Friday, January 16, 2009

USAIR Begins New "Air Ferry"

Oooh...sorry about that one. Fantastic job by the flight crew on this jet. Couple of interesting points here....the Pilot (Captain) was the last person to be rescued....other reports talk of the traditional "women and children first" scheme used to prioritize the ferry trips from the planes wings....glad to see some of the golden rules of life did not get dispensed with.

5 comments:

Goldwater's Ghost said...

You = very funny.

Anonymous said...

Just wait until the media digs up the dirt on the pilot when they find out he voted for McCain.

Dan said...

I am very happy that the plane remained intact and that nobody was seriously injured or died. Can you imagine the press foaming at the mouth if the plane had broken up? We would have been subjected to endless "Why didn't he land at LaGuardia or Teterboro airport" questions, second-guessing of the pilot's decision to ditch, as well as put up with the media's ignorance of the laws and physics and gravity. I think the pilot is a hero just for keeping the media at bay.

Mudge said...

As a goose hunter, I am offering my services, at a very modest charge, to help the FAA address this matter without having to entirely redesign aircraft engines because we had this one high profile accident attributable (maybe) to a goose strike. I love the comments that the geese can't hear these "quieter jets" coming. I missed the interview with the geese on scene who confirmed that "fact".

Mudge said...

Another thought about how this possibly plays out: NTSB investigators learn that the pilot who has been declared by media, politicians and genuinely thankful survivors and their families, a national hero, unfortunately failed to check in on runway conditions radio channel as is part of his FAA required pre-takeoff checklist. Replaying the tapes shows unequivically that the geese were announced and warnings were made, and had the national hero complied with his required safety checklist, could have avoided the conditions that led to his admittedly masterful salvage of his aircraft. NTSB officials bow to heavy, top level political pressure to omit that one finding of fact and highlight the need for billions of federal funds for R&D to redesign our aircraft, including painting them like birds of prey to scare the geese away (to which PeTA objects for the emotional harm it causes the geese) and the airline industry gets the bulk of yet another tri-monthly bail out package. After about 6 months, a mid-grade NTSB can't stand himself any longer and blows the whistle on the redacted finding of fact. The media wrings its hands over how much their eagerness to cover a good news story may have subdued their not- written-anywhere-in-the-constitution constitutional responsibility to inquire more critically into this story and to leave their emotional biases behind. After about a week of this extro-introspection, they will pronounce themselves healthy and begin to demand NTSB officials and industry CEOs heads for misleading the public so terribly. Meanwhile, that Airline Industry bail out package, replete with 48 or so states worth of marked pork ears will sail through Congress to HRH for signature. I sincerely do hope that everything is in order for this phenomenally capable airline pilot and his air crew. And even if it turns out the cause was preventable, even if it was statutory to take such steps, nothing can discredit what it took for this pilot to save the aircraft and his passengers once faced with the situation. HRH is speaking and I just threw up in my mouth.

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