David Soucie is a 35-year veteran of the aviation industry and a former top FAA flight accident inspector who has systematically investigated hundreds of transportation accidents. In the first half, he discussed the current state of aircraft safety, as well as his investigation into what happened to the Malaysian 370 flight. In spite of recent reports of airline mishaps, he asserted that "we are still safer in the skies than just about any other mode of transportation." Regarding the problems with Boeing aircraft like the door blowing off, we have to put in perspective that 2/3 of all planes flying now are made by Boeing, and that if we focused on other manufacturers, we'd see similar problems, he remarked. To address the issues, Boeing has changed their manufacturing process, slowing or stopping the workflow if a part is missing, but this, in turn, reduces the delivery of new planes.
Soucie shared his analysis of the claims of the Boeing whistleblower, which primarily related to issues in the construction of the 787. He believes that Boeing has now addressed and resolved those concerns. His conclusion about Flight 370 was not one of foul play but of mechanical problems. The pilots "took the exact heading towards their Malaysia Airlines major maintenance base...It tells me that there was something very major wrong with that airplane," he said. Based on his research, a fire in the electronics bay in the cockpit was likely the site of the malfunction, which would have cut out all communications and depressurized the aircraft. He also touched on the problem of fatigue among air traffic controllers, and studies monitoring their sleep.
----------------
In the latter half, astronomer Seth Shostak talked about his continued work in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), new ways to make contact with ETs, the importance of new planet discoveries, and all things astronomy and life in space. One intriguing new approach for SETI, beyond radio telescopes, is to piggyback onto other scientific studies in the radio part of the sky's spectrum to see if any of the sounds are not made by nature, he reported. Regarding AI, Shostak pondered whether aliens will be some form of machines themselves. The Very Large Array, spread out over the desert in New Mexico, is the premier radio telescope in the world, he noted. The Allen Telescope in Northern California is still operational as well, and has the advantage of being available to SETI as a dedicated instrument.
If SETI picked up an unusual signal, "what we would do is keep looking in that direction, to make sure that we're really picking up a signal that's due to some object in space," he explained. After that was verified, astronomers around the planet would also be notified to start pointing their telescopes in that direction. The SETI Institute has around 100 scientists, though most of them are not searching for extraterrestrial signals but rather conducting astrobiology experiments and research, like looking into whether Mars might have bacterial life. He also touched on such topics as the WOW! signal, exoplanets in the "Goldilocks" zone, the asteroid belt, and the depiction of aliens in sci-fi movies.
News segment guests: John M. Curtis, John Truman Wolfe