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Failed Avionics a Possible Cause of BA038 Crash
Muhammar writes "As you may have heard by now, both engines of the Boeing 777 aircraft flight BA038 suddenly cut off without warning at very low altitude and low speed during autopilot-assisted landing at Heathrow. A prompt reaction of the pilots prevented the stall and saved all lives aboard. The crash landing short of the runway tore off the landing gear on impact, and the fuselage plowed a long, deep gouge in the grass. With the investigation ongoing, the available information points to an electronic control problem as the most likely cause of the sudden engine power loss."
Has nobody thought of checking BA's own website? http://www.britishairways.com/travel/flightops/public/en_gb?p_faqid=3115
I'm 63% sure the 777 was mentioned on UNIX-HATERS (I know, wrong crowd) back when it was in development. Something about the glass cockpit running on Unix and the FAA/etc. letting it pass certification with less testing than usual because of Unix's supposed proven track record. A good laugh was had by all (suddenly Amtrak's safety record looks appealing, etc.).
Yeah you may sneer, but things are different now that Unix only has Windows to compete against. Plus it's had another decade or so of development since then. Most of you are probably too young to remember how Unix was during its inexplicable rise -- everyone's sessions lock up at once, then the operator comes running into the terminal room and shouts "everybody stop typing! the keyboard buffers are full again!" And we sit at our Teleray 1061s and wait many minutes for the poor thing to stagger to its feet. And that's just bad I/O, the crashes were something else. See how much you'd want to ride in a Unix-controlled plane when *that's* your daily life.
Anyway I'm sure the true story won't be as simple as it being Unix's fault (if current 777s even run Unix), but I'll laugh my ass off if that's even 1% of it.