Small Planes Over Big Oceans (ETOPS Explained)
Wendover Productions4 HN recommenders · recommended in 3 months, 2017–2020
explainer · general · evergreen · 2017–2020 on HN
A short Wendover Productions explainer on ETOPS, the rules that let twin-engine jets fly long routes over oceans. It covers the economics that favored twinjets like the 787 over four-engine aircraft like the A380 and 747.
HN recommends it whenever threads touch twin-engine ocean flights, diversions, or why the 747 and A380 are being retired.
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6 comments from Hacker News
I was rolling my eyes at the subtitle. The article devolved from there. Some great (sometimes indirect) information on why the 747 and to a lesser extent the A380 are being phased out, from my new favorite YouTube channel, Wendover Productions: The Economics of Long-Haul Flights: link ETOPS: Explained ▶ this video Politics of Aviation / 5 Freedoms of Aviation: link
Yup, Wendover Productions (massive aeroplane nerd) did a fanatastic video about this, really recommend it if anyone's interested in the economics of airlines. ▶ this video
As this is aviation-related, of course there is a Wendover video on this topic, and indeed covering this specific incident! Small Planes Over Big Oceans (ETOPS Explained) (2017) [video] ▶ this video
What amazes me more is that the newest twinjets are now considered reliable enough to fly six hours away from the nearest landing strip Yes, there's also a short video about that: ▶ this video It's very interesting since ETOPS[1] affected the financial bets that Boeing made on 787 (point-to-point) vs Airbus with the A380 (hub-and-spoke). [1] link
FYI: Actually several have diverted. You should study the ETOPS requirements to see how nervous the regulators are. Each ETOPS flight has special requirements for alternates that have lodging, food and reasonably nearby (timewise) maintenance. (Cold Bay is not a fun place to be stranded.) It's unlikely that an airliner can maintain altitude on one engine, so the risk is high that once a problem occurs, things can go bad fast. Ditching 300 passengers in the open ocean guarantees fatalities. I understand that non-pilots think "it's handled", but that's not really the case. That's why the old expression "it's a 4-engine ocean" came about. "Small Planes Over Big Oceans (ETOPS Explained)" ▶ this video
4 engine aircraft are technically more safe than 2 engine aircraft. Boeing and Airbus have just gotten so good at engineering safe 2 engine aircraft that companies can run them over oceans without too much trouble. ▶ this video