The biggest political problem of the week seems to be that airlines have stopped flying in Europe, because of the ash cloud from the volcano Eyjafjallajökull. I must say that in Bielefeld it is wonderful to see the sky without… Read moreFlying in Volcanic Ash
I have been thinking recently about professional engineering communication. I was reminded once again of the lack of consensus by Nancy Leveson’s comment that “[t]he type of limited interaction that is possible by email is just not conducive to communication”… Read moreThoughts on Engineering Communication (with a bit on Ice Particle Icing and AF447)
There are some significant issues which are clarified by the BEA’s preliminary factual report, issued at the beginning of July: specifically the uncertainties and certainties in the meaning and partial interpretation of the maintenance messages received by ACARS; the question… Read moreAF447: Issues Clarified by the BEA Report
It happened again! On 13 December 2008, a Boeing 767-39H suffered a tailstrike on takeoff at Manchester Airport. A tailstrike can occur on takeoff when the pilots pitch the nose of the aircraft too high in the air before it… Read moreAvoiding Disaster on Takeoff
Further to the Gotterbarn/Miller study of software engineering ethics in the June 2009 edition of IEEE Computer, and my letter to the editors which I published here on 27 June, Professors Gotterbarn and Miller have replied to my letter. Both… Read moreSoftware Engineering Ethics – The Sequel
Donald Gotterbarn and Keith W. Miller wrote on a Software Engineering Code of Ethics in the June 2009 edition of IEEE Computer magazine. They illustrate the application of their principles with some case studies, including Case Study 2: Who Is… Read moreAn Ethical Statement on Incidents
Here is yet another indication of how things can get a life of their own:- Soon after the France 2 program showing the ACARS transcript messages on 4 June, someone on the pilot’s forum PPRuNe typed them up, and posted… Read moreAF 447 ACARS: A Mistake with a Life of its Own
A list of the 24 ACARS messages listed by Air France that were sent from AF 447 between 0210Z and 0214Z on 1 June, 2009, the last information received from the aircraft, was shown on the France 2 TV channel… Read moreAF 447 ACARS Messages: Reading Tea Leaves
On the morning of June 1, 2009, Air France Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to Paris failed to make any contact with Air Traffic Control after about 0200Z (“Zulu” time is UTC, so two hours behind Paris… Read moreThe Crash of Air France flight 447 on 1 June 2009: introduction
Sometime round about 16:00 local time on Friday 29 September, an Embraer Legacy jet on a delivery flight on airway UZ 6 in the Mato Grosso of Brasil collided with an object which took away most of a winglet and… Read moreThe crash of GOL 1907
