Here's another interesting bit:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-41620003

The first scheduled commercial airline service to the remote British island of St Helena in the south Atlantic is to land shortly.

A plane from South Africa is expected to touch down in the new airport, ending the island's reliance on a ship once every three weeks.

 

My first date with my wife was a Friday February 13th. Took her to a restaurant which it turned out was no longer in business. I then took her to another restaurant which I knew was still in business, yeah, right till the fire a few days before. Finally did find a restaurant. Fortunately she had a good sense of humor.

Ron

 

How is this possible? How can a military grade aircraft have "missing" parts?

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/26/politics/f-16-crash-engine-investigation/index.html

 

What better reason to stop a flight than to discover that your husband has been having an affair?:

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2017/...locks-husbands-phone-and-uncovers-affair.html

 

How is this possible? How can a military grade aircraft have "missing" parts?

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/26/politics/f-16-crash-engine-investigation/index.html

An investigation into the mishap revealed evidence that "the main engine control was missing a required 600-degree training ring and the anti-rotation pin," according to the Air Force.

"The misassembled differential pressure pilot valve caused the main engine control to incorrectly meter abnormally high fuel flow to the engine," the service said. "This led to severe engine overspeed, severe engine over-temperature, engine fire, and, ultimately, a catastrophic engine failure."

Engine Parts list:

#1100 - 600 degree Traning Ring ✓
#1101 - Anti-Rotation Pin ✓

Ok, Fred lets sign this baby off............

kv

 

Hello,

A pile-up in a race:

Bertus

 

In this case, I'm sorry I was not a passenger:

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/21/americas/canadian-airport-party-goes-viral-trnd/index.html

When it was time to board the flight, Philpott said the musicians put away their instruments. But then an airline agent announced that the flight was going to be delayed for 30 minutes because they had to wait for the pilot to arrive.
"Everyone cheered. We got the instruments out again and started to continue singing and dancing,"

This is the sort of situation that can lift one's spirit after having a **itty day...

 

Imagine 9 hours of this hell:

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2018/...fought-on-flight-left-cockpit-unattended.html

Jet Airways has ultimately decided to terminate the employment of two employees who got into a heated in-flight fight on New Year's Day, during which the male co-pilot allegedly slapped his female commander and later left the cockpit completely unattended

 

Imagine 9 hours of this hell:

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2018/...fought-on-flight-left-cockpit-unattended.html

...the male co-pilot allegedly slapped his female commander...

Come on....you know she deserved it...

 

Come on....you know she deserved it...

+1

 

Imagine 9 hours of this hell:

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2018/...fought-on-flight-left-cockpit-unattended.html

In all seriousness, what would have happened if the "hardened" cockpit door closed behind them?

I think most modern commercial aircraft are "fly-by-wire". Can ATC take control of the plane and land it remotely?

 

How is this possible? How can a military grade aircraft have "missing" parts?

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/26/politics/f-16-crash-engine-investigation/index.html

That one's easy -- because these are extremely complex systems that are maintained by humans.

I once almost sent out an F-15 brake assembly without the piston spacers. I had simply forgotten to slip them onto the pins when I assembled the pistons. It passed all the checks. I had the unit signed off by the shift supervisor, in the box, and the flight line folks were loading it on the truck when I noticed the spacers sitting on the back of the work bench. I told my direct supervisor (who was an idiot) to go stop them and bring the brake back so that I could tear it back down and install the spacers.

He came back a few minutes later and said that they had already left, but not to bother because the spacers didn't serve any real purpose.

Well, I happened to know that that wasn't the case because just a few weeks earlier me and one of the civilians got into an hour long discussion and debate over just what purpose they served and we came to the conclusion that they were a critical element in automatically setting the proper running clearance as the brake disks wore down. How they did this wasn't obvious until you figured out how the process worked. At that point you also realized that there was no way to test for whether they were there because doing so would render the assembly unusable requiring it to be torn back down and reassembled. Without those spacers, the brakes would have quickly lost their effectiveness as the disks wore.

So I hopped on the shop tricycle and rode out to the flight line and snagged it back as they were getting ready to install it on the axle. I brought it back, tore it down, installed the spacers, put it back together, tested it, and had it ready to go and back to them in less than an hour.

 

In all seriousness, what would have happened if the "hardened" cockpit door closed behind them?

I'm not positive, but I don't think it can. I think it has to be positively locked by someone in the cockpit.

I think most modern commercial aircraft are "fly-by-wire". Can ATC take control of the plane and land it remotely?

Not that I'm aware of.

 

I had a couple of neighborhood friends in an Army helicopter school during Vietnam. They were just about to graduate.......rebuilt the transmission.....forgot the fluid is what I heard. Of course.....never got off ground, at great cost and command inspection embarrassment, they were sent straight over. Infantry.

 

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2018/...eways-landing-as-70-mph-winds-rock-plane.html

It does look dramatic, but that's just because the airplanes are so susceptible to the wind. But that's how they're designed. They're designed to be weather vanes that point into the wind.

 

How is this possible? How can an aircraft fuel safety system be so poorly designed?

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pilot-...new-york-city-helicopter-crash-that-killed-5/

Vance told police he "observed ... a tether from a front passenger's harness wrapped around the fuel shut off lever, which had accidentally cut off fuel supply to the engine resulting in engine failure,"

 

How is this possible? How can an aircraft fuel safety system be so poorly designed?

And there is no quick release on the harnesses? And instruction on how to use them?

(Full disclosure: I know nothing of helicopters, and I've never been in one.)

 

And there is no quick release on the harnesses? And instruction on how to use them?

(Full disclosure: I know nothing of helicopters, and I've never been in one.)

They were probably briefed on how to use them, but nothing prepares you to immediately recall and execute a procedure that you've just been shown how to do when you are upside down, in the dark, in freezing water, with your head submerged. Not a situation that lends itself to cool, calm, and reasoned actions.

The services have (or had, but I think they still do it) training specifically along these lines where you ride a rail down into the water and are then turned upside down and you have to extricate yourself. A significant fraction of aircrew members have to be rescued by the divers that are waiting underneath them because they can't do it the first time.

 

How is this possible? How can an aircraft fuel safety system be so poorly designed?

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pilot-...new-york-city-helicopter-crash-that-killed-5/

It's not clear what this "tether" was or what harness was being discussed. My understanding is that the passengers were on some kind of photo shoot and had a lot of equipment with them. Could be that it was a tether on the harness for some of their equipment, not the seat harness. Looking to hear more.

The fuel shutoff system is designed to be easy to shut off in the event of fire. That's going to make it easier to shut off accidentally by something like this. Normally, if the fuel is shut off inadvertently, there is plenty of time to reopen it and get a restart. When you are starting out low and slow, your options are dangerously limited in any emergency.

 

A $10,000.00 dlls jackpot for a deplaned passenger:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/bumped-united-passenger-walks-10000-voucher/story?id=53956077​

"United tried to get me to sign a document that says I volunteered my seat on this plane when I was involuntarily denied boarding. Sketchy af."

"On the upside, I wasn't physically dragged off the plane and my dog wasn't killed on board, so I’ve got that going for me ... which is nice.”

"They really do not want to give me cash. They just offered me $10,000 in travel credit. TEN THOUSAND."