Why do you need to press so many buttons to start a plane? Can’t there be just one button to start everything in sequence automatically?
In: Technology
I remember listening to an NPR story about this a while back. The pre-flight checklist (and the general idea of a checklist as we know it today) was invented by Boeing after two pilots died in a 1935 crash of a prototype plane in Dayton, Ohio. The system failure occurred because the pilots had forgotten to disengage the gust locks prior to takeoff, which are only supposed to be active while on the tarmac.
Basically, as others have said: even if a pilot thinks they know the switch is in the right position, the stakes are just too high to assume they are correct. Human error (or in the case of your original prompt: program error) is a thing, and hurtling through the air at 500mph isn’t something that should be taken lightly. Hence the double checking of every function on board to ensure safety.
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