Any Other Fans Of "Air Disasters" On The Smithsonian Channel?

[Revoltingest]

Anyone else interested in airplanes, system design, & human factors
would find these shows fascinating. It's surprising how many crashes
there have been, & the many different reasons for the failures.
Air Disasters
I once worked in flight controls (military) & a few other thingies.
Making things safe is a continual challenging effort. Dang...so
very many things can go wrong, & it's so difficult to anticipate them.
The importance of forensic analysis is really shown on this series.

Come on, @Quetzal, at least you should be interested in this soon to be long neglected thread.

 

[Revoltingest]

I'm watching it as I post.
I keep having to pause either activity cuz the show is so riveting.
(And yes, examining failed rivets is often crucially illuminating.)
The current show is about a Russian A310 which crashed due
to the pilots not fully understanding how the flight computer worked.
The pilot was letting his children fly the plane, & unbeknownst to
any, this partially disengaged the auto pilot. They lost control,
& everyone died.

 

[Skwim]

I've been watching it for some time now. It's extremely well done.

.

 

[Regiomontanus]

Anyone else interested in airplanes, system design, & human factors would find these shows fascinating. It's surprising how many crashes there have been, & the many different reasons for the failures.
Air Disasters
I once worked in flight controls (military) & a few other thingies.
Making things safe is a continual challenging effort. Dang...so
very many things can go wrong, & it's so difficult to anticipate them.
The importance of forensic analysis is really shown on this series.

Come on, @Quetzal, at least you should be interested in this soon to be long neglected thread.

Hello. I have not seen that show but, for some strange reason, find airline disasters interesting to read about. For example, the Air France crash:

Air France Flight 447 - Wikipedia

It seems crazy that a bit of ice in the pitot tube (and some human error on top of it?) could cause such a craft to go down. I wonder if those tubes have been redesigned?

 

[BSM1]

Anyone else interested in airplanes, system design, & human factors would find these shows fascinating. It's surprising how many crashes there have been, & the many different reasons for the failures.
Air Disasters
I once worked in flight controls (military) & a few other thingies.
Making things safe is a continual challenging effort. Dang...so
very many things can go wrong, & it's so difficult to anticipate them.
The importance of forensic analysis is really shown on this series.

Come on, @Quetzal, at least you should be interested in this soon to be long neglected thread.

I've always worried about plane crashes. I don't believe I even put my full weight down on the floor until my third or fourth flight.

 

[Revoltingest]

Hello. I have not seen that show but, for some strange reason, find airline disasters interesting to read about. For example, the Air France crash:

Air France Flight 447 - Wikipedia

It seems crazy that a bit of ice in the pitot tube (and some human error on top of it?) could cause such a craft to go down. I wonder if those tubes have been redesigned?

I suspect that pitot tube icing resulted in some change, not necessarily to
the tubes though. One possible change would be using multiple pitot tubes
& other sensors with a software voting system to determine true air speed.
I don't know....just speculating.

 

[Revoltingest]

I've always worried about plane crashes. I don't believe I even put my full weight down on the floor until my third or fourth flight.

I hate flying....and & not just cuz of the TSA & discomfort.
So many things can go wrong, the good safety statistics notwithstanding.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

Yeah, I've watched it. I've even used it as a tool in teaching organization and management courses.

Something that amazes me is that after all the disasters that have occurred over the years, pilots still can shut off the transponder, cockpit voice recorder and many of the automatic safety systems, and that many different systems run through single switches and other bottlenecks. Fault tree analysis has been around for what, at least 50 years now, and crashes still happen in part because of undetected interconnections of a complex and complicated system?

 

[Bob the Unbeliever]

I used to have the Smithsonian Channel, way back when I still had fixed-wire TV (cable).

I will give this a go-- thanks! I love history of Air Travel, as a general subject, and Air Disasters sounds right up my alley.

 

[Stanyon]

Never seen it or heard of it since I don't watch much television but it sounds like this would be a good soundtrack for it:

 

[Bob the Unbeliever]

Update: Damn.

There is No Love for the PC. Apparently, the only way to watch these, are with a paid subscription to something.

Cannot get it over-the-air. Cannot get it streaming (without going to shady 3rd party sites).

Apparently, you can get limited shows on Android or one of those I-thingies. I do not do that, as their screens are ... tiny. Not worth the trouble.

My laptop streams TV quite nicely, thanks-- more than ample to watch old TV shows, or YouTube for example.

*sigh*

No love for those who refuse to submit to Cable TV Oligarchies.

 

[Audie]

I hate flying....and & not just cuz of the TSA & discomfort.
So many things can go wrong, the good safety statistics notwithstanding.

Like, uh.... you FINALLY board, sometime the next
day, sit on the plane for an hour and a half
and then they say, the airplane does not work,
and you have to get off.

 

[Revoltingest]

Like, uh.... you FINALLY board, sometime the next
day, sit on the plane for an hour and a half
and then they say, the airplane does not work,
and you have to get off.

A friend recently saw an engine fall off in flight.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

A friend recently saw an engine fall off in flight.

Accidents do happen. Usually have multiple contributing factors.

 

[Revoltingest]

Accidents do happen. Usually have multiple contributing factors.

Aye, so many.....
Design
Pilot training
Maintenance
Weather
Sabotage
And often failure involves interaction of 2 or more.

 

[Revoltingest]

I just watched an interesting episode about a DC8 cargo plane crashing
at Guantanamo Bay. The plane was operated by a company which later
became a tenant of mine. The primary cause of the crash was pilot
fatigue...the first ever such determination for commercial aviation.
The company had a pattern of coercing pilots work unreasonably long hours.
Having dealt with the company's owner, I'm not surprised this bullying behavior.

 

[Willamena]

I love those shows (that and Mayday).

 

[BSM1]

I just watched an interesting episode about a DC8 cargo plane crashing
at Guantanamo Bay. The plane was operated by a company which later
became a tenant of mine. The primary cause of the crash was pilot
fatigue...the first ever such determination for commercial aviation.
The company had a pattern of coercing pilots work unreasonably long hours.
Having dealt with the company's owner, I'm not surprised this bullying behavior.

Just as an aside (and to seem self important), if you recall that Panam flight that was brought down over Lockerbie, Scotland, I believe I flew on that airplane on it's maiden flight from Istanbul to NYC. The timeline was right, and the flight path was almost identical from the one we took. Thankfully I flew on it's first flight and not it's last. BTW, 747's were fairly new then, and even though I spent 18 hours in the air on that one, you cannot convince me that those monster can fly to this day.

 

[Revoltingest]

Just as an aside (and to seem self important), if you recall that Panam flight that was brought down over Lockerbie, Scotland, I believe I flew on that airplane on it's maiden flight from Istanbul to NYC. The timeline was right, and the flight path was almost identical from the one we took. Thankfully I flew on it's first flight and not it's last. BTW, 747's were fairly new then, and even though I spent 18 hours in the air on that one, you cannot convince me that those monster can fly to this day.

They don't fly.
It's all virtual reality.

 

[BSM1]

They don't fly.
It's all virtual reality.

Thank God I kept my eyes shut and never put my full weight down during most of the flight...