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Read other letters about this article
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.
