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Old 11-06-2022, 01:51 AM
  #4  
tallpilot
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Joined APC: Dec 2011
Position: A320 FO
Posts: 843
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Originally Posted by JohnBurke View Post
No, that's not at all "what we do."

No, we didn't x-ray entire fuselages or wings.

No, we don't keep extending intervals until something breaks.

This is all wild imagination, and ignorance.

Airframe times and engine and component times are adjusted by history and discovery, and intervals may increase or decrease; when intervals are expanded, the increase in cycles, operational time, or calendar limits is done incrementally, with inspections. There is no program which increases intervals on the basis of running it until it breaks.

Your sky-is-falling comment is made on the basis of what justification, in light of the failure on this engine? Which interval was increased until it broke? Or are you simply speaking out of your ass?
I didn't think I was being chicken little. I may have oversimplified the process but indeed what we do is incrementally increase intervals based on successful inspections. Since MTBF is fundamentally a statistical measure the longer that window becomes the more likely an outlier sneaks through.

This crew did a fine job and their experience and training saved the day. Time will reveal what happened with the engine but my money is on some type of age/cycle related fatigue. If that is the case what will happen? Via an AD or some other method the inspection interval for the component that failed will be decreased.
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