Of course this applies to civilian airliners (as far as the collisions). The Navy has certainly learned it's lessons from military aircraft accidents. Those will continue to happen..nature of the beast.
As an x jet maintenance, this one is disturbing to me.
"The FAA has since mandated changes to reduce sparks from faulty wiring and other sources. Boeing, meanwhile, has developed a fuel-inerting system that injects nitrogen gas into fuel tanks to reduce the chance of explosions. It will install the system in all its newly built planes, starting in 2008. Retrofit kits for in-service Boeings will also be available"
This inerting system should have been made mandatory ASAP by the FAA. But since they didn't, Boeing is taking it's sweet time with it. More than likely more jets will experiance this type of failure (until the risk is removed) as they get older and the wiring becomes more fragile.
Oh, great! I'm flying from NC to CT next month and this was just what I needed to reassure me. As it is now, the longer you go between flights, the harder it is to fly again. Not like when I was on active duty making numerous flights every year. Well, at least with this broke/busted leg, I might get upgraded to first class for some free booze.
Transcontinental and Western Air Flight 599, a Fokker F-10 crashed in March 31, 1931 killing al aboard including legendary Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne. Structeral failure of the wooden laminate construction was blamed. As a result, aluminum stressed skin construction began to dominate aircraft construction and design with aircraft such as the Douglas DC-2, DC-3, and Boeing 247. Fokker F-10 crash
rm444 makes a good point with the Comet. I believe 3 were lost within a short period of time due to metal fatigue. A contributing factor was the design of the windows on the Comet. They were square. The corners formed stress risors that caused cracks to start. With the aircraft pressurized at high altitude these cracks quickly spread leading to the break up of the aircraft.
