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Flight Level 390
27 Injured in Jet’s Rough Ride
I usually think a bit of turbulence makes for a fun ride on a commercial flight. But I don’t like it quite this much.
It takes a lot of turbulence to bounce the widebodied 767 around to the tune of 27 injuries. Continental Airlines Flight 128 (Rio de Janeiro to Houston) took its pummeling at about 38,000 feet near the Dominican Republic. Now, this is the same origin (Rio) from which Air France Flight 447 made its last takeoff. I wonder how much ballyhoo we’ll hear that the Boeing got bounced but returned safely.
Never mind that they were thousands of miles apart – some people will doubtlessly try selling the notion that you’re really looking at two apples, not an apple and an orange. Don’t buy it.
Let’s definitely take a moment to give a thumbs-up to Continental 128′s crew and passengers – the crew for keeping it in the air and smartly diverting to Miami to treat the injured, the passengers for apparently staying cool and not doing anything to make the situation worse.
If you’re curious about the measures pilots take to avoid heavy weather, check out this post from the most excellent and enlightening blog, Flight Level 390.
Anti-Airbus Rhetoric Equals Ignorance
There’s something I need to make clear to all the irrational, jingoistic would-be aviation pundits out there: Airbus aircraft are no more dangerous than their Boeing counterparts. Because of the recent crashes of Air France Flight 447 and Yemenia Flight 626, the Interwebz are ablaze with ignorant armchair aeronautical engineers insisting that the consecutive crashes involving Airbus-built jets are proof that they are inferior to Boeing. I’m just waiting for some chawbacon to blame it on the godless socialist European employees of Airbus. Jeez.
Here are some of the issues raised:
-Fly by wire: Most of your newer Boeing aircraft also use it. And it works extremely well for the military forces of the world flying under much more extreme circumstances, don’t you think? And yes, the auto features can be disengaged. Here’s where you need to look to get some education if you think otherwise.
-Composite components: Again, look to military aircraft. Composites are not causing a problem there, are they?
Let’s remember this – Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger’s plane was an Airbus. He plopped it down on the Hudson and it survived, and nobody was killed or even seriously injured. Of course, that is the third recent loss of a mainline aircraft involving an Airbus.
But statistically speaking, that’s not so unexpected. If two Boeings in a row crashed, would we call for the Boeings to be grounded? Nope. It’s happened before, and nobody pointed fingers at Boeing.
Look, Airbus makes a perfectly fine aircraft. Statistically, it’s no less safe than a Boeing. I’ll happily [...]
