Five days before the flight 447 accident, flight JJ 8054 TAM Airbus, (just like flight 447) en route from Rio to Paris on the same route (just like flight 447), had problems with turbulence (just like flight 447) in the region near the islands of St. Peter and St. Paul (just like flight 447).

A passenger on TAM flight JJ 8054, Helaine Patrícia Pinto Coelho, spoke publicly about her experience on that turbulent flight.

Apologies here for our translation from the Portuguese.
“I recall that followed the path of the aircraft by the screen that is in front of seats. When we leave the mainland, the northeast of the country, the plane began to shake, light warning of the tie belt and on-board service was suspended. Suddenly the thing started to get worse. I felt like a rag in an old washing machine.”

Then, the nozzle of the aircraft was down. “This happened two other times. People started to scream. Some vomiting. I do not know how long it lasted. To me it seemed an eternity, A lady who was beside me also despair. Crying, said she had a daughter. The pilot, when possible, give information about the flight, such as speed, altitude of the aircraft, and asked to be kept tied belts. ”

Please find the original quote here in its entirety.

George’s Point of View

Sometimes we have fair warning, and never know it.

Helaine Patrícia Pinto Coelho concludes that the pilot of her flight made decisions on the fly, turning East. She attributes survival to the choices made by the team; and that the crew held the passengers lives in their hands.

I’m sure she felt relief to be back on the ground after her flight; and that she and her fellow passengers were grateful to be alive. But they probably didn’t realize just how much a miracle their survival was until the disaster of the French Airbus, that tragic flight which followed the same path but did not reach it’s intended destination.

The pilot and crew of an aircraft truly do hold the lives of their passengers in their hands. It is a grim and unnerving responsibility but one not limited to the obvious pilot. The responsibility extends beyond the cockpit to everyone whose craft involves the fabrication, operation and maintenance of that plane: the manufacturers, the builders, the authors of the manuals, the maintenance crew.

Purveyors of technology may be the keepers of progress… but we must cast a diligent eye on that progress that our technological reach does not exceed our grasp. We should remember that progress is an audacious thing. We can do our best to build technologically safe bubbles in which to lead our lives; but our control is an illusion. We are only ants on the face of the earth, shaking our fists at the sky.

There is something about the brush with death that reawakens us to how frail are our lives. It is the media, agencies like the FAA and the NTSB–and even the public eye– who are stewards of that frailty. We cannot reach back to May 31st and pluck the passengers from their tragedy. The best we can do is take lessons from the past. So we don’t have to be reminded again.

International Helicopter Safety Team is a task force composed of American and European government agencies–an international safety team–forecasts to reduce the rate of helicopter crashes 80 percent within eight years, no doubt a good idea as helicopters crash three times more frequently than commercial airliners

Seventy percent of helicopter crashes are determined to be the result of human error (training, overwork or poor design)

Partial list of Fatal crashes in 2008
Date ——– Location ——– Craft ——–#
12/27/2008 Honiara, PO HUGHES 369 N104BN Fatal(1)
12/11/2008 Sabine Pass, TX BELL 206 N180AL Fatal(5)
11/16/2008 Lingen, Germany Rotorway PH-NTL Fatal(1)
11/16/2008 Quitman, AR BELL OH-58C N153GF Fatal(1)
11/2/2008 Gallatin, TN Robinson R-44 N300FX Fatal(1)
10/16/2008 Dryden, NY Robinson R22 N943MH Fatal(1)
10/15/2008 Aurora, IL BELL 222 N992AA Fatal(4)
10/13/2008 Conroe, TX BELL 206 N6ZV Fatal(2)
10/13/2008 Sedona, AZ BELL 407 N42AZ Fatal(1)
9/27/2008 Forestville, MD AEROSPATIALE AS365 N92MD Fatal(4) 0
9/21/2008 Kenosha, WI Robinson R44 II N999ZD Fatal(2)
9/6/2008 Muzino Village, Russia Robinson R-44 RA-04180 Fatal(2)
9/3/2008 Persian Gulf, United Arab Emirates Bell 212 A6-AVL Fatal(7)
8/31/2008 Greensburg, IN Bell 206L-1 N37AE Fatal(3)
8/29/2008 Ridgedale, MO Robinson R44 II N41411 Fatal(2)
8/17/2008 Olalla, WA Robinson R-22 N301MA Fatal(1)
8/6/2008 Alice Arm, Canada Hughes 369D C-GZIO Fatal(3)
8/5/2008 Weaverville, CA Sikorsky S-61N N612AZ Fatal(9)
7/19/2008 Price, UT Hughes 369D N400BE Fatal(3)
7/15/2008 Salesville, AR Hughes 269B N469E Fatal(2)
7/4/2008 Sunol, CA Schweizer 269 C-1 N2011A Fatal(2)
6/29/2008 Flagstaff, AZ Bell 407 N407GA Fatal(7)
6/29/2008 Flagstaff, AZ Bell 407 N407MJ Fatal(7)
6/8/2008 Huntsville, TX Bell 407 N416PH Fatal(4)
5/29/2008 Panama City, Panama Bell UH-1N SAN-100 Fatal(11)
5/25/2008 Sunrise Beach, MO McDonnell Douglas 500-E N686F Fatal(1)
5/24/2008 Avalon, CA Aerospatiale AS-350-D N67GE Fatal(3)
5/16/2008 Comstock, MI Fairchild Hiller FH-1100 N5049F Fatal(1)
5/10/2008 La Crosse, WI Eurocopter Deutschland EC 135 T2+ N135UW Fatal(3)
5/9/2008 Muanda, Congo Bell 206 L-1 N5014V Fatal(1)
4/30/2008 Paraty, Brazil Agusta/Westland A109S PR-IPO Fatal(2)
4/28/2008 Bartlett, TX Robinson R44 N477SH Fatal(1)
4/15/2008 Chickaloon, AK Eurocopter France AS350B2 N213EH Fatal(4)
3/13/2008 Wilmington, NC Robinson R22 Beta II N2215R Fatal(1)
3/11/2008 Santa Cruz, Peru Bell 412EP N417EV Fatal(10)
3/2/2008 Nizhnevartovsk, Russia Robinson R-44 II RA-04223 Fatal(2)
2/13/2008 Gascoyne Junc, Australia Robinson R44 VH-ZDP Fatal(2)
2/8/2008 Totes Gebirge, Austria Bell 206B OE-XRH Fatal(2)
2/5/2008 S. Padre Island, TX Eurocopter France AS350B2 N911VA Fatal(3)
1/25/2008 Los Angeles, CA Robinson R22 N705JJ Fatal(1)
1/22/2008 Ochopee, FL Robinson R44 N18HB Fatal(2)
1/11/2008 Puebla, Mexico Bell 412HP XC-JCD Fatal(8)
1/7/2008 Zuzenhausen, Germany Bell 206B D-HJET Fatal(1)

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?

George’s Point of View

Yet another theory:

Problems with airspeed indicators led to excessive speed for the Air France A330, triggering the sequence of events leading to the crash. Blame it on pitot tubes. If the pitot tubes froze up during the storm, pilots would get mis-readings on their speed, accelerate, and subject the plane to stresses the structure was unable to withstand.