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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Patco13
Published Letters: 69 Editor's Choice: 3
I have been associated with some faucet of aviation all of my life. As a former Air Traffic Controller I took an interest in Tenerife from both a professional and an intellectucal point of view. I've read literally thousands of accident reports. While Patrick respectfully skirts the issue, essentially this accident boils down to a very senior KLM captain's (I believe he was their Chief Pilot at the time)ego as being the cause. Yes weather, heterodyning, missed turns on intersections all were part of the equation but it came down to one man saying let's go without a proper clearance. The Captain is responsible for that aircraft period.
Joan Walsh, Jane Fonda (did someone really mention Hanoi?) and Colbert are out to make a buck. As I see it, Ms. Walsh needs to stretch herself a bit more for subject matter and creativity. If they all do something a bit different then someone may watch/read their stuff. Sometimes Colbert is awesome other times, not so much. Ms. Walch, the same. Oh the bandwidth wasted here.
Let me be brief. For all his good points Dick Nixon used his authority as President to violate basic constitutional rights. His paranoid delusions weakened his administration and ran contrary to the basic intent of the founding fathers. Nixon was a liar and crook. He deserves no reconsideration. Period.
As Patrick mentioned not too many people complained about Paris but I will. North American arrivals and departures plane and enplane on a jet bridge from a 747-400. You are shuttled around on a confusing combination of buses and corridors until you are spit out at the end. My fiance and I arrived 3 hours before departure. There are 5 Air France terminals and the cabbie was literally pissed off that I didn't know which one I was supposed go to. We arrived at our depature lounge 2 1/2 hours after we began. Carry on baggage was checked three times and it was clear the last search was more as punishment for either being subjects of Bush43 or simply a make work program for the French. Our boarding pass/passports were verified no less than 9 times after we cleared security. Yes we had been in France and Paris but one would hope that a country with that much art and culture could do a better job at their international airport than that.
I don't know why at 56 I stop and look at every plane in the sky just like I did when I was 6 but I do. There is something about the combination of the roar of the engine, the speed and the exhilaration that one must feel (no I've never ridden in a fighter) when you have that much power at your command that gets fighter pilots going when they fly. Of course its dangerous but that is part of it. Patrick you got paid to do that? Where do I sign up?
One of the things I've taken away from Photoshop classes was to be subtle with your work. The shopped photograph is the fault of the staff person at Redbook who decided to do that work as well as the editor who okayed the work. Ms.Hill is beautiful in her own right and will now suffer the attacks that are sure to come. I hope she sues the crap out of Redbook.
First for the question about Orange Copunty, yes it is shorter that Sao Paulo. Go here;
http://www.airnav.com/airport/KSNA
Patrick again does a good job despite ingoring the test runs of Islam facists question. Flying an airplane is as much art as it is science. From my perspective as an old Air Traffic Controller and currently involved with design and construction of Airports, the Sau Paulo incient is on of those happenings where everything went wrong in the correct order to cause a serious acciednt. Typically, we don't open a runway unless it's grooved, period, even here in California. Pilot judgement really needs to be highlighted as a factor as well. No grooves, wet runway,and no thrust reversers seems like a good reason not to take off or at least divert to me. There are always the business pressures in this type of scenario as well and like most things the answers are complex and come down to a bit of luck or lack there of and pilot judgement. Pilot error is a general fall back position in a lot of accident investigations. Sometimes its impossible to determine what happened and the pilot in command is just exactly that, in command.
The state of the Airline system world wide is definetly taxed. With the current administration in the United States a confrontational approach to the Air Traffic Control system and the people who make it run is as bad as when I was a PATCO controller in 1981. That aspect of the problem doesn't look good now. The FAA is famous for being very bad at employing new technology. The United States system will not restrict the Airlines and the use of RJ's simply because the business's would scream bloody murder at the administration. Part of the solution is to build more runways. And that is very dificult as well. Traveling at off peak times both seasonal and daily adjustments are one solution but in reality the long term solution is more government control and more airports. Las Vegas is way ahead of most metro areas and they are already planning a new airport and and are planning some other major changes as well. Things will get worse before they get better.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
Salon headlines in your mailbox
