Plane Crash Causes

Discussions debate the causes of aviation accidents, focusing on pilot error versus aircraft system failures like MCAS, fly-by-wire modes, stalls, and inadequate training or manuals in incidents such as Air France 447 and Boeing 737 events.

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e.g HE00155 MCAS IMHO VFR TBH AFT youtu.be IMC www.he pilot pilots plane aircraft stall flight airplane air flying pulling

Sample Comments

pauljurczak Mar 17, 2019 View on HN

It's easy to say with the hind sight. When you are flying a plane, which starts to behave abnormally, you have to analyze hundreds of possible causes and try not to kill everyone on board at the same time. There are multiple reports about poor MCAS manuals and lack of training.

Animats Jul 11, 2017 View on HN

Too soon to tell what the problem was. Possibly there was some other problem in the aircraft that was taking some pilot attention. Give this some time.

hga Jul 9, 2013 View on HN

Well, it wasn't your standard controlled flight into terrain, but since one of the pilots was pulling back on his hand stick for the entire time.... (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_447#Sullenbe...).

mdekkers Nov 9, 2018 View on HN

This PDF https://www.he-alert.org/filemanager/root/site_assets/standa... should give you pause. Best quote of the paper is the pilot asking a co-pilot "What's it doing now?"

nerdponx Jul 14, 2023 View on HN

This story is horrifying, but it seems more like catastrophic pilot error than a problem with the fly by wire system.

microtonal Feb 12, 2023 View on HN

Interesting, link:https://onemileatatime.com/news/qatar-airways-pilot-loses-si...

tyingq Dec 11, 2019 View on HN

Interesting. So it's likely there was some kind of warning/alert to the pilots for this incident?

NickRandom Apr 29, 2022 View on HN

That is exactly what happened to Air France flight 447 (two pilots operating controls in different directions)https://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/a3115/what-really-ha...(https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=

azifali Nov 13, 2018 View on HN

Rookie pilot here. Large airplanes have drive by wire systems where the plane pretty much flies itself. But when certain instruments like the Pitot tube don't work then the control is handed over to pilots and they operate in alternate law, where they are responsible for the actions.If instruments cannot measure key environmental indicators such as velocity, temperature etc - no amount of automation will save the plane.Instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) / Instrument Fligh

Zak Nov 9, 2018 View on HN

No doubt, though I think a compounding factor here is the automatic switching between modes. The pilots didn't seem to understand what the plane was doing and why.A reasonable response in that situation might be to hit the big red button, removing any question about the behavior of the flight controls. It may not have been enough in this scenario, as the pilots didn't seem to be paying appropriate attention to the angle of attack indicator, which was apparently functioning and clear