Eli5: why do plane fleets get grounded after accidents but car fleets remain on the road even though they may have serious issues?

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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

30 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Not too sound callous, but if you car breaks due to a safety issue, you MIGHT injure yourself or maybe a couple of other people; and that’s MIGHT, most likely nothing of consequence will happen. If an airplane suffers a safety issue, you could lose an entire airplane full of people, plus possibly many more on the ground.

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