andrewrgross comments on 'Near Collisions' of Commercial Jets Happen All the Time: FAA Records

[–] andrewrgross@slrpnk.net 10 points 3 years ago (3 children)

It seems silly to minimize this.

Even if the distances seem great to you, if the FAA says "that's a near miss" and "we're operating outside of safety requirements", that means that if you roll the dice long enough you WILL have a crash.

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[–] anlumo@feddit.de 1 point 3 years ago (2 children)

Yes, but the "everybody panic!" vibe the article is trying to convey is way too dramatic.

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[–] andrewrgross@slrpnk.net 2 points 3 years ago (1 child)

When air traffic controllers tell you "this is a crisis" I think we should listen. Must we wait for an actual crash before we do something? It seems like we never react UNTIL a crisis explodes.

Another example: last year, while threatening a railroad strike, the railroad unions warned that derailments and near catastrophes were going up. Just a few months after they were forced back to work without additional support or breaks, the East Palestine disaster struck. The people responsible for inspecting cars TOLD the media and TOLD congress that this was happening. And it's still going on. Derailments are like mass shootings. They happen about weekly, but the reporting just covers a few of the big ones.

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[–] anlumo@feddit.de 1 point 3 years ago

Of course the air traffic controllers should be listened to, since they can predict the future tendencies.

I think railroads have less safety margin in their system, mostly due to having one dimension fewer available. A plane can (and automatically does) stop a collision by ascending or descending. A train can't do that.

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