Worst accident in aviation history narrowly averted

[johan]

And iirc, Delta 191(? Might have that wrong -- D/FW Aug 1985, anyway) got dropped by wind shear on approach from about 500' AGL. Granted those conditions weren't extant here, but at 150 kia, SHTF pretty quickly.

Again, no it doesn't. It just doesn't. If it did, we'd have fatal transport category accidents every other week. The go-around minima for most precision instrument approaches is about 200ft. You fly the approach down to 200ft and if you can't see the runway by then, you pour on the coals and go around. Air crews perform this procedure routinely without incident all the time. 

Every accident is the result of a chain of failures and/or poor decisions. Do the right thing at just one of those links in the chain and the accident doesn't happen. This event was most definitely the first link in what could have turned out to be a pretty deadly accident. But several other links (not just one, but several) went exactly right as they're supposed to do. Yes its definitely an event worth of investigation and I'll certainly be curious to see what the investigation reveals. But it absolutely does not warrant the kind of news coverage its received IMO. 

The one and only reason this is getting coverage is because its airplanes and airplanes scare the shit out of anyone who isn't intimately familiar with their operations. And scaring the ever living shit out of people is how news organizations manage to stay in business. Don Henley wrote dirty laundry in 1982 so I'm guessing this is hardly new information for most people. 

Like I said in an earlier post, within 50 or 100 square miles of just about every person reading this post, there was a car accident today that killed someone. Most of those car accidents won't get reported by any news organization anywhere. Why? Because no one gives a fuck about someone they don't know buying it in a car wreck. But the minute Arlo T Knickerbacker has some engine trouble while puttering around in his Cessna and puts it down in a farm field without a single scratch on himself or the plane just like he was trained to do, it will be the lead story on every news broadcast within 800 miles. If there's video of the landing? Then its the lead story on every news broadcast in the country and several others overseas. No one got hurt. Nothing happened and it will be the lead story guaranteed. Because airplanes frighten people and anything that frightens people will be news no matter what.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Well, like I wrote, I think what drove the story was the potential casualty count. I can't argue with your experience as a pilot in terms of what happens aloft at 500', or how quickly it happens, except to speak to my (perhaps irrelevant) experience in auto accidents happening at 40% of the speed and only working with two dimensions and not three.

[Autumnlicious]

"Worst potential"

Fuck that.

Every time I leave Chipotle, the media should shriek about the next worst potential shitpocalypse.

Potential is not news. Nobody died, nothing crashed.

Someone should kick each and every journalist pushing this nonstory in the balls and shout "Report actual events, you fucking cock nugget".

[vorlon13]

Correction:

CBS reports the actual miss distances were 100 feet over the first 2 aircraft and 29 feet over the third.

[johan]

Everyone is reporting the 100ft thing from the NTSB synopsis. Funny but no one seems to reporting anything about the very first line of that synopsis.

This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Federal investigators say an Air Canada jet coming in for a landing in San Francisco last month came a lot closer than previously thought to hitting four other planes on a taxiway, in what aviation safety experts say could have been a horrible disaster.

The National Transportation Safety Board says Air Canada flight No. 759 was just 59 feet above the ground at its lowest point, flying over a United Airlines jetliner waiting to take off, before the Air Canada plane pulled up, circled around and then landed safely.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2...an-thought

[Brian37]

Air Canada Airbus came close to landing on a taxiway with 4 aircraft parked on it, all loaded with fuel and passengers, instead of the adjacent runway.

ATC seemed to not pickup on clue in query from the Air Canada pilot who asked if his runway was clear, as he was seeing lights on it.  A pilot(s) came on, presumably one of the 4 aircraft waiting to take off with a pithy comment: "Where's he going?"  "He's on the taxiway!" 

Then ATC orders a go round.

He cleared the parked craft by 400 feet, passing directly over them. Potentially 1000 people on all 5 aircraft.

Read all the details:

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2017/07/11...story.html

Yea, I heard about that, some really scary shit. Could have ended up being worse than the 1977 KLM/Pan Am crash in the Canary Islands. Although the miscommunication and pilot error almost became a horrible disaster his quick decision to abort the landing also avoided it.

Yep, that is certainly a "OH SHIT" moment.

[vorlon13]

This incident merited barely a paragraph in AW&ST. I'm kinda scratching my head over the disparity in reactions to this . . . .

[Brian37]

This incident merited barely a paragraph in AW&ST.  I'm kinda scratching my head over the disparity in reactions to this . . . .

The story did make world news, not just in that article. The BBC and PBS as well as CBS overnight news all mentioned this near miss. I watch BBC America and PBS News Hour and CBS overnight and CBSThis Morning and they all mentioned it. 

But there still is an old saying in news media, "If it bleeds it leads." It made the news cycle but no, it would not get as much coverage than say if a crash had occurred. Far more time would have been focused on such a story if a crash had happened and people died. 

Really no different than when say you have a domestic house hostage situation, or a public shooter when nobody dies and it ends quickly. The news cycle will cover it, but will move on far more quickly if nobody dies.

[Silver]

I recently watched this movie that contained a near two plane collision where one was taking off and another was landing.