Aviation is so safe and I'd hate to see us ruin that, but that's exactly what the airlines are trying to do. And they're doing so because of a pilot shortage they created when they forced so many pilots into retirement during Covid.<p>The airlines are trying to move us to a single pilot: <a href="https://fortune.com/2022/11/21/airlines-pushing-one-pilot-in-cockpit-passenger-jets-instead-of-two/" rel="nofollow">https://fortune.com/2022/11/21/airlines-pushing-one-pilot-in...</a><p>The airlines are trying to lower flight time requirements for pilots:
<a href="https://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Airline-News/Regional-carriers-want-relief-from-1500-hour-rule" rel="nofollow">https://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Airline-News/Region...</a><p>They created a problem and now want to solve it by messing with a system that has made air travel the safest way to travel for the last decade. I'm sure more of these near misses would have ended in tragedy with a single, less-experienced pilot.
This article attempts to combine isolated incidents into an overall problem with aviation safety. However, having flown into OGG multiple times, I think this is another example of the typical extreme wind shear/turbulence at this airport and not connected to wider issues. I was in a SW flight that bounced twice and aborted while attempting to land. The airport is located in a difficult location given the high winds that wrap around Haleakala. An older airport a few miles to the south and Maui's first civilian airport, Puunene, was abandoned due to these problems (after racking up an impressive number of killed naval aviators in its wartime role as an USN training field).
From the graphic, the part that impresses me the most is that it recovered to the original trajectory. That is, it climbed very steeply, instead of merely returning to a normal climb rate. If not for claims to the contrary, I'd have looked at that data and guessed there was a problem with the ADS-B.
"The airline declined to say if the flight data recorder or cockpit voice recorder were analyzed after the flight, though the CVR would've been overwritten by the two-hour recording duration"<p>How is the recording duration only 2 hours? Is there some non-technical limitation here?
My guess is that someone changed the indicated airspeed (IAS) instead of the heading (HDG) or altitude (ALT). That explains why nothing was recorded, no one wanted to confess.
One time I was flying into Atlanta during a thunderstorm with reported tornado warnings nearby, and I vividly remember the turbulence being so bad that at times it felt like the plane just dropped several hundred feet in mid-air on approach.<p>Now I don't know if that was actually the case or not, but I can't imagine that happening and being ~775 feet off the ground/water.<p>Crazy.
Here is Blancolirio's report on Flight 1722 [1] He covers most flight incidents. His theory is switching to auto-pilot with it dialed into a low altitude and the pilot correcting.<p>[1] - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B9mQQnZg_8">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B9mQQnZg_8</a> [video][11 mins]
Did the tune here change? United originally stated they didn't think the event warranted FAA involvement. Which of course sounds crazy, far more benign events get reported to the FAA.
The aricle shows a rendering of data of the event from flightradar24. Is there something set up by flightaware or the community that looks for sudden changes in altitude?<p>Edit: messed up original source
For reference purposes, 775 feet is 236 meters, or three Boeing 777's, two football fields held vertically, 1240 bananas, or two thirds of the Empire State Building.
The blancolirio youtube channel covered this today[0]. His theory is that the autopilot was set incorrectly. When enabled shortly after takeoff it triggered the dive.<p>[0]: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B9mQQnZg_8">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B9mQQnZg_8</a>
Just looking at the rendering of the flight data -- did nobody post footage on social media from inside the plane during that dive, or the subsequent climb? That looks like a roller coaster of a flight, if I have the scale correct.
Previous discussion of the same December 18th event: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34766467" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34766467</a>