Software glitch may have caused an Airbus A400M plane to crash during testing
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As reported in a German news article, Europe's largest defence project - the Airbus A400M plane, crashed because of software problems in the control unit of the engines. The crash occurred shortly after taking off, when three of the four plane’s engines lost power after receiving contradictory commands. This prompted five countries to ground their planes.
With global transport systems becoming more and more reliant on tech, the potential risk to life from quality issues becomes enormous. Take for example self driving vehicles, while they offer the potential for enormous social benefits, those benefits need to balanced with protocols that can ensure extremely high levels of safety and redundancy.
Our thoughts are with the men who lost their lives and with their families. Without brave men like these willing to take risks testing, the ease of travel we enjoy today would not be possible.