Ask HN: Would you fly on a Boeing 737-MAX 8 today?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19358365

by telesilla • 7 years ago

18 18 7 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I have a few flights coming up and checked that none of them, according to [1] are on a 737-MAX 8. I'm not sure what I'd do, if that was the case. What's your take? Are the MAX 9 and 10 safer?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Boeing_737_operators

maxbaines• 7 years ago

No.

ArtWomb• 7 years ago

Yeah. It's just China (and Ethiopia) grounding flights due to geo-trade leverage. If $BA drops 30% it may even be time to load up. Besides, once its your time to go...

Someone12342• 7 years ago

China (aka Comac) is manufacturing them in Zhoushan. How does it help China in "geo-trade leverage" when they're grounding planes Chinese workers are building and selling?

iruoy• 7 years ago

This doesn't look good https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_737_MAX#Accidents_and_i...

The 737 MAX's Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) has come under scrutiny for faulty angle-of-attack readings in the Lion Air accident[126] and the apparent similarity of the Ethiopian Airlines crash.[127]
On March 11, 2019, in response to the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) ordered the suspension of operations of the 96 Boeing 737 MAX 8s operated by Chinese-based airlines, citing the similarity between the two accidents. A number of airlines and regulatory authorities around the world followed suit, though some airlines still continued to operate the type as of this date.[128] On the same day, in response to the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes, Indonesia ordered the temporary suspension of operations of eleven Boeing 737 MAX 8s operated by Garuda Indonesia and Lion Air.[129][130] Inspection is set to begin on 12 March, 2019.[131]

codegeek• 7 years ago

I was just thinking about it yesterday and 2 major accidents in less than a year and both flights crashing within minutes of takeoff is a serious concern. I m definitely a bit scared. When we book flights, we generally don't check the aircraft model but going forward, I may.

sparkling• 7 years ago

The thing that scratches my head: after the Lion Air incident, all 737 MAX operators should have been made aware and relayed relevant info on the problem to their pilots. Surely the Ethiopia pilots heard about the incident and were aware of the issue?

muzani• 7 years ago

I'd go on one. The odds are still safer than driving a car. The worst that can happen is death, which is inevitable anyway.

nicholas73• 7 years ago

This statistic always bothers me. The statement is made true by reporting deaths per mile, versus deaths per trip. Most of the risk is during takeoff and landing, with thousands of miles in between. In contrast car trips are short with most the risk during the actual miles. IIRC, going by deaths per trip makes a flight about 3x more dangerous.

Now that's not a whole lot still, and the per mile stat is still important in that one should not choose a cross state drive over a flight for safety reasons.

copperx• 7 years ago

Going by deaths per trip makes a flight about 3x more dangerous.

Do you mind sharing your back-of-the-napkin math? It seems wrong given the low probability of crash per airplane flight (e.g., there are about 100,000 flights daily and close to zero per day fatal crashes). In fact, about one fatal air crash happens every 7,000,000 airplane flights. I don't know anybody who knows anybody that has died in a commercial airplane crash. I had 2 friends that died in traffic accidents. Anecdotes aren't data, but no one would be surprised by these numbers.

Here are the odds of dying by cause: https://www.nsc.org/work-safety/tools-resources/injury-facts...

chatmasta• 7 years ago

I think the better question is, assuming you need to fly somewhere, given the choice between a 737-MAX 8 and another plane, how much more money would you pay to ride on the other plane?

atmosx• 7 years ago

Oh, so instead of pushing flight safety for everyone, all we have to do is lower the price “enough to make the risk acceptable”?

shakkhar• 7 years ago

Yes. Like most things in life, flight safety is not a binary choice. To complete what you said - "we have to lower the price enough to make the risk acceptable _to enough people so as to operate the flight at break even point_".

quickthrower2• 7 years ago

How often do you “need” to fly somewhere. Almost never for most people. Unless you do a travelling job, then hopefully your company isn’t a cheapskate.

Someone12342• 7 years ago

Today? Yes, I'd fly on one. Next week? We'll have to see.

We know very little about the Ethiopian Airlines crash (and yes I've see flightradar24 data). The speculation is worried it is related MCAS like the Lion Air crash, but until we know that even in a preliminary way it feels a little knee-jerky to boycott 737-MAX 8s.

Assuming the flight data recorders are recoverable, we'll hopefully learn more and can discover if there's any similarities between the two accidents. If they are both MCAS related I suspect we'll see a international grounding of the aircraft class.

dev_north_east• 7 years ago

Nope. I've double checked all my booked flights for the rest of the year to ensure I'm not going on any of them.

I think this is gonna be a big issue and we'll see the entire fleet scraped.

Ask HN: Would you fly on a Boeing 737-MAX 8 today?

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