[BITList] 380 Emergency from Singapore

[HUGH]

John,

No two ways about it, the people flying that plane did a fine job with the tools at their disposal, and I take my hat off to them.

Being a common or garden engineer, my thoughts then turned to the aircraft and the multiple losses of systems, not to mention a computer that was programmed to deal with only so many problems at once.  I assume the latter arose from someones conviction that a bigger number of problems was unlikely to be faced all at once.  This is the old "chances v consequences" scenario - at work, I always concentrated on the consequences.  At home, if I leave comething on the wooden rail at the top of our stairs inside the house, my wife insists I remove it, lest it fall on someone. In vain I point out the almost zero chance of it jumping off the rail.

I understand the need for attention to be paid to weight on a plane - what I don't understand is why so many important wires, conduits, hydraulic pipes, etc, are arranged in such a way that they can be compromised all at once.

Hugh.
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