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Two stories crossed my news stream recently.
This first was the investigation into the partial disassembly of an Alaska Airlines 737 Max aircraft at an altitude of 16,000 feet while it was going 400 knots. A portion of the aircraft skin had a panel (the door plug) that suddenly detached, leading to the emergency landing without serious visible injuries. (We won’t know about traumatic brain injuries until some time passes.) The door plug was recovered, and the bolts that secured it to the aircraft were missing. The National Transportation Safety Board will be testing the door plug bolt assembly to detect if the bolts had ever been installed in the aircraft, which had recently been delivered from Boeing and apparently had not yet reached the inspection interval for the part. The Federal Aviation Administration has grounded all 737 Max models with the door plug. This came only a day after Boeing submitted proposed inspection procedures, which are still undergoing review.
The second was a news item in PC Mag concerning a software vulnerability reported by a network security firm. In a posting the firm found that the operating system for an industrial tool used to tighten bolts was vulnerable to remote hack to cause the tool to display when nuts had been tightened to the correct tension when they had not been.
There is zero, zero evidence of factual connection between these news stories. For one thing, we know nothing of the manufacturing process used in the assembly of the door panel, including what tool was used to tension bolts, whether it was network connected, or, if it were, whether the exploit identified for the operating system on the one tool is equally effective on whatever tool was used.
There is no reason to consider that the mere coincidence is nothing to worry about.
Mascot of the Day
