5 ms·

"Holy Fucking Shit I Was Just In A Plane Crash"

59 points by astrec 18y ago

mseebach 18y ago
Interesting account. But is this what passes for a miraculous escape these days?
- brandnewlow 18y ago
  that's what counts for "it's a miracle no one was killed" these days, I'd say.
  - mseebach 18y ago
    My point exactly - sorry to sound so callous.
- delano 18y ago
  This isn't an action movie.
- mcargian 18y ago
  hmmm...plane off runway, down embankment, loses an engine, cracked fuselage, large fire engulfs entire right side of fuselage partially melting over head bins, making some exits on the right side unusable...yeah I think this qualifies. I'm not sure if miraculous is the right word, but I am amazed how many "news" stations are passing this off as nothing.
  - indiejade 18y ago
    It's the Twitter Effect, again. They're probably upset that citizens are scooping them on "their" news story.
    - indiejade 18y ago
      Pardon me? There is nothing malicious in this statement. . . why the downmods?
      - brandnewlow 18y ago
        People disagree? I do, but didn't see fit to downmod you for it, or reply. It was a mild disagreement. No mainstream news op is going to not cover this because someone tweeted it out in my opinion.
mhartl 18y ago
I can't believe they actually used the slides. I kinda figured those were mostly for show.
- spolsky 18y ago
  How else would you get down without stairs? They deploy automatically when you open the doors unless you specifically disarm them.
  - mhartl 18y ago
    Well, yeah, but how else (apart from the "seat flotation devices") would you float except the life vests? And yet, the life vests are mainly for show. As a letter in the 2006 Economist put it: SIR – The bright-yellow lifejackets are not intended to act as flotation devices. They are there to make it easier for the recovery services to spot the bodies strewn across rough terrain. (I was once asked to put on a life-jacket over central Germany, some 300 miles from the sea.) And the advice to adopt a head-down fetal position in the event of a crash landing does nothing to preserve life, given that the stall speed of a modern airliner means it will connect with the ground at terminal velocity. However, the position does tend to preserve dental data, useful for identifying dilapidated corpses. Roger Willis Peel, Isle of Man I always thought the number of flights where you needed to get down without stairs was basically nil; turns out I was wrong.
    - noonespecial 18y ago
      Ah. Letter to "the economist" in which the author demonstrates no knowledge whatsoever about the meaning of the term "terminal velocity" and refers to headless corpses as "dilapidated". Now that's what I call a primary source! I'm so glad he wrote in to clear things up for everyone.
      - palish 18y ago
        To be fair, you didn't address any of his points.
mihasya 18y ago
Dude needs a blog. Microblogging seems like the wrong medium to tell a full on story...
- yan 18y ago
  I doubt he would have had time to sit down and write a full-fledged blog post on what was going on in a plane crash, as it was happening.
pmorici 18y ago
So, it would be ironic if, after the investigation, they determine that some guy who was Twittering during take off interfered with the planes systems and caused the crash.
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
- sah 18y ago
  I assume that if cell phones were even a little likely to cause plane crashes, passengers wouldn't be allowed to carry them on planes at all.
  - pmorici 18y ago
    The very slim possibility of interference is one of the main reasons they disallow them during take off and landing, since that is the most critical part of the flight, the other reason is passenger distraction, they want people paying attention. http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2001/02/41273 http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2001/02/41273 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phones_on_aircraft#Electromagnetic_interference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phones_on_aircraft#Elect... The reason it is unlikely is because the systems are shielded but you could for see a situation where shoddy maintenance leads to the degradation or removal of what ever is shielding the instrument.

59 points by astrec 18y ago

mseebach 18y ago

Interesting account. But is this what passes for a miraculous escape these days?

brandnewlow 18y ago
that's what counts for "it's a miracle no one was killed" these days, I'd say.
- mseebach 18y ago
  My point exactly - sorry to sound so callous.
delano 18y ago
This isn't an action movie.
mcargian 18y ago
hmmm...plane off runway, down embankment, loses an engine, cracked fuselage, large fire engulfs entire right side of fuselage partially melting over head bins, making some exits on the right side unusable...yeah I think this qualifies. I'm not sure if miraculous is the right word, but I am amazed how many "news" stations are passing this off as nothing.
- indiejade 18y ago
  It's the Twitter Effect, again. They're probably upset that citizens are scooping them on "their" news story.
  - indiejade 18y ago
    Pardon me? There is nothing malicious in this statement. . . why the downmods?
    - brandnewlow 18y ago
      People disagree? I do, but didn't see fit to downmod you for it, or reply. It was a mild disagreement. No mainstream news op is going to not cover this because someone tweeted it out in my opinion.

mhartl 18y ago

I can't believe they actually used the slides. I kinda figured those were mostly for show.

spolsky 18y ago
How else would you get down without stairs? They deploy automatically when you open the doors unless you specifically disarm them.
- mhartl 18y ago
  Well, yeah, but how else (apart from the "seat flotation devices") would you float except the life vests? And yet, the life vests are mainly for show. As a letter in the 2006 Economist put it: SIR – The bright-yellow lifejackets are not intended to act as flotation devices. They are there to make it easier for the recovery services to spot the bodies strewn across rough terrain. (I was once asked to put on a life-jacket over central Germany, some 300 miles from the sea.) And the advice to adopt a head-down fetal position in the event of a crash landing does nothing to preserve life, given that the stall speed of a modern airliner means it will connect with the ground at terminal velocity. However, the position does tend to preserve dental data, useful for identifying dilapidated corpses. Roger Willis Peel, Isle of Man I always thought the number of flights where you needed to get down without stairs was basically nil; turns out I was wrong.
  - noonespecial 18y ago
    Ah. Letter to "the economist" in which the author demonstrates no knowledge whatsoever about the meaning of the term "terminal velocity" and refers to headless corpses as "dilapidated". Now that's what I call a primary source! I'm so glad he wrote in to clear things up for everyone.
    - palish 18y ago
      To be fair, you didn't address any of his points.

mihasya 18y ago

Dude needs a blog. Microblogging seems like the wrong medium to tell a full on story...

yan 18y ago
I doubt he would have had time to sit down and write a full-fledged blog post on what was going on in a plane crash, as it was happening.

pmorici 18y ago

So, it would be ironic if, after the investigation, they determine that some guy who was Twittering during take off interfered with the planes systems and caused the crash.

deleted 18y ago
[deleted]
sah 18y ago
I assume that if cell phones were even a little likely to cause plane crashes, passengers wouldn't be allowed to carry them on planes at all.
- pmorici 18y ago
  The very slim possibility of interference is one of the main reasons they disallow them during take off and landing, since that is the most critical part of the flight, the other reason is passenger distraction, they want people paying attention. http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2001/02/41273 http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2001/02/41273 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phones_on_aircraft#Electromagnetic_interference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phones_on_aircraft#Elect... The reason it is unlikely is because the systems are shielded but you could for see a situation where shoddy maintenance leads to the degradation or removal of what ever is shielding the instrument.