Starts with data logging, everything is logged. Then you inspect that area and look for anomalies in the metals in that area. At 5Gs, a little piece of wire becomes a razor blade and leaves evidence. A lot of odd nicks in an avionics bay will lead to testing, interviews and more testing. A worker has no reason to hide details, it would be criminal, so the interviews look at all the possible anomalies and then narrows down to the root cause.
Really amazing work, read NTSB crash reports and they outline the methods used
Thanks, yes, I've heard that NTSB crash reports are mind blowing in their attention to detail. A follow on question: how do they ensure people honestly answer questions, is the person not inviting personal liability by answering?
In my experience there has always been a _deep_ culture of mutual respect between industrial aviation players and the NTSB.
Everyone knows that the investigative body is there to help figure out what went wrong and to provide guidance on how to avoid similar mistakes in the future. It’s not about assigning blame, and there’s an understanding that if it were to become about that then the industry would be worse-off as a whole.
(Slightly off-topic, but this is precisely why Tesla’s reaction to the NTSB investigation in their Model X crash was so concerning. Any player that defects here runs the risk of poisoning the process for everyone else.)
Really amazing work, read NTSB crash reports and they outline the methods used