Posted on 04/17/2012 11:45:59 AM PDT by 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
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Ahhhh.... That’s the problem. I was thinking this happened in Jan 2012. So this story is 15 months old.
Roky Crikenson: Really?
Man in Black: Even the former leader of your United States of America, James Earl Carter Jr., thought he saw a UFO once, but it's been proven he only saw the planet Venus.
Roky Crikenson: I'm a Republican.
Man in Black: Venus was at its peak brilliance last night. You probably thought you saw something up in the sky other than Venus, but I assure you, it was Venus.
Roky Crikenson: I know what I saw.
Man in Black: Your scientists have yet to discover how neural networks create self-consciousness, let alone how the human brain processes two-dimensional retinal images into the three-dimensional phenomenon known as perception. Yet you somehow brazenly declare seeing is believing? Mr. Crikenson, your scientific illiteracy makes me shudder, and I wouldn't flaunt your ignorance by telling anyone that you saw anything last night other than the planet Venus, because if you do, you're a dead man.
Roky Crikenson: You... can't threaten me.
Man in Black: I just did.
--From Episode 3X20 of The X-Files, "Jose Chung's From Outer Space"
How did Venus fly that high without arms?
-PJ
The "news" is the release of an incident report.
Thanks! That explains it alright. My error.
At the same time, a U.S. air force Boeing C17 was coming from the opposite direction about 300 metres below them. The approach sparked cockpit alerts, which the captain mentioned to his groggy flight officer.To avoid what he thought was an imminent collision, the first officer overrode the auto-pilot by forcefully pressing on the control column, pushing the passenger jet into a dive.
So ... groggy co-pilot awakes to "TRAFFIC ... TRAFFIC ... TRAFFIC", sees Venus and dives to avoid, when (if anything) he should have climbed to avoid. The C-17 was below them. Letting anyone sleep near the controls is insane ...
She was joining the Milo High Club ...
Obviously, you didn’t read Post 18. 8-)
Pilots are trained about a trick: if an object is moving a bit left, right, up, or down in their field of vision, they are safe. If an object hangs in the same spot in their field of vision they are on a direct collision course and must act! The pilot's actions were reasonable under the circumstances. If it really was an airplane he had a fraction of a second to react, not time to ponder what it might be.
This field of vision trick works in many circumstances. When landing, the spot lined up on the windshield that is neither rising or falling is the spot the aircraft will touch down. If the top of a mountain range is slowly moving down it means the airplane will clear it. A sailor can also tell if two boats are on a collision course by this same field of vision effect.
You may leave now.
Mariners know all about that same trick. When I said Venus doesn’t move that fast, I was talking about its track through the ecliptic. If it was a morning star rising 90 minutes before the sun three weeks ago (for example), its status is not that different now. The point being that those who fly regularly you’d think would have the general whereabouts of these things in the backs of their minds. Perhaps the presence of other traffic near by, combined with the grogginess of sleep, overrode this.
I had a roommate back in the 80s who had crazy friends.
I heard a story about them once that was similar to this - they were driving down the freeway one night and the driver suddenly stopped the car. The others yelled at him because he stopped, but he claims that he saw an aircraft carrier in the road.
Turns out it was an overpass.
Kids, drinking and driving is dangerous.
Speaking as a retired fighter pilot, I verify that statement as absolute truth.
A bright light that remains relatively motionless on the canopy means (if it is indeed an aircraft of some sort) the object is on a collision course, be it coming straight at you or from the sides.
This wouldn't be one of those 'near misses' everybody's always taking about, would it?
Take two: Missed it by that much. Sorry about that, Chief...
-PJ
Never seen any of them miss Earth.
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