Airbus A380 Under Fire

jose parinas writes "The security of the Airbus A380 jetliner is questioned by a U.S. Engineer that faces arrest and bankruptcy in Austria. A year ago, Mangan told European aviation authorities that he believed there were problems with a computer chip on the Airbus A380, the biggest and costliest commercial airliner ever built."

Comments

austria

[ecumenical_40oz]

It sure sounds like Austria has a screwed up legal system. Corporations can bring criminal charges against individuals? Here we have horror stories about SLAPP lawsuits, but this is a whole new level. If a company or powerful person doesn't like what you have to say, you go could to jail at their whim.

Re:austria

[macdaddy357]

Yes, the country that gave the world Adolph Hitler and Arnold Schwarzeneggar has a legal system that is punishing the man who would save us from the death bus of the air that could take out 800 people in a few seconds. That is screwed up!

Re:Autopilot

[slashjunkie]

To all the people who are rubbishing the parent post, I'd like to chip in my 2 cents worth.

As a retired pilot, I have flown a variety of aircraft, and experienced the effects of unpressurised flight flight about 10,000ft.

We ~do~ have the technology to fit sensors to cabins that detect depressurisation. Heck, what do you think triggers the oxygen masks to drop down in the first place? The problem lies with what do we do once we know the cabin is depressurised. There aren't that many places in the world where the ground terrain rises above 10,000ft, so, barring a collision with another aircraft flying the same heading, it would be feasible for the autopilot to make an emergency descent. Even if there was ground rising above 10,000ft, modern aircraft are fitted with ground avoidance radar (what causes the 'whoop-whoop, pull up!' scenario). Levelling out at 12,000ft is enough for a few people to come to and do something heroic. Flying for a few hours at that altitude on autopilot is far more likely to result in a good outcome than at 39,000ft with a frigid, depressurised cabin.

Also, don't forget that the cockpit oxygen masks drop down before the main cabin - the cockpit pressure sensor is pegged at a higher level, so that if there is a slow leak, the pilots can don their masks early and do a more controlled descent.

But, as for the plane landing itself... well, we're still a fair way off with that one. Airports have to be equipeed with differential GPS beacons that allow the plane to determine its position down to about half a metre. And this is also assuming that the aircraft has automatically reported a mayday, allowing ATC to clear the pattern. It'll get there one day, but there are still a lot of what-if scenarious that the autopilot 'AI' would have to cope with.

go out in style

[Erris]

If you were the one who did the "whistleblowing, site:faa.gov" search, two days before an anonymous person called that number, are you still going to believe it's anonymous?

Do the search from your corrupt boss's computer. The dumbass probably uses windoze, so it should not be too hard to get in there to do it. Good luck!