USA Today

Engineers: Passengers' survival was miracle by design

August 18--When an airliner slammed onto a rainy Caribbean runway early Monday and split into three shredded pieces, passengers called it a miracle that no one died in the impact.

18 de agosto de 2010

To the engineers and accident investigators who pushed for decades to improve airliner safety, the outcome was by design.

"I cringe when I see these headlines that this was a miracle," said John Hickey, the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) deputy safety chief. "We as engineers and scientists don't believe that this is a miracle. We are totally convinced that the work that we did in the 1980s has proven its value."

At that time, a crash severe enough to break a jet into pieces was almost certain to kill passengers. Since then, the FAA — pushed at times by federal crash investigators — has required tougher seats, better emergency lighting, more accessible exits and numerous protections against fire.
 
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