Posted on 11/12/2001 9:38:53 AM PST by nicmarlo
An American Airlines A-300 reported mechanical trouble while waiting to take off Monday morning, about an hour before it crashed just outside News York's JFK Airport.
AA Flight 587 was scheduled to take off at 8:00 a.m. but was held on the ground for an hour and fifteen minutes to repair an unidentified mechanical problem, a travel agent familiar with the flight told WABC Radio.
Additionally, a United Airlines pilot says he over-heard a radio report from Flight 587's pilot saying he was experiencing engine trouble before the plane exploded in mid-air over New York's Jamaica Bay.
The Bush administration has announced the FBI believes that Flight 587 did explode in mid-air and is working to determine the cause.
Delusioned: "The other day my kitchen faucet started leaking, and I noticed a 93 Buick hitting the pothole in front of my house about that time."
"The fact speaks for itself."
Try explaining engineering to people that are not in the discipline and they look at you like you've got spinach in your teeth.
It's hard not to see terrorism here. The access to planes on the tarmac is not yet completely secure. How can everything be completely secure?
The airlines would be keeping some info quiet until they find out exactly what happened, and even after.
If it was an 'engine failure', then you try to limit your liability (and your insurance company's liability) by keeping any info that hurt's your case to a minimum.
If they stated right now that "Hey, yeah, mechanic "x" worked on that very engine, it was having trouble and we thought we would just wait a few more trips before fixing it", I guarantee their insurance carrier would drop them like a hot potato.
First rule during any accident is "keep your mouth shut as much as possible".
Second rule is "answer only the question asked".
Until a complete investigation proves what went wrong, The airline is just protecting it's stockholders and insurance carriers, and future by limiting info given out to anyone. Now, if they had a hint that it was terrorist related, I believe they would show complete candor.
That is why it was probably "faulty engine", "bad diagnosis by mechanic to let it go without major repair".
This could also have been a result of recent incidents. The airline might have been more concerned with keeping passengers happy (get em in the air and on their way) due to low profits (or none) lately. I.E. Money over safety. You won't be seeing them getting on T.V. and announcing that as the cause !
If they stated right now that "Hey, yeah, mechanic "x" worked on that very engine, it was having trouble and we thought we would just wait a few more trips before fixing it", I guarantee their insurance carrier would drop them like a hot potato.
This is true. And, as usual, the "little people" are kept in the dark.
And, as you may have seen in a post, in completely unrelated news, a flight headed to Denver International was given military escort before proceeding onto California.
Earlier I was convinced this was a bomb. Now I am fairly sure it wasn't. Old plane, old engine with history of failure, delayed takeoff due to mechanical malfunction -- sounds like a classic catastrophic engine failure. The good news is we should know very quickly one way or the other. There are too many media people crawling all over this scene for there to be any coverup.
We have to be able to realize that September 11 did not stop planes from failing, people from being nuts and committing weird and gruesome crimes that have nothing to do with terrorism, Hazmat trucks being stolen for joyrides, and other assorted bad things.
Didn't know those building were archeological digs.
It can only mean one thing, right
C'mon, lighten up everybody.
I vote for heaven.
Question (not trying to take out of context). Cover-up high about the engine not really be repaired properly or cover up about something else, perhaps mechanics who worked the plane (i.e., possibility of a mechanic who has not been cleared (an Arab, for instance)?
Nah...but the neighborhood is familiar...and I do a lot of cringing in movies like that!
I went and watched it myself. He qualified everything he said. He said first information can be wrong. He said "as of right now" there were no unusual communications from the cockpit.
Everyone on FR ought to wait and find out the facts and stop rushing to find something sinister. This plane just crashed for god's sake.
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