Do Computers Make Planes Less or More Safe?

[RamboLiberal]

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The Airbus A330 was flying at a cruising altitude of 11,278 meters (37,000 feet). The calm of modern jet travel, accentuated by the monotonous drone of the engines, prevailed on board the aircraft. The flight attendants were clearing away the last of the lunch trays into their trolleys, some of the 303 passengers were waiting near the toilets, and others were passing the time with stretching exercises.

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At 12:40 p.m. and 28 seconds, the autopilot in the cockpit suddenly disabled itself. While the unsuspecting Cave was digging around in the overhead luggage compartment, lights were flashing and alarms were going off in the cockpit. Error codes flashed onto the central monitor: AUTO FLT AP OFF, NAV IR1 FAULT. Then a metallic voice said, ominously: Stall! Stall! Stall! Danger: The aircraft is too slow. The airstream over the wings is about to decrease!

Then there was another warning sound and the words, in red, appeared on the screen: Overspeed! Overspeed! Overspeed! The aircraft is too fast!

For a few seconds, the captain and the co-pilot must have thought that they were merely dealing with the quirks of a flight computer. The engines were running normally, the aircraft was perfectly positioned in the airstream and the weather radar was not reporting any turbulence.


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But this time it seemed as if an invisible hand had taken control of the aircraft. A few moments later, at 12:42 and 27 seconds, it became clear that it was not going to be business as usual on board Flight QF 72. The nose of the aircraft was suddenly pitched sharply downward, 8.4 degrees over the horizon, headed toward the earth. The aircraft quickly picked up speed and the sound of air rushing by grew louder. The plane was in a nosedive.

http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/story?id=8236562&page=1

[Rick Myers]

1. I refuse to fly on anything built by Airbus!!!

They have a history of computer related crashes.

[thereismore]

2. That's a great article. nt

[Dr.Phool]

3. Is Microsoft writing the software for the computers?

It gives the words "crash" and "blue screen of death" a whole new meaning.

[RamboLiberal]

4. Hope you read the whole thing where they found out

the software update was incompatible with the software installed. I work in IT. No way in hell do I want a computer controlling the plane that doesn't allow for immediate override by the pilots.

[Grinchie]

5. Reminds me of the F22 Avionics systems crash when they crossed over the International Dateline

They were flying over to Japan from Hawaii, but when they crossed over the Dateline, the Avionics system crashed.

They were able to return to Hawaii.

The separation of man to the physical world is a dangerous trend, and many people don't have a clue on what would happen if all their little Electronic widgets suddenly stopped functioning.

At least in the past, you could pop down to Radio Shack and pick up a few transitiors, resistors Tubes or wires to be able to jury rig a defective dvice, which were built by hand, on a scale that allowed repair.

These days, I challenge anyone to repair a cell phone. There is no way, and the only recourse is the discard and replace. Never mind that the device contains more power than the original computers used on the Manhatten project a half a century ago.

As a software engineer, I was always desturbed when I was enlisted by some company that had bought into the hype of Computerizing their systems. Many times, their manual, decades old, papaer driven business protocol was far simpler, and well tuned for the business. In other words, it didn't need to be computerized. I would always make a point in asking, are you "REALLLY SURE" you want to abandon a system that works, and undertake a complete metamorphosis that will take lots of time, energy, and money to get to the first phase?

This question was virtually ignored, as the allure of Technology was too great to resist.

It didn't matter to me, since it was their decision, and I had given them a hint at the disruption that would be coming down the line.

It was until I saw Clerks in the local mini mart closing there little shops during a power failure, because they were incapable of using a paper receipt book to log transactions temporarily, that I became concerned with the dumbing down of America by overreliance on technology. To taht end, I decided that the IT industry, while useful as a general tool and information and analysis device, really doesn't offer that much to the fundamental process of day to day life.

For the past 10 years, I have lived on the premise of "How would I duplicate this product, service, tool, or infrasctructure if I did not have electricity, technology or the internal combustion engine.

I am not a Luddite by any means. I utilize technology when it is necessary, by I find myself using about 195% less technolgy, and more human labor, innovation, and creativity than ever before. The most surprising thing I have learned is that most of the way's we are taught to do thing today, are driven by a Corporate driven message to drive consumption, which buries or obscures traditional methods used less than 30 years ago.

Woodworking and construction is a good example.. Wood is now machined to precise deimensions, where in the past, every piece was slightly different, and the differences were taken into account. Yet, America relies on dimensional timbers, and is working very hard to try and make timber framed structures difficult to erect without ultimately machining the timbers themselves.

If square timbers are so great, them why aren't tree trunks square in nature?

That's the big fraud. We are so distanced from Nature at birth, thet we can no longer just use things as they are provided to us. This goes for GMO food, Petrochemicals, water, waste treatment,

We need strong IT, but when it is used to manipulate the consumer, the economy, and shape opinion if favor of certain interests, it's time to invest in some historical know how in order to be better prepared for any contingency.