George’s Point of View
Sometimes heroes do things that are counter-intuitive.
Police break up riots.
Soldiers enter battle.
Firemen run into fires.Our natures are designed to have the urge to run away from harm. It only makes sense.
There are thrill seekers who defy that urge:
race car drivers
parachutists
The Evel Knievils of the world.Pilots are trained to do whatever is necessary to avoid thunderstorms. Serious storms are taken seriously–especially if routed through the “inter-tropical convergence zone.”
It is counter-intuitive to fly into a storm.
Maybe the storm crept up out of nowhere. Engineers can claim new planes are safely flown into storms but some things that are counter-intuitive are that way for a reason.
We humans are solvers by nature. We like to see what the problem is, analyze it, and fix it. But what we find, while doing our fixing, is that there’s never just one thing wrong.
This is true for any airline event. When is it ever just one thing? It’s not just the rain; the runway is too short. And part of the brakes are down. It’s not just that the pilot is landing on the wrong runway–the runway isn’t long enough, and it’s on a collision course. Plus when there are maintenance issues, they snowball. Maintenance crews get fluids on the engine that burn and send fumes in the cockpit, which causes the crew to have an emergency landing with a fuel-filled plane that stresses the landing gear and explodes the tire, and damages the nose wheel…
It’s never one thing.
So this time, it looks like it’s turbulence, hail, lightning strike, rapid decompression, storms, and electrical failure in the desolate oragious Atlantic. The controversy will keep going for a long time.
What we decide is futile. Ultimately the only thing you can call a tragedy is a tragedy. This is a tragedy.
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A Little Bit of Safety Research
Worried about where to sit on a plane? It’s safer in the back, not on the window, and closer to an exit. Do I consider where I sit on a plane? You bet I do. This is what the research says on plane safety:
- The cheap seats are the safer seats. Sit at the rear of the plane if you want to have better odds in surviving a plane crash. New York Post
- The United States General Accounting Office report on aviation safety (Advancements Being Pursued to Improve Airliner Cabin Occupant Safety and Health) indicates that floor retention— the ability of the aircraft cabin floor to remain intact and hold the passenger’s seat and restraint system during a crash—as critical to increasing the passenger’s chances of survival” but the same report says “The front part of the airplane was destroyed, including the floor; most of these seats separated from the airplane, killing or seriously injuring the occupants” and does not outrightly indicate that a safer location is farther from the cockpit. http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d0433.pdf
- Popular Mechanics considered 36 years’ worth of NTSB reports and seating charts and concluded it’s safer in the back of the plane.
- Greenwich University (London) Professor Ed Galea, Director of the Fire Safety Engineering Group suggests survival can depend on proximity to an exit, aisle seating, and getting off the plane within 90 seconds. University of Greenwich
- As plane crashes are classic “unpredictable events” theoretically the best location is unpredictable. However more aviation crashes have forward impact, which necessarily makes front proximity less safe. This MSN article leans on Galea’s research. MSN Travel
IATA Releases 2013 Commercial Aviation Safety Performance Statistics
International Air Transport Association (IATA) has released the 2013 commercial aviation performance statistics.According to IATA, more than 3 billion people enjoyed safe air travel last year, through 36.4 million flights. 81 air accidents happened throughout the year, out of which 16 were fatal. The total fatalities in commercial aviation accidents were 210, as compared to 414 in 2012.
Furthermore, the global Western-built jet accident rate for 2013 was 0.41 i.e. one accident per 2.4 million flights. The rate is 14.6% lower than the five year average of 0.48.
The Western-built jet hull loss rate for IATA members remained 0.30 in the year 2013, showing an improvement of 28.6% in the five year average rate of 0.32.
The Director General and CEO of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Tony Tyler has urged the governments and the aviation industry to make combined efforts in order to ensure flight safety. He said that the MH370 case has highlighted the pitfalls in flight tracking technologies. The airline industry, its stakeholders and regulators should make efforts to avoid such accidents in future.
Remembering Air Blue Flight 202: July 28
In George’s Point of View
Sometimes all we do is listen. We listen to the families speak of their loved ones, listen to the little ones cry, the child who loves snowflakes because that is what her father called her. The wife and children with no means of support and feeding themselves with empty spoons. Knowing that no matter what we do, we cannot bring them back, nor fill that empty place. Still we do what we can on behalf of the families.This will be the first July 28 in history when these 152 people will not be living on this earth. We want to remember these people who lost their lives in such a tragic and unnecessary way. They deserve to be remembered.
Some remember those who are no longer with us by using symbols. Memorials like the one promised. There are other symbols, like the bird in flight that symbolizes a soul, or a chain with a broken link.
There is a tradition dating back to ancient times of placing rosemary by the graves of loved ones. “There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance; pray, love, remember;” Hamlet, (V.iv.124)
I was going to talk about more ways that people remember, but I must pause here. In ancient times they put rosemary by the graves of loved ones. Some people still do. But we cannot lay sprigs of rosemary for remembrance at the feet of our loved ones, because there are families still waiting for a memorial promised before the first anniversary of the crash. Waiting a year to lay their flowers and their grief.
Instead of a bouquet of flowers, we have a bouquet of broken promises. Shall we count them?
A broken promise to share the final investigative report.
A broken promise over the Monument at the crash site (they want it elsewhere); and a broken promise over the 72 unmarked graves.
A broken promise over Airblue being grounded for negligence, malpractice, manslaughter.
A broken promise to assist the families.
Or maybe we can call this a pending promise, as we wait for an independent inquiry board and a pending promise of greater safety in the skies over Pakistan.
We have our Rosemary for remembrance, but it is bittersweet.
CDA is constructing a memorial for the Air Blue Flight 202 just a few miles from Damn-e-Koh, Islamabad - British Airways | compensation | Damages | Editorial | UK
Passengers denied fair compensation’ by British Airways
Here’s the situation–after the problematic Oslo flight, British Airways paid for food and hotel accommodation for stranded passengers who had been on the flight, but they deny further compensation. This is apparently British Airways attitude in regard to “thousands of passengers” impacted by the closures caused by the BA flight, according to Travel Weekly.BA’s cancellation of 200 flights after the Oslo flight issue led to Heathrow’s brief closure (of two runways.) 200 flight cancellations affects a whole lot of people.
In this case, the European Commission’s new guidelines are going to be tested. Clyde and Co. said if the closure was a bird strike, BA would probably be off the hook, but if it was due to faulty maintenance, that’s their responsibility.
In my opinion, BA deserves all the ass kicking they get and a whole lot more for their laxity in accepting responsibility. I hope the passengers all sue for their damages. Maybe, just maybe a lawsuit will send a message to the operators of huge airline companies.
