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by dredmorbius 1067 days ago
A reminder that the fatal crash of Air France Flight 4590, Concorde on takeoff from Charles de Gaulle airport, France, in 2000 was due to tire debris on the runway:

While taking off from Charles de Gaulle Airport, the aircraft ran over debris on the runway, causing a tyre to explode and disintegrate. Tyre fragments, launched upwards at great speed by the rapidly spinning wheel, violently struck the underside of the wing, damaging parts of the landing gear – thus preventing its retraction – and causing the integral fuel tank to rupture. Large amounts of fuel leaking from the rupture ignited, causing a loss of thrust in the left-hand-side engines 1 and 2. The aircraft lifted off, but the loss of thrust, high drag from the extended landing gear, and fire damage to the flight controls made it impossible to maintain control. The jet crashed into a hotel in nearby Gonesse two minutes after takeoff. All nine crew and 100 passengers on board were killed, as well as four people in the hotel. Six other people in the hotel were critically injured.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_4590>

The debris was a metal strip "435 millimetres (17.1 in) long, 29 to 34 millimetres (1.1 to 1.3 in) wide, and 1.4 millimetres (0.055 in) thick", which had detached from a DC-10 which had taken off five minutes prior to the Concorde.
1 comments
kunwon1 1067 days ago
It is my understanding that, after the loss of the Concorde, one of the resultant advisories mentioned an automated FOD detection system, which did not exist at the time. There are now multiple companies selling such systems, using radar and optical sensors, and the FAA has advisories related to same [1] (pdf link)

The best possible outcome from a fatal crash is regulation that will prevent similar accidents in the future. I don't think automatic FOD detection is mandatory (at least, I can't find any evidence of a mandate) - but I assume that it will eventually be mandated, as costs come down.

[1] https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/...

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bozhark 1067 days ago
Safety paved in blood
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dredmorbius 1066 days ago
As is so often the case.

"Why would anyone make a dumb rule about X?" can almost always be rephrased as "how many souls wrote this rule?"

Mercaptan-oderised natural gas is one example that stands out to me. The 300 souls of New London School, Texas, authored that one, in 1930.

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