patrick.net
An Antidote to Corporate Media
1,362,114 comments by 15,735 users - HANrongli online now
Comments 1 - 5 of 5 Search these comments
HydroCabron
2013 Jul 7, 2:37am
Tenerife, Canary Islands, March 27, 1977.
KLM Flight 4805 · Pan Am Flight 1736
Interesting you bring this up. The reason the two planes collided in Tenerife was pilot error. The fog that enveloped the airport made it difficult to see, and the KLM pilot and air traffic control had a miscommunication error. If they had ground radar, the event would never have happened.
You will find that flying is safer now than ever, mostly because human error is being minimized, and that is why many planes are now fly by wire.
Yesterday's crash is under investigation, but an article I read said ILS was not operating at the time, which could be THE factor here.
BTW, what happened on the Sao Paulo-BA flight?
Bellingham Bill
2013 Jul 7, 10:08am
>It's a miracle that the Asiana Airlines plane did not collide with the United Airlines 747 nearby
no, basic physics of momentum. There was an entire football field of separation between 28L and the taxiway, something going 100 mph+ has a hard time turning, even as it's tumbling like this a/c did.
>ILS was not operating at the time, which could be THE factor here
in that it exposed a cabin crew not really competent enough to fly passengers, yes.
landing a "heavy" safely requires a long chain of events that start 30 miles or whatever out from landing. This crew came in too high and too fast compared to the "stabilized approach" envelope, then over-compensated right into the ground.
When I fly I want the cabin crew to have been flying since at least the 1980s, not mid-1990s -- the US's very large military aviation community helps us build up that level of experience and competency.
In 1970 two Boeing 747's collided on the ground while on the runway at an airport in the Azores. Over 500 people died in this tragedy. It's a miracle that the Asiana Airlines plane did not collide with the United Airlines 747 nearby. Such a horrific loss of life could have followed. Admittedly, from a statistical standpoint, one is safer flying on a commercial p[lane that driving down the freeway in a car. But flying is a dangerous business. I took my first airline ride in June of 1967. I was going to US Navy boot camp. In the last 46 years I have logged literally thousands of hours in the air. There was only one moment when I thought that I was going to die. It was on a flight from Sao Paulo to Buenos Aires in February of 1980. In January of 2001 I was on a flight from SFO to Miami (I was on my way to pick up Elena and bring her to the USA,by the way) There was a party on board for a stewardess who was retiring after 36 years of service. At the end of the party, I talked to the retiring stewardess in private. I asked one question as follows:"In your 36 years of flying was there ever a moment when you thought that you were going to die?" Her response was quick:"That's a silly question; of course not."