The crash of the United Airlines Flight 232 is a devastating event and is considered an engineering disaster for two main reasons. The failure of a fan disk in the engine which caused the plane to crash, and the high number of human fatalities due to the crash of the airplane on the runway.
The United Airlines Flight 232 took off from Stapleton International Airport, Denver, Colorado, and was scheduled to land in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with a layover in Chicago, Illinois. It was a passenger flight with 285 passengers and 11 crewmembers on board. The first hour and seven minutes of the flight were uneventful and went to plan until suddenly a loud explosion was heard and was shortly followed by large vibrations which shook the airframe. …show more content…
While the total loss of hydraulics is considered virtually impossible since they all are separate systems, the hydraulics in the plane shared the same route through the tail which is where penetration occurred. This is what led to the engine and hydraulic failure, which caused the pilots to lose control of the plane leading to the crash at SUX airport.
There are a few ethical considerations at work with the crash of the United Airlines Flight 232. Firstly, there is the failure of the United Airlines maintenance personnel and processes for not being able to identify the existing cracks in the fan disk which was indicated by the presence of a penetrating fluorescent dye. United Airlines could have of been able to detect the crack if they had more personnel on the maintenance, however, having to employ more people would lead to losing money. They are not the only company at fault, GE was also. GE the maker of the fan disks for the engine, were told to discard the TIMET titanium forgings they received which was for a disk which had the same serial number as the one which was involved in the crash. While GE records state that the disk that was used in the crash was made from RMI titanium billet which had a final finishing and inspection on December 11, 1971.
The United Airlines Flight 232 took off from Stapleton International Airport, Denver, Colorado, and was scheduled to land in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with a layover in Chicago, Illinois. It was a passenger flight with 285 passengers and 11 crewmembers on board. The first hour and seven minutes of the flight were uneventful and went to plan until suddenly a loud explosion was heard and was shortly followed by large vibrations which shook the airframe. …show more content…
While the total loss of hydraulics is considered virtually impossible since they all are separate systems, the hydraulics in the plane shared the same route through the tail which is where penetration occurred. This is what led to the engine and hydraulic failure, which caused the pilots to lose control of the plane leading to the crash at SUX airport.
There are a few ethical considerations at work with the crash of the United Airlines Flight 232. Firstly, there is the failure of the United Airlines maintenance personnel and processes for not being able to identify the existing cracks in the fan disk which was indicated by the presence of a penetrating fluorescent dye. United Airlines could have of been able to detect the crack if they had more personnel on the maintenance, however, having to employ more people would lead to losing money. They are not the only company at fault, GE was also. GE the maker of the fan disks for the engine, were told to discard the TIMET titanium forgings they received which was for a disk which had the same serial number as the one which was involved in the crash. While GE records state that the disk that was used in the crash was made from RMI titanium billet which had a final finishing and inspection on December 11, 1971.