|

Happy Mother’s Day

Similar Posts

  • | |

    Small Plane Crash Killed One in Douglas

    Douglas

    A Piper Aerostar 601P crashed in Douglas County near Otero Drive and East Phillips Place, towards the southeast of Aurora, killing the only person on board.

    Aurora Police advised people to stay away from the area although they declared nearby homes out of danger.

    About two acres of grass were burnt because of the fire.  The plane broke into pieces.

    An amateur video and the eye witnesses say that the pilot appeared to be a kid playing in the plane. He was flying very low in circles close to the houses.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • | |

    Endeavor Air Plane Suffers Wing Damage at JFK Airport

    Endeavor Air flight 9E-5336 suffered wing damage at John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York, on February 25th.

    The incident happened after the plane bound for Dulles International Airport, Virginia, was cleared to line up for departure.

    The plane returned to the apron.

    Authorities believe the wing damage was caused by the jet blast from another aircraft.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • |

    American Eagle Regional Jet Makes Emergency Landing due to Electrical Smell in Cockpit

    American Eagle flight 2800 made an emergency landing at Abilene Regional Airport, Texas at 4:30 pm on 19th April.

    The flight originated from Dallas to Santa Fe, NM, with 40 passengers and 4 crew members.

    The decision to make an emergency landing was made after the pilot reported an unusual electrical smell coming from the cockpit.

    The ERJ-140 plane is currently being checked for the cause of the smell. Another aircraft took the passengers to their destination.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.

  • A December 23rd Spin on the American Airlines Crash in Jamaica.

    While last night’s American Airlines Boeing crash landing in the Jamaican rain with limited visibility, with significant tailwinds on ungrooved pavement, with patches of residual tire rubber no less, was catastrophic for the plane, it is rather amazing that even though the Boeing was subjected to forces powerful enough to split the plane into at least three pieces, it neither caught fire, hydroplaned 10 more yards to end up in the bay, nor lost even a single one of the passengers.

    An achievement in survival. A testament to piloting skill. Or maybe it is just an improvement in plane design.

    I hope that someone out there is appreciating how different this crash is from the Tam (Airbus) crash in Brazil, where a bad landing in rainy conditions on an ungrooved surface was exacerbated by a malfunctioning thrust reverser, and the plane ended up crashing a perimeter fence, crossing a thoroughfare and causing a blazing fire that annihilated a warehouse across the street from the runway.

    Someone more versed in plane design could explain the difference in dynamics between plane crashes; someone expert in runway physics could explain how the runway surfaces did or did not play a part, but that analysis will come later during the NTSB investigation.

    For now, I predict that you’ll be seeing the powers that be blaming the pilots for breaking the airplane, rather than applauding the fact that no one died. There has already been at least one article blaming the crash on the fact that the pilots were in the 12th hour of their (up to )14 hour shift.

    This is just a taste of the spin-doctoring to come. I’m sure we’ll see the crash “arm-chair” analyzed a dozen different ways, depending on the writer’s agenda. We will watch the groups lobbying for in-country maintenance flipping this story to blame it on out-of-the-country maintenance; the pilot fatigue people will be using this as a morality tale about long pilot hours; the Norman Manley International Airport improvement people will be talking about fixing runway surfaces or maybe doing other needed airport alterations.

    For now, I think we should all spend a few moments taking a good hard look at the mess that used to be a Boeing 737-800. How did anyone live through that? In fact, everyone survived.

    Some families in Jamaica will be hugging their loved ones just a little bit harder this season. Anyway you look at it, we had a little bit of a Christmas miracle this time.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • | | |

    Three Children, Three Adults lost in Arizona Crash

    What: Ponderosa Aviation Inc. Rockwell Commander 690A en route from Mesa, Ariz to Safford, Arizona
    Where: Apache Junction, Pinal County, AZ
    When: Nov 23, 2011
    Who: 6 fatalities
    Why: On a thanksgiving flight that took off at 6:15, the pilot was flying to Safford and struck a rockface at the Superstition mountains. The children’s mother, Karen Perry, was not aboard. The fuselage is jammed between rocks.

    The victims of the crash included Joseph Hardwick, 22, mechanic; pilot and aircraft owner Russell Hardy, 31; pilot Shawn Perry, 39; and Perry’s three children, Morgan, 9, Logan, 8, and Luke, 6.

    The plane had just left Mesa’s Falcon Field when it crashed. It is a six hour hike from a campground to the wreckage. A ten member sheriff’s rescue team was flown in by chopper, and hiked down from a mountaintop.

    The flight path that the pilot took is a controversial one. The FAA redesignated Phoenix airspace, raising the floor altitude for commercial traffic at almost the same height as the tallest peak in the Superstitions (5,057 feet). Planes such as this one flying east from Mesa’s Falcon Field must either go around the peak or request permission to enter commercial airspace to fly above it.

    Webcam footage:

    News Coverage

    Views of the wreckage

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • | | |

    Massive Airbus Settlement Looks to be Unsettling

    George’s Point of View

    The insurance claim for the Air France crash promises to be huge; the cost of the aircraft alone will no doubt exceed a hundred million dollars. Between the international treaty that ensures aviation passenger’s rights, the legal system, insurers like AIG, AXA SA, Allianz SE, American International Group Inc., and the companies which are going to be liable (like Airbus and who ever manufactured those pitot tubes), the claims are going to be in the hundreds of millions.

    Spouses, children and parents will be receiving compensation from the insurance, and from companies whose exact degree of liability will be decided through the courts (if not in them.)

    IF it gets to the courts.

    In situations like this, the insurance companies swoop down before the victims’ families can arm themselves with lawyers; in fact, insurance companies are a little like lawyers. Or worse. They’re like salespeople. They want that signature on the dotted line, and they want to get it for as little as possible. They want that release. To get it, they try to offer victims’ families the smallest possible carrot.

    If they can induce families to sign a release, then the families sign away any future claims that might arise from product liability. When you sign that release, you waive the right to sue.

    So I’m hoping the families don’t jump the gun here, and rush in to negotiate with the insurance companies without legal counsel on their side. When they sign those release forms, they just might be signing away justice for their loved ones.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.