Outside of a brief aside in the movie Fight Club and what I assume are economic reasons, I’ve never seen good compelling reasons why airplanes are grounded for accidents, while cars do not seem to undergo the same level of scrutiny?
Is it just because cars are tested more before they enter the market?
From an outsider’s perspective, it seems that airplanes are already much safer than cars- so what gives?
In: Engineering
There are very few ways in which a car can fail mechanically outside of operator error and poor maintenance that can result in a fatal accident. Most mechanical failures will simply result in the vehicle becoming safely immobile. Additionally, a catastrophic failure has very limited potential to cause fatalities. The same is not true of aircraft.
It’s also worth noting that aircraft fleets are only grounded if a mechanical failure is the suspected cause of a crash. And car companies are similarly required to issue product recalls and advisories to vehicle owners in the event that a serious mechanical flaw is discovered on those vehicles. However there is also no practical way to effectively “ground” a fleet of cars.
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