| I think HN really overestimates the impact of events like this with the general public. The very first A320 demonstration flight crashed, killing 3 people, allegedly due to software issues in the new fly-by-wire system, and then involved allegations that Airbus had tampered with the investigation. The demonstration flight was mostly journalists on the plane. [0] The A330 crashed on one of its certification flights due to an issue with the autopilot, killing all 7 onboard. [1] Both went on to be some of the all-time best selling aircraft, and meanwhile today in this thread you have people touting Airbus as a paragon of safety. Humans have a short memory. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_296Q 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_Industrie_Flight_129 I mention these two specifically because they're examples of high-profile failures attributed due to issues with the aircraft early in their lifecycle, but basically every single popular aircraft type (except the B777 and A350) have had serious issues and loss of life due to manufacturing defects, but still went on to be overall successes. Hell, people still flew on the DC-10 even after its _numerous_ issues like AA 191.. |