Unlike the Wigner Effect on aircraft, it is no secret that the aviation industry has been in financial trouble for some time. This has unfortunately translated to skimping on maintenance, when in actuality it should have been increasing, considering aging air fleets and the radiological releases the planes have been flying through since the Fukushima Accident. You may think of this in terms of owning a car. When times are good you may have used premium gas, had separate sets of summer tires and winter tires, or perhaps even a different car altogether for winter driving. However, when money is tight, you use the cheaper gas, drive on tires til they wear out, and sell the second car to save on insurance and costs. Instead of preventative maintenance, you only fix things when they break. This is known as running equipment to failure…one of the few things the nuclear industry actually excels at. An experienced driver will have a rough idea of when things will actually break down, but if the car is exposed to unforseen circumstances that cause the car parts to age faster, that breakdown will occur sooner rather than later. When it comes to aviation, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that cutting corners will exacerbate the frequency of flight emergencies and crashes. But when you then factor in the current radioactive bombardment affecting the entire system – something the industry heads have not done despite early reports of planes being contaminated with radiation – it becomes much more apparent that the aviation industry is in big trouble right now, whether they want to acknowledge it or not.
Posted on: Fri, 10 Oct 2014 21:36:33 +0000