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A350 engine shutdown incidents linked to cockpit drink spills
Airbus and Rolls-Royce are investigating two incidents in which A350s experienced uncommanded in-flight engine shutdown after drinks were spilled on controls situated on the cockpit centre pedestal.
FlightGlobal understands that the airframer is to discuss the matter with operators on 30 January, and will issue a transmission on recommended practices for handling beverages on the flightdeck.
One of the incidents involved a Delta Air Lines A350-900 en route to Seoul on 21 January, which diverted to Fairbanks after its right-hand Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engine shut down, while a similar event occurred to another carrier in November last year.
[...] The previous incident, on 9 November 2019, occurred about 1h after tea was spilled on the centre pedestal, FlightGlobal understands.
Apparently, waterproofing keys is against the spirit of Airbus engineering as membranes cost way too much.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Sunday February 02 2020, @07:57AM (5 children)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vtg-1980-IBM-PT-2-Computer-Hall-Effect-Magnet-Keyboard-Clicky-Era-Micro-Switch/264607134593?hash=item3d9bd07381:g:IxMAAOSw1kxeHgYB [ebay.com]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Mojibake Tengu on Sunday February 02 2020, @01:03PM (3 children)
I have a keyboard from UNISCOPE 100 device somewhere around here, originally a console unit from discarded U90/30 mainframe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniscope [wikipedia.org]
It's TTL logic, and still works with a crafted Arduino controller.
Those machines (Sperry Univac U90/30 and U90/60 mainframes, slightly superior to IBM S/360 and S/370) were actually sold directly by US NAVY to communist regimes (enemies?) while civil computer industries were barred by COCOM embargo, but that story does not fit in current acceptable historical narrative.
Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Sunday February 02 2020, @01:58PM (2 children)
That IS interesting. They were backdoored? If not, why would the Navy sell them? If so, why would those regimes buy them? Either way, how did the Navy get the buyers to trust them?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 02 2020, @06:01PM
I guess before 2000 it would have been sufficient to run the system disconnected from the Internet and run a couple of random check jobs to see if the machine could be trusted.
(Score: 3, Informative) by quietus on Monday February 03 2020, @01:17PM
The US pumped billions of dollars into Yugoslavia, starting in the '50s, as Tito went for a different, independent course versus Stalin. Tito had brains and realized that Yugoslavia needed some kind of a Marshall plan to avoid the economic collapse which was happening in the rest of the Soviet-Union; and that Stalin might attempt to subjugate Yugoslavia with force (the term Titoism had an extremely pejorative meaning in Soviet rhetoric by the time): weapon deliveries by the United States to the Yugoslav communists were part of the aid too.
(Source: Postwar: a History of Europe, by the late Tony Judt [wikipedia.org]).
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday February 03 2020, @03:38PM
Even if human lives are at stake, the airlines and aircraft manufacturers might consider a $250 keyboard to be a bit expensive of a solution.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.