Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 experiences "Dutch roll", lands safely

No, a Dutch roll isn't a weird sex position. Well, it probably is, but we won't get into that. In an aircraft, it's an uncontrolled side-to-side yawing motion of the tail, and it can be lethal: a 747 experienced that and crashed, killing most all on board. In this case, the plane, less than two years old, experienced it after taking off from Phoenix. The pilots were able to regain control and landed safely. A subsequent investigation found a damaged backup power control unit, which is responsible for power to the tail.

If a Dutch roll is not controlled by the flight crew, it can cause the tail to shear off or otherwise fail catastrophically.

The plane was grounded for several days and then flown to Everett, Washington where one of the airline's major maintenance vendors is located. Reportedly no one was seriously injured in the incident, though many were violently ill.

https://www.npr.org/2024/06/13/nx-s1-5004725/boeing-737-max-southwest-dutch-roll

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/06/14/0331240/faa-is-investigating-new-incident-involving-a-boeing-737-max-8-jet-in-midair

Microsoft to launch its CoPilot+ without its Recall feature

After suffering TONS of blowback in the press and industry, Microsoft is pulling the playback feature that took snapshots of what you were doing on your computer and saved them. The issue being that the save was unencrypted and readily accessible to anyone who could sign on to the PC: such as spouse abusers, hackers, etc. Why it was not encrypted from the get go, I don't understand.

Privacy? Who needs privacy! It's nifty! Nifty > privacy!

There were ways to deactivate the Recall feature, how easily it could be turned off is a matter of some debate. Microsoft and other vendors are also infamous for silently turning on things with updates that users had previously turned off.

CoPilot+ goes live June 18. *sigh*

https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/windows-11/microsoft-postpones-windows-recall-after-major-backlash-will-launch-copilot-pcs-without-headlining-ai-feature

https://it.slashdot.org/story/24/06/14/0318213/microsoft-postpones-windows-recall-after-major-backlash

Boeing and Airbus receiving 'conterfeit' titanium?!

This is weird. Spirit Aerosystems reported to the FAA and notified Boeing and Airbus that they had detected 'counterfeit' titanium entered their supply chain through forged documents from a supplier.

So basically Spirit noticed a problem with the paperwork, which means a supply chain failure with the potential for low-grade or adulterated titanium having been used in aircraft. However, Spirit says that they have conducted "more than 1,000 tests ... to confirm the mechanical and metallurgical properties of the affected material to ensure continued airworthiness."

Both Boeing and Airbus say that this issue does not affect the airworthiness of the flying fleet and that suspect parts have been pulled from production and isolated.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/boeing-airbus-may-used-counterfeit-titanium-planes-faa-investigating-rcna157160