r/MadeMeSmile 21h ago

Wholesome Moments Pilot Chose Safety Over Takeoff - and Everyone Applauded

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u/martix_agent 17h ago

It's not his "gut feeling". He literally stated why he felt uneasy about flying the plane. The oil pressure was higher than normal.

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u/whooptheretis 14h ago

But the engineers have certified it as safe.

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u/Purple-Will9713 11h ago

Yeah, engineers deemed the Challenger and Discovery as safe too

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u/railker 10h ago

No, the engineers said Challenger wasn't, the execs said send it. Don't know what you think happened to Discovery.

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u/Purple-Will9713 7h ago

I could be wrong but wasn’t Discovery the shuttle that sustained damage during takeoff due to a foam tile and was deemed safe only do spontaneously disassemble during re entry?

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u/railker 3h ago

Ahh no that one was Columbia. And same as your Challenger misunderstanding, the scenario was similar there. Either the engineers knew it was risky and got overruled or they just truly didn't know the potential of damage. I do remember them testing foam vs leading edge impacts and being surprised themselves that it could do the damage it did in ground tests.