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

In addition to the risk factor difference between commercial aircraft and a passenger vehicle, most large passenger aircraft are owned and operated by airline companies, while passenger vehicles are owned by private individuals. Even if Ford was like “You must not drive this vehicle!” there’s no way to enforce it. Southwest airlines will ground a whole fleet of aircraft until a real or perceived safety issue is addressed because they need paying airline customers to continue to trust them to get to their destination.

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