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Comment by dubbel | Hacker News Reader

That feels like average software development mindset applied to airplanes to be honest.

An airplane nosediving on sensor malfunction from time to time is not acceptable behavior that could be considered fixed by telling the pilots to disable the autopilot.

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But that's the issue here. In the default configuration for the 737-M8. It's not disabled with the autopilot like it has been in previous generations and in other planes. There's an extra step that has to be taken that not all pilots are trained on, or that they might not recall in a panic/emergency when they're fighting the plane.

"By now it's safe to assume that most developers will know about SQL injection and know how to handle it. Well, except for all those people that still write software susceptible to them."

Of course the sensor malfunction still need to be fixed but in the meanwhile the workaround can be used.

Again, this sounds like a typical software developer mindset: "let's just use a workaround!" That's OK if you're using an office software product; it's not OK for an aircraft carrying hundreds of people where one small problem can kill them all (plus more people on the ground).

The correct procedure is to ground the plane until the problem is fully understood, and use different planes.

If there are plenty of different plane and the cost of switching is low then yeah sure.

If you want to bet your life on something dangerous, go ahead, but don't ask others to do the same. Every major civil air authority is now grounding this plane, including the US.

It's still hardly dangerous compared to driving for example.

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