Vanity Fair:
Airline pilots were once the heroes of the skies. Today, in the quest for safety, airplanes are meant to largely fly themselves. Which is why the 2009 crash of Air France Flight 447, which killed 228 people, remains so perplexing and significant. William Langewiesche explores how a series of small errors turned a state-of-the-art cockpit into a death trap.
I waited to post this article until after The Publisher had arrived safely in London, England.
Sorry, Shawn.
I’ve barely made it through the first couple of paragraphs, and the article is wildly wrong.
The proximate cause of the AF447 crash was pilot error, and frankly, incompetence. The crew (most particularly the third pilot, apparently) completely failed to recognize a very standard stall, and reacted, in almost every respect, in the wrong way.
Although I haven’t finished the entire article, I did make it through more than a few paragraphs and my impression was the article clearly suggests pilot error.
But I’m guessing a standard stall in a complex “fly-by-wire” large aircraft in IFR conditions at 40,000 feet at night feels a little different than a standard stall in a Cessna. Mind you they still ignored the verbal stall warnings.
What article did you read? In the one I read it was all about the pilots errors.
Great. I’m flying to five cities in India in the next three weeks. Thanks a lot!
Oh…I’m sure things will be fine…..
Sure of it…
No problems….
Ummm….You’ve updated your travel, medical and life insurance right?
And your will?
🙂
Yeah, I had a lecture form our corporate head of security today, who was just in Mumbai last week at our lab. They have a team over there who will take care of me and our team if something happens.
Luckily, intelligence sources are saying no imminent threat of terrorism in India right now. Last time, almost to the day a year later after I stayed in the Taj hotel in Mumbai, it was attacked by those gunmen.
Oh, wait. My will? At least my fiancé is beneficiary of my 401k! 😛