Emirates Flight 407 Melbourne tailstrike
A fully loaded Airbus A340 struck its tail and other structures during a failed takeoff at Melbourne Airport, causing serious damage; there were no fatalities.
The damage was public. The root cause was preventable.
A fully loaded Airbus A340 struck its tail and other structures during a failed takeoff at Melbourne Airport, causing serious damage; there were no fatalities.
What the software actually got wrong
The co-pilot mistyped the aircraft's takeoff weight into the flight management computer (entering 100 tonnes too low), and neither the computer's data-entry checks nor the crew's cross-checks caught the resulting implausible thrust and speed settings before the takeoff roll began.
The co-pilot mistyped the aircraft's takeoff weight into the...
The co-pilot mistyped the aircraft's takeoff weight into the flight management computer (entering 100 tonnes too low)
Requs AI Edge Case flags this exact pattern at the requirements and architecture stage — before a single line of code implementing it exists — so the assumption behind it gets challenged while it is still cheap to fix.
Neither the computer's data-entry checks nor the crew's cross-checks...
neither the computer's data-entry checks nor the crew's cross-checks caught the resulting implausible thrust and speed settings before the takeoff roll began
Requs AI Software FMEA traces this failure mode back to the system-level hazard it feeds, tagging it against the Common Defect Enumeration so it surfaces in review instead of in the field.
Beyond code coverage and "shall" testing
Root causes like this one rarely show up in code coverage or requirements-compliance testing, because nobody wrote a requirement anticipating the specific edge case that broke. Requs AI Edge Case and Requs AI Software FMEA are built to surface exactly this class of overlooked failure mode — before the software is written.
Surfaces this before code exists
Identifies edge cases like this one at requirements and architecture time, using the Common Defect Enumeration to catalog failure patterns seen across hundreds of real-world software failures — including this one.
Connects the failure mode to the hazard
Traces this class of root cause directly to the system-level hazard it can produce, so a defect pattern like this one gets flagged during design review instead of after it ships.
Find the overlooked root causes before they ship.
Schedule a demonstration, or explore how Requs AI Edge Case and Software FMEA use the Common Defect Enumeration.