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Comment by t0mas88 | Hacker News Reader

It's not very typical for pilots to push buttons quickly. Especially not the thrustreversers and engine and flight controls.

But it is entirely possible that nobody pulled the reversers while still airborne in 9 years, because it's a very strange thing to do. A bit like opening your car door while still driving 60 mph... Nobody does that in normal operation.

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A bit like opening your car door while still driving 60 mph... Nobody does that in normal operation.

You don't open and shut a door when you notice it didn't fully close because you can hear the wind?

A better comparison might be putting the car in reverse at 60 MPH.

You never missed a gear, thinking you were driving a 6 speed rather than a 5 speed?

No, but for as long as I've been driving manual cars they've had gates to prevent that very action. (1995)

Not mine (Honda Jazz). But you physically can't do it, as the reverse gear has no synchro and won't mesh unless stationary.

It can be done, but it's neither easy nor a good idea: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ARJENV0qGdY

You'd certainly struggle to do it by accident.

it should make a loud grinding noise though,

The sleeve of my coat caught on the gear shift while making a left turn and threw it in reverse while on the freeway.

It made a grinding noise and I yanked it back into drive.

Other than the noise nothing bad happened.

Non-suicide doors[1] in cars are very difficult to open at 60 mph. Between air pressure, and poor leverage, you are going to have a hell of a time doing it.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_door

Just roll your window down first!

At 60 mph? No. I listen to the wind until I get a safe opportunity to properly close it.

(I might try to pull it more shut while moving. But not open it.)

Good luck even opening it far enough if you're going at 60 ...

In airplanes, a lot of procedures and diagnostics involve not re-trying a failed action, not touching anything before reading a check list, nor flipping a switch twice if it didn't work the first time.

I've seen a number of videos on youtube of reversers been opened, if not fully spooled up, off the ground. It's not common but it does happen, especially in high cross-wind or otherwise iffy landings.

Here's the first video I found but there are certainly others https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RO66a_nvus

> But it is entirely possible that nobody pulled the reversers while still airborne in 9 years, because it's a very strange thing to do.

That's overstating the case a bit. I'm 100% a layman here but I'd agree that the behavior seems like some sort of bug. But…… some planes (typically not commercial, although the Concord is one notable exception) call for reversers in flight under certain circumstances. Additionally there are definitely circumstances where a pilot might deliberately think reversers before touchdown are a good idea.

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