A Whole New Meaning to Gold-Finger

In the old days—the really old days— the castle was surrounded by a moat; and that moat was full of nasty noxious stuff that no one wanted to get on their skin. As a deterrent. Emptying into the moat was the contents of the garderobe. That is, the castle toilet. Yes, it too emptied into the moat, most of the time. Though usually with some kind of sewage system linking to it. A most unpleasant way to enter the castle.

This was the first thing I thought of when I heard todays news of the Air Antilles theft. If you haven’t heard this story yet, well, it’s a doozy. Male passenger on the Air Antilles Avion de Transport Regional ATR 42 500 flight 3S-3672 is sick to his stomach, spends most of the trip in the bathroom. Comes out when they arrive, walks through the door, and out of the airport, free as a bird. Come to find out, he tunneled through the bathroom to get some cash out of the hold.

Of course, if one actually tunneled out of a plane’s bathroom, they’d be heading earthbound really fast. He didn’t really tunnel (though tunneling into the sewage system is what I pictured when I read about this story.} He just dismantled his way to a storage area and pillaged 172000 Euros. And walked out with it.

So all we have left are the questions: How did he get past customs? How did he get past the bathroom? How did he know about the money? Where did he disappear to?

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    Is Oxygen Hose Length an Issue?

    We talked about the May 16 cockpit fire on a United Boeing 757 (New York to Los Angeles) that made an emergency diversion to Dulles. That event involved an airborne cockpit fire so extreme that the pilot reached for the fire extinguishers to put out flames coming from his windshield—but he was brought up short by the length of the oxygen hose. In the smokey situation, it must have been a special concern to have the oxygen mask rip away from the pilot’s face. I can only assume there is other essential gear stored and unreachable due to the length of the hose, because I haven’t seen anyone talk about solving the hose length issue by moving the extinguishers closer.

    In fact, on some Boeing 757 and 767s the length of the hose attached to the pilot’s oxygen mask and smoke goggles is under scrutiny now by the FAA for being too short to reach the fire extinguishers. Apparently Boeing has resisted lengthening the hose because of the danger of the pilot getting tangled in the hose.

    Since the FAA is looking into the issue of the possibility of the hoses being too short, one can not help but wonder if this problem were a factor in the May 22 – Air India Express Flight 812 Boeing 737-800 crash at Mangalore International Airport, or the Jan 25 Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 Boeing 737-800 that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea shortly after take-off from Beirut. How do we know that too-short hoses did not contribute to those tragic events?

    Conversely, if the 737 hose length is not too short and allows the pilot to reach where it essential for the pilot to reach, and there is no hose problem on the 737, then why has Boeing not corrected this problem on 757s and 767s?

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    Before US Airways Flight 1549–Update

    • US Airways ship number N106US flew on January 13, 2009, and January 15, 2009, with the same flight number of AWE 1549 from New York’s LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte Douglas [International] Airport in North Carolina.
    • Multiple passengers said that on a a different day, on the SAME plane, same flight, SAME location the SAME airbus experienced a series of compressor stalls on the right engine, punctuated by some backfires or explosions, with fire coming out of the engine. Although the pilot announced an emergency landing, he then continued on to Charlotte.
    • This was confirmed by one source to be the same Airbus A-320, which is N106US.
    • This prior incident could have also been caused by the engine ingesting a bird or birds. But…was it?
    • This brings up two questions: Could something else have been wrong with the engines on the N106US Airbus? OR can something be done to safeguard the engine intake to prevent the vacuum from sucking birds inside?

    What: U.S. Airways passenger Airbus Flight 1549 enroute to Charlotte, N.C. taking off at t 3:26 p.m
    Where: Hudson River off New York City
    When: Thurs jan 15
    Who: 155 on board scrambling onto rescue boat (50 passengers, three flight attendants and two pilots )
    Why: Pilot hit a flock of geese after taking off from LaGuardia. (Two bird hits) Four minutes after takeoff passengers report hearing an explosion from the left side of the plane.

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    Bhoja Air Flight 213

    In George’s Point of View


    It pains me to write this. I had just put down my pen from writing about an engine failure where the flight made it safely back to the airport, and heard the news of this. Bhoja Air Flight 213 down in Pakistan after losing contact with ATC. Another flight down in stormy weather. The loss is unique, but it has happened too many times.

    Again a plane, or pilot, or airline failed to bring its passengers safely home. That’s all we want—for the families to be reunited, for the father who just lost his daughters to have them back, for this to be a nightmare that will just go away. But the Bhoja crash is one of the nightmares that doesn’t go away.

    Soon the whole world will hear the names, see the faces, hear the stories behind the tragedy. Maybe it is the stories that make a disaster like this so hard to take for the rest of us. The stories bring life to the loss, take our imaginations from black and white to living color, carry us from the place where statistics rest on paper to where they mingle in our hearts with our own memories of love and loss. Soon we will hear the mourning of the families, the fathers, mothers, siblings, spouses, friends. The investigation will begin, and the experts will find whatever they find, but there’s always the one truth that remains.

    It is the families who will bear this, who will hereafter live their lives like shattered china pieced back together. And what is the glue? The chemistry will be different for every parent, every child, every sibling, but its ingredients are memories woven with grief and resilience, bitterness, hope, faith—and the support of friends. You will get through this. You already know that time will ease the pain, but for now, true as it is, it is only words. To the families, we can only say we grieve with you. Your loss is our loss.

    It is as true now as it was in 1624 when John Donne wrote it. “No man is an island…All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language…” Your loss is our loss. To the families, we can only say we grieve with you and wish you peace.

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    Sara Bajc on MH370, plus some thoughts on conspiracy theories

    Sara Bajc, partner of Philip Wood, a passenger who is presumed lost on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, does not believe believe that #MH370 crashed and is at the bottom of the Indian Ocean. She believes the plane is intact because there have been no bodies, no wreckage, no black boxes found and published in the media.

    This isn’t news. It is one woman’s opinion. Probably the opinion of many family members of those aboard the plane. And why not? If I had someone lost aboard a missing plane, I too would probably support any kind of theory that kept hope of their survival alive. Can’t put a price on hope.

    But.

    What if there were a cockpit fire that emitted toxic smoke and destroyed electronics?

    What if someone shot down the plane?

    What if someone used some new Sci-Fi-like weapon?

    What if Malaysia did track the plane on March 8 as this tabloid says?

    What if the UK firm Inmarsat tracking is wrong? What if it is right?

    I’ve written enough fiction (and lived in spitting distance of Hollywood’s crazy cereal of fruits, nuts and flakes) to know that the marriage of “what if” and a couple of rational-sounding factoids can birth everything from a practically real-life scenario to wildly impossible science-fiction-fantasy voodoo whacko-crazy delights. So there you have it.

    You know what I believe? No one has the answers. Until someone is standing in front of me with proof, in my not-so-secret heart of hearts published in full naked glory out here on the internet, I will believe that anyone who says they think they know…is paranoid.

    Now…how can I fit all of this into a tweet?

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    Flight 1549: A Small Irony

    What: Smoketown Banners Piper PA 18 en route from NJ
    Where: Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island
    When: January 15, 2010
    Who: pilot
    Why: While engaged in flying a 4,000-square-foot sailcloth banner marking the one year anniversary of the Hudson River emergency landing, the cylinder on the plane’s engine blew, and the pilot had to make an emergency landing. The pilot is shaken but uninjured; and the plane will be towed to New Holland, Pa.

    The plane’s banner said “If you died today, would you go to heaven or hell? John 14:6”

    George’s Point of View

    Although the banner’s intent is being summarized as “marking the anniversary” of US Airways Flight 1549’s safe Hudson River landing, a lot of planes flew on Jan. 15, many of them also over the Hudson River location. One might expect that the banner of a flight whose only purpose was to “remember” the anniversary would actually mention Flight 1549 or Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger.

    One might even wonder at the irony—or synchronicity—of a pedantic bible verse crash landing on a landfill. What would have happened if the banner had said “Thank you Sully” or “1549” or “Remember the miracle” or even “Remember” ?

    Was today’s landing an accident, a publicity stunt, or a message?

    On the ground, on January 15th 2010, there was a reunion of the survivors of flight 1549.

    Do I think the words on that banner were condescending? superfluous? gawky? lumbering? bunglesome?

    Well, let me express it this way:

    Even without any well-meant instruction from the client who hired the banner flight, in every breath the survivors of Flight 1549 have taken since January 15th 2009 3:31 pm., they have tasted a sweeter blessing than the rest of us can ever guess.

    And how does ANY ONE mock that blessing with some pompous, portentous, pretentious homily?

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    Gulfstream International Airlines Fined

    Gulfstream International Airlines is being fined by the FAA for improper scheduling of flight crew duty, installation of unapproved air conditioner compressors and improperly maintained vent blowers on the airline’s fleet of 27 BE-1900-D aircraft.

    See the press release:

    Washington Headquarters Press Release
    For Immediate Release
    May 21, 2009
    Contact: Laura Brown
    Phone: (202) 267-3883

    FAA Proposes $1.3 Million Civil Penalty for Gulfstream International Airlines

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has proposed a $1.3 million civil penalty from Florida-based Gulfstream International Airlines, Inc. for violations of the Federal Aviation Regulations.

    The alleged violations include improper scheduling of flight crew duty time, and the installation of unapproved air conditioner compressors and improperly maintained vent blowers on the airline’s fleet of 27 BE-1900-D aircraft.

    An FAA review of the airline’s electronic record-keeping system for tracking crew duty and rest time revealed that Gulfstream International did not accurately input the proper data from its manually generated hard-copy aircraft logbook records into the electronic system. The discrepancies resulted in scheduling crew members in excess of daily and weekly flight time limitations.

    During a June 2008 inspection, the FAA determined that the airline had installed unapproved automotive air conditioner compressors on its aircraft between September 2006 and May 2008. Following the FAA inspection, the airline grounded all of the affected aircraft and replaced the units with approved aircraft air conditioner compressors.

    In the course of a July 2008 inspection of Gulfstream International avionics and component shops in Fort Lauderdale, the FAA discovered that the airline had installed improperly maintained vent blowers on six planes between January 2008 and June 2008. Following that inspection, the airline replaced the blowers with properly maintained units.

    Gulfstream International Airlines has 30 days from the receipt of the civil penalty letter to respond to the FAA.


    #
    (end of release)

    George’s Point of View

    Gulfstream is a former employer of the Captain Marvin Renslow of the ill-fated Continental Connection 3407 flight. If Gulfstream had kept proper records, trained and maintained according to accepted protocol, the Buffalo NY tragedy may never have happened.

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