Report: Pilot mistook Venus for aircraft, plunged plane toward Atlantic

foxnews.com ^ | 4/17/12 | NewsCore

[onlylewis]

An Air Canada pilot mistook the planet Venus for another aircraft and plunged his plane towards the Atlantic Ocean to avoid a collision.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/04/17/16-injured-after-pilot-mistakes-venus-for-aircraft-plunges-plane-toward/?test=latestnews#ixzz1sKAemkMr

[onlylewis]

It's a bird , it's a plane oh H@$$ no it's Venus!!!!!!

[rogue yam]

Well, he missed it didn’t he?

[ArrogantBustard]

Flying at night is a strange experience in which perceptions of position and motion can become seriously distorted. It has to be experienced to be properly appreciated.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

At least it wasn't Uranus.

:|

[E. Pluribus Unum]

It has to be experienced to be properly appreciated.

JFK, Jr. probably appreciated it once it was too late.

[Doogle]

PILOT:"YIKES"

CO-PILOT:"WAT DA_"

PILOT:"oh that was venus?"

CO-PILOT:"^%*$^(*&...ya know where uranus is?"

[tbpiper]

Pilots have been ‘dodging’ planets for a long time.

[brivette]

happened to a Kennedy in fact.

[RexBeach]

One morning I shot a planet in my pajamas. How it got into my pajamas I’ll never know.

Thanks, Groucho!

[equaviator]

“Well, he missed it didn’t he?”

Probably like he misses his ex-wife!

[mamelukesabre]

At least he didn’t bail out.

[Upstate NY Guy]

Flying at night is a strange experience in which perceptions of position and motion can become seriously distorted. It has to be experienced to be properly appreciated.

The thing I don't understand is how he would see Venus when flying east (Toronto to Zurich) in the evening over the Atlantic. Venus is high and bright in the western sky right now. It's visible from sunset until maybe midnight or so. How would he think this was an oncoming plane if he was flying east?

[DeaconRed]

I do that all the time flying.
Venus looks just like a 747.
I cut back on the Jack and Venus is a little ole piper cub. . . .

[mamelukesabre]

I guess as long as he keep missing all the planets including earth he ain’t THAT bad.

[Secret Agent Man]

You sure don’t want anything flying into uranus. That’s for damn sure.

[ArrogantBustard]

By the time he realized that he was in way over his head, he was already screwed. He probably should not have gone flying that night.

[blueunicorn6]

Yeah, but hasn’t this happened to all of us?

[treetopsandroofs]

John-John had broken his leg/ankle only a few weeks earlier, had just switched from a large cast.

I’m guessing the wife and sister-in-law had no clue a pilot also steers with his feet.

Would they have gotten in the plane with him otherwise?

[Romulus]

I’m not a pilot, but have trouble understanding why someone with the qualifications to fly for Air Canada could have made this mistake. Don’t commercial pilots receive any kind of “situational awareness” training for bright astronomical objects? What about the man’s own years of experience? Yes, Venus is bright right now, but surely he has seen planets before. Didn’t he notice Venus pretty much in the same patch of sky last week or last month? It doesn’t move *that* fast.

If pilots are trained never to look at anything but their own instruments, why give them windows in the first place?

[A.A. Cunningham]

Venus is high and bright in the western sky right now.

Where was Venus in the sky when this occurred in January 2011?