While terrorism from unknown passengers of airlines should be investigated, we should really look at possible causes surrounding the integrity of the aircraft structure. Composite material is used at a very high ratio to make the structure of modern aircraft. Should this be a matter of concern? The flight control surfaces, including the whole tail plane (vertical fin including the rudder and the whole horizontal stabiliser), is made from GRF (glass-reinforced fibre). We have fly-by-wire technology to go along with it. This makes an aircraft structure too vulnerable to certain in-flight conditions, particularly at a very high altitude where temperature is around minus 70 degree centigrade.
The second issue is, how much we should rely on ETOP (extended twin-engine operation) aircraft with two engines on long-haul flights while simply losing one engine during flight (50 per cent loss of thrust from engine). How much reliance should we have on available technology at the present time?
Time has come to rethink about ultimate safety, of course, taking into consideration the maintenance-related errors. I think it's time to rethink how EASA modified the way we used to think about safety from engineering point of view. Are we simply putting profit before everything to satisfy the corporate appetite? This is a crucial question before all of us.
Perhaps open sky policy is not the best thing that ever happened to the global aviation business. Aircraft were made lighter to make it fuel-efficient. ETOP was introduced to cut corners so that airplanes can fly now through shortest possible distance. I think we have reached a threshold where technologies can only take that much further.
One perfect example is automobile engines which are not possible to make fuel-efficient further. So, they made the cars lighter and introduced hundreds of gadgets in the interior & exterior of those automobiles to make it look attractive and stay competitive in the market.
It is like price war all the time. Did cars become cheaper? Never. They promised the same in aviation; did we get cheaper tickets to fly? Yes, we did, but only during those months when the aircraft goes empty. They call this yield flexing and by doing so they even managed to bring even low-cost operation (LCC). But at the end all the price became dearer and virtually everyone lost in the game; why? Because it is not regulated any more. They call it free market. At the end the big one captures the market. The customers are the real losers.
It is time to rethink aviation safety from engineering & maintenance point of view of EASA, FAA, UK CAA, CASA and the partner NAA around the world. It is time to put the safety ahead of corporate profit.
We pay our tribute to those whose lives might have been lost along with Malaysian Airlines B777. We must make a genuine endeavour to find them.
Sheikh Monirul Islam Opee
An aircraft engineer
opshelley@yahoo.com
Time to rethink aviation safety
FE Team | Published: March 13, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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