thought they
were dealing with a trim problem, a relatively benign condition. And even
if they had done nothing, the mechanism probably would have failed before
they could land, anyway.
There were no engineers before the fact saying "Oh, yeah, we know that if
you get those symptoms, it's not a trim problem, the screw threads are about
to strip and fail."
However, 261 did have some precursor events that make you want to mutter
"don't these engineers and airlines ever talk to each other or apply common
sense?"
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