Federal investigators said that Boeing didn’t make pilots aware that when a plane rapidly depressurizes, the cockpit door will fly open.
Technology
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
Not concerning at all, pilots aren't important to a plane.
Yeah we don't need them when we've got autopilot.
Otto!!
Kids! Be my eyes!!!
Some tech bro is training an AI pilot, I guarantee it
Just purchase it now and next year the full self flying package will be available. We're doing it with cameras only.
That's on a need-to-know-basis, why would pilots ever need that information? /s
I had thought that since the 2001 hijackings it has been basically impossible to open the cockpit doors during flight, except from the inside. On El Al planes I'd heard it was impossible period, so hijackers couldn't threaten their way in, but US carriers didn't want to do that because it means the cockpit needs its own lavatory, displacing a few passenger seats.
In the case of an explosive decompression, you can't have that wall trying to resist the pressure difference. It'll blow in a horrible way and probably destroy a ton of circuitry / wiring.
It needs to fail open like this, that design makes sense. The pilots should have been informed though.
An attacker could probably leverage that though to get into the cockpit.
If that design is necessary it has presumably always been like that on every pressurized plane ever built. So it shouldn't have been a surprise. But, some vents should be able to equalize the pressure without opening the door.
ISTR hearing that El Al planes had separate entrances for the cockpit and passenger compartment so there was no way to enter or leave the cockpit except on the ground. No door, just a reinforced wall. But maybe that was a post-911 urban legend.
Aircraft maintenance has been doing the negative pressure unlock tests on cockpit doors for decades, its honestly surprising what isn't common knowledge. Like others have said, rapid decompression of only a portion of the aircraft is very bad, and will result in massive structural failure as individual compartments aren't pressure rated and will blow apart. The doors I've had experience with had large panels that would pop out when in a negative pressure event.
Interesting. Now I'm wondering if the bathroom doors also blow out if there is decompression.
Those don't seal well, so probably not
I think my ass would be having a blow out too if that happened
There are surely some vents that could handle a slower decompression, but a sudden event that reduced the pressure by half in a single second would be too much. 6 tons is a lot of force for a door to take, especially when it is in the opposite direction of most threats the door is supposed to stop.
Seems like a burst disk in the bulkheads would be a better solution than counting on a door to pop open.
Cockpits would need their own bathroom, food, and maybe sleeping area if they had no door. Can't see that happening.
Your getting downvoted by people who've never flown on a 737, or even better, an MD80!
Yeah I don't get it. Lemmy is an odd place at times.
As per pre-911 we just may need to discourage hijackers from attacking planes through other vectors, not that the TSA is an actual deterrent. It's difficult to believe our current measures take terrorism seriously.
The problem with locking cockpits is that is that it's perfect for an evil or very sick pilot.
"I'm not trapped in here with you. You're trapped in here with ME."
I think some airlines require a pilot to switch with one of the board crew when they leave the cockpit.
I hope so, but an evil pilot still only has to subdue that one person.
Subdue, while flying a plane? The only way I can picture that working is if they casually pulled out a gun and executed the other person before they realized. Pilots also have to go through a security line for employees... It's far from impossible to get past that, but it'd take planning...
Suicide is a fixation on a method of death, then following through in the moment
US carriers didn't want to do that because it means the cockpit needs its own lavatory, displacing a few passenger seats.
Did they say that to the FAA?
not like the Boeing 737 Max has had issues before or anything worrisome …
The article says that:
Homendy’s revelation echoes criticism heaped on Boeing during earlier probes of another in the 737 MAX line of planes, the MAX 8, in which pilots said they were not properly trained on a flight control system on board the plane that was implicated in two deadly crashes overseas. In 2020, pilots were required to undergo new simulator training and training for erroneous angle of attack sensor malfunctions as part of the plan to put the 737 MAX back into service.
training for erroneous angle of attack sensor malfunctions
the sticky note keeps falling off …
Boeing merging with McDonnald™ Douglas was a mistake.
Who in the 9/11 came up with this algorithm?
Yet another post where they tried to fit the entire article on the title