Originally Posted by
rmontelbon
The 737 is pre-pressurized on the ground when doors are shut, engines on, and pressurization set. If the expected pressurization level in the cabin is not reached at the expected rate, that indicates a leak from a malfunctioning relief valve or, as is likely in this case, a leak from the fuselage and pressurization fault is indicated.
3 unexplained failures in a critical system like this, without diagnosis, would ground military aircraft with a "Red X". That this isn't the case on airliners is motivated by economic considerations, and nothing else.
Stating the obvious here, but military aviation isn’t a for profit business and has a guaranteed amount of money for operations designated each year. If a mil jet gets downed for MX, a replacement gets pulled or the op gets rescheduled for as long as it takes. There’s just no way to replicate that in commercial aviation. At the risk of sounding horribly callous, in commercial aviation there’s definitely a $ amount on the risk placed on lives. You know better than any of us that aviation has never been 100% risk free. We train, design, and operate in the most sterile environment we can. I hate that I’m saying this as a former airline employee, because if I was on that flight, regardless of which side of the cockpit door I might be sitting on, I’d have had the adrenaline pumping pretty good. Cheers!