Depends on your definition of inspection. On one basis the answer is "yes - by the next pilot who takes off" :) But if you mean people driving the runway to look for and remove stuff then I think twice a day is the minimum for big commercial airports.
There are also whizzy automatic systems using radar that can spot stuff.
yet no-one spotted a 17 inch long bit of titanium with rivets sticking out, at 170mph its effect was disastrous.
From
So if lying flat, probably quite difficult for any system to see at a couple of km distance.
The report lists a number of failings, of which no single item would have been a major concern. Ultimately the metal strip damaged a tyre and debris from the tyre damaged the fuel tank and parts of the airframe, compromising the engines. But "the damage to the plane's structure was so severe that the crash would have been inevitable, even with the engines operating normally."
This happened in an industry where the design and operation of aircraft are subject to the highest safety standards, and a case could be made for balancing risk against cost.
Compare that with the Grenfell tower fire, where informed opinion suggested that it was a disaster waiting to happen: provably unsafe cladding, single point of exit for all occupants, no capacity to fight fires or rescue occupants from a height above the 8th floor, etc .... Demonstrably nothing had been learnt about building to prevent (or at least minimise damage) from accident since the Great Fire of London in September 1666!
I have the concept of a "maximum credible accident".
The Concorde crash just about exceeds that threshold (with reservations about the quality and supervision of the maintenance tasks which led to the loss of the wear strip from the Continental Airlines DC-10).
But Grenfell clearly fell well short of this threshold of credibility - it was virtually certain to happen.
What I dont' understand is why they felt they had to axe the entire fleet over such a thing that was nothing to do with the plane!
The automatic systems are not universal and did not exist at the time of the Concorde incident.
There is a good summary here of the circumstances that added up to the (Concorde) disaster:
Nephew replies that there they probably send a vehicle (often the bird scarer) down the runway(s) at least every hour with the Mk1 Eyeball. ;-)
He says Brummy has such, theirs doesn't. Apparently such radar can also spot foxes and similar sized animals as well.
Cheers, T i m
Because the economics of operating it were marginal. Scare off a portion of the people prepared to pay 1st class prices for economy class comfort and it was no longer profitable.
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.