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Comment by 6stringmerc | Hacker News Reader

After reading the summary it sounds like a "CAPTAIN HAD A MASSIVE HEART FAILURE AND SLUMPED FORWARD ON THE CONTROLS DO NOT CRASH AIRPLANE FROM CRUISE ALTITUDE IF POSSIBLE" which might sound pretty obvious but, uhh, that's some nice code work. That's why there are two (2) pilots in theory/practice, because human redundancy is a valuable asset.

I can't help but think if there was a video camera in the cockpit it might have looked a lot like that scene in "The Big Lebowski" where he drops his joint between his legs while driving and then loses control and hits a dumpster. Shit tends to domino from time to time lol.

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Remember that most of the sources of typical crashes or problems have been eliminated. Which means that accidents happen they're always freak accidents.

Not really, that recent crash in San Francisco had alarms going off like crazy and the idiot pilot still managed to crash the plane. Once you read enough NTSB reports / bulletins about General Aviation accidents (usually only big stuff makes the news) it becomes very clear that accidents happen and bad decisions happen. Like turning off the wrong engine...

Was this the Korean (whichever of the companies) airlines crash? I didn't read up too much into it after the fact.

Taipai, Taiwan. I believe it had trouble in one engine briefly after takeoff, and the pilots tried turning it on and off again. Unfortunately they turned off the still-functioning engine and it plummeted into a river.

You might remember the shot of it flying over a bridge, rolled 90 degrees and so close to the ground that the wing partly sheared off.

You're referring to the Transasia in Taiwan.

GP probably was about the Asiana 214 into SFO, RW 28 L, where the ILS was inoperative, so it was a bog standard visual approach into a nice long runway in beautiful weather in a flawless Boeing 777 that the crew botched. (First fatal crash of a 777 - great plane!)

However, the 777 supports the point made way above: the planes and systems are so good these days that most accidents are freak accidents.

Let's look at 777 hull losses:

* 2008, BA 38 into LHR: weird problem with frozen fuel filter (no fatalities)

* 2011, EgyptAir 667 on the ground in Cairo: fire (no fatalities)

* 2013, Asiana 214 into SFO: inop ILS, suboptimal crew resource management (a few fatalities, one run over by fire truck)

* 2014, MH 370: freak freak freak freaky

* 2014, MH 17: shot down over Ukraine

* 2015, BA 2276 in Las Vegas: uncontained engine failure (no fatalities)

* 2016, Emirates 521 in Dubai: crash on botched go-around (one fatality, fire fighter)

So, I'd say there were some crew problems, some design problems (hopefully fixed), and many really freaky confluences of unfortunate circumstances...

Yeah originally the news cycle had some spin on it - I clearly remember some lines about "Wow check out the heroic actions by the pilot to avoid crashing into any buildings!" and later when the cockpit recorder came out, uhhh, not so heroic. Human, an error...preventable? Up for debate but I like to think a lot of US regulated pilots would be able to handle it appropriately.

Doesn't just happen in general aviation. Turning off the wrong engine brought down TransAsia Airways Flight 235 2 years ago.

The video camera in the cockpit was what got stuck in the lever and caused the problem in the first place.

P.S. That's one of my favourite scenes of any movie ever ️

for reference

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjBBDJ5OiT0

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