Posted on 08/02/2005 1:28:25 PM PDT by mitchbert
Breaking News from CFRB 1010AM News Radio - Toronto
Airliner on fire on the ground at Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ). Unclear as to cause. Announcers asking for updates from motorists in the region on HWY 401. Report says great deal of smoke. I have to go into a meeting shortly but I'll listen for updates as long as I can.
Well I tell you what I did - my first thought was there is not a damn thing I can do to help this plane fly. If we die no one will know how I acted, but if we live I will hate to have made a fool of myself.
I then took my wife's right hand with my left, and the stewardesses left hand with my right and suggested a prayer, then assured them all would be well. I then leaned forward and tried to calm the old Jewish man in front of me who was telling G-D, in a loud voice, that he was ready to go.
When we got down the stewardess asked me how I remained calm and I told her I just hate to make a scene in public. I was about 30 at the time, my wife and the stewardess were about 26.
:)
I believe that Airbus have fly by wire, no feedback to the controls and even allowed the pilot to over stress the airframe (no electronic limiting of control input) in the past.
I also believe that Airbus had to modify the vertical stabilizer on some aircraft because of material fatigue or the possibility of over-stressing it. Just not to long ago a plane taking off out of Cuba lost part of its tail, but managed to do an emergency landing unlike the United (?) flight in the US that crashed from a similar structural failure shortly after 9-11.
I don’t think Airbus are unsafe, but despite all the pride and strutting of the Europeans, Boeing makes a better product and does so without massive (13 Billion) in subsidies. You see with the sales of the dream liner that Boeing did their market analysis. The A380 is hardly selling and might just break even or make a “marginal” profit. But will this stop Airbus? Hell no. Airbus has the backing of the governments involved in the consortium. Airbus will sell in Europe regardless of cost or performance. The state owned airline will buy the state built airplane which will be based out of the state run airport for example at Frankfurt. That is how it really works. Airbus was created with dubious means, and till today is backed by the tax payer in Europe. If they are behind and they now they are loosing ground again to Boeing they just get another state injection to develop a A350. Where Boeing has to cough up the money to develop a 787, Airbus gets help from the European states. As a consequence, Airbus will bring out a A350 very soon, despite the fact that a A380 is still not even out yet and cost them billions to develop as well.
Bush (Still one of the greatest presidents in my opinion), screwed the pooch on three things:
Terri Schievo
Mexican boarder
Free trade - Airbus being one of the hot topics
Red6
See map at Post 58. You'll find me. Too bad the plane didn't land at Buffalo or Rochester. No storms on my side of Lake Ontario.
Good map, I saved it. Long way to Erie!
The A320 is a great plane, its advances are in lots of planes now, Boeing and Airbus.
The A350 has a bunch of orders so far, gonna be a good plane.
Several years ago we took an "express" to Houston. We hit some really bad weather and were tossed and dropping and climbing all over the place. The pilot announced that we were encountering some bad weather (no lie) but the steward would take good care of us. Yeah, right.He was buckled in at the back of the plane, shaking and looking scared to death.
"Long way to Erie!"
200 miles, on the nose.
Making the trip in two weeks.
About 4 hours? It's 150 to Houston for us and then we have to go south to where we're going, almost 3 hours in all.
Did you scoop the MSM?
I was listening to Rush's tape-delayed broadcast on WHAM in Rochester, NY when they broke in with live coverage shortly after your post. It was another 20 minutes before CBS broke in with a special report.
Thanks. How much I wish I could say "Yes!" I don't think I can.
I walked into my office after a smoke break and CFRB went into Breaking News mode. I keep an FR window open all day on my PC at work. I simply went into "post mode". Eh :-).
I guess we can give the nod to the local talk radio station. Still wondering if you scooped the major US television outlets. In any case, fine job!
Thanks again! I suppose from a perspective of getting the news out maybe. As far as knowing about it CBC wins as they had someone at the airport doing a piece on bad weather (and the storms today were bad). Just trying to do my (FR)part.
Well, normally I would thow in some sarcastic remark about the fact that all of the passengers got off safe because the French are just so good at running away..but that wouldn't be fair in this instance.
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They didn't have any white flags to wave :O)
In all seriousness, I am happy that God was with them.
I think what really saved the lives of everyone on board the plane was the fact the ground rescue crews at Pearson International Airport (YYZ) were literally at the crash site within one minute of the crash and quickly assisted in getting everyone off the plane. Those ground rescue crews should get the highest commendations from the Canadian government for pulling off what amounts to a MAJOR miracle.
My 2 cents for posterity:
I was listening to the traffic on my scanner all afternoon prior to the incident. Almost all inbounds were requesting diversions to their flightpaths due to storm cells racing north to south.
Around 3:30, YYZ Arrivals was holding several aircraft, when they basically fly in an oval over a waypoint, because cells were going through the approaches to the westward runways. The controller would spot an opening in the storm cells and direct one aircraft at a time through them, giving ten minute estimates. But these were few and far between, so the other holding aircraft kept circling near the localizers.
At some point, one of them was getting low on fuel and a controller sent that plane to London, ON. There was a brief exchange where two pilots asked why Hamilton Intl wouldn't be closer than London to go get a drink of gas. A controller interjected that there was an "Emergency" situation. Then there was an eerie radio silence for ten minutes.
Shortly my wife yells from upstairs that she heard on 680 News that a plane had gone down. I initially thought that it was the plane that had been sent to London for refuelling, but once I heard that the crash was Air France at YYZ, I knew it couldn't have been that plane.
But I then recalled that I likely heard the AF pilots get their clearance to the south-west runway (the tower kept changing the active), because these guys weren't speaking with the usual Quebec accent to their english - it was more akin to a Marseilles accent.
Another thing I'll never forget is the scent of burnt steel/tires than was in the air around town this evening. I still can't believe no fatalities occurred.
Heather Langille, left and Lauren Langille, right, of Oshawa celebrate their safe arrival in the airport parking lot after the Airbus A340 plane they were passengers on slid off the runway and crashed at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Toronto, Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2005
Lucky guy. He even got his luggage back.
That could well be true. (But I bet it was hard to see it as a positive at the time, though.)
Maybe we should change the flight path to go over your house so that you can "proceed to snort, howl and rant like a tornado full of bowling balls about the intolerable noise from the aircraft; none of which at any time exceded the racket that they, themselves, produced in their nursery-school tantrums"
O-Henry is glad that everyone lived and a worse tragedy was avoided!
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