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F-35 pilot held 50-minute airborne conference call with engineers before crash

(www.cnn.com)
278 points Michelangelo11 | 5 comments | 27 Aug 25 11:38 UTC | HN request time: 0.335s | source
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freefaler ◴[27 Aug 25 12:06 UTC] No.45038516[source]▶
So as a pilot you can't override the software to stop it from "thinking that the plane is on the ground" mode?

Something similar happened recently with A320 when it didn't want to land on an airfield during emergency unless it was flown in a special mode. But F-35 doesn't have that?

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1. seethishat ◴[27 Aug 25 13:27 UTC] No.45039382[source]▶
"On the ground" = WoW sensors. WoW sensors have been around a long time (see link). And, humans probably should not have any say about that. If humans could override WoW, then the landing gear could be deployed or retracted when it should not and cause a lot of damage due to human error.

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

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2. jcalvinowens ◴[27 Aug 25 13:37 UTC] No.45039495[source]▶
I know the 737 allows the pilot to override that (force the wheels to raise even if the airplane thinks it's on the ground). I think most airliners do. I can't find a good succinct reference though.

EDIT: Remembered Airbus exists

3. agos ◴[27 Aug 25 13:55 UTC] No.45039726[source]▶
this makes sense but why is the decision based only on the state of the landing gear? Is it dumb to expect altitude and speed to be considered?
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4. tonyarkles ◴[27 Aug 25 14:36 UTC] No.45040325[source]▶
Yeah, when I saw that it was related to WoW sensors I was reminded of a chat that I had with an experienced aviation engineer a few years ago when we were considering adding them to the UAS I'm working on. "Every system I've ever worked on that relied on WoW sensors has had some kind of unexpected adverse event due to the sensors either triggering when they weren't supposed to, or not triggering when they should have. If you can figure out a different way to do what you're trying to do, please do."
5. seplox ◴[27 Aug 25 17:26 UTC] No.45042434[source]▶
No, that's not dumb at all. Inputs are filthy and sensors fail. If you're not comparing all available sensor data to confirm your understanding of reality, then a single sensor failure could... oh I dunno... cause your 737 MAX to divebomb.

The F-35 could compare weight on wheels to airspeed as a simple sanity check.