Posted on 11/12/2001 12:18:32 PM PST by Steven W.
Gov. Pataki is reporting that the pilot of the ill-fated American Airlines flight dumped most of the airplane's fuel over Jamaica Bay, anticipating a crash landing and most likely indicating a trained response to onboard mechanical failures.
I noticed that, too. Then they starting talking about the DOW and economy later on, too.
Ugh. I was doing the same thing. Some other guy was doing the talking and there she was (looking like hell) woodenly bobbing her head up and down as if in agreement with him. She looked as if she wanted to hog some airtime, but she couldn't get a hold of her speechwriter or she hadn't enough time to rehearse an empty platitude. (Crisis does that to some people.) Unlike Rudy Guilliani, (or her hubby Bubba) Her Heinous appears totally ill at ease unless she and her sychophants are in control of the situation...
If the pilot didnt radio that he was dumping fuel then we dont know if he dumped the fuel or if the fuel was naturally being dumped as a result of what was happening.
The flight data recorders do not show an intentional dump.
GO AWAY ALL YOU LIBERAL CONSPIRACY SEEKERS!
I take it you've never seen video of an jet engine fail at full throttle. Now there is a hellacious sight!
I'm a Libertarian and hence powerfully opposed to big government, but these conspiracy nuts are just profoundly unAmerican. They are defeatists of the first order, and their effect is to produce the feelings of defeatism in people like you.
Under emergency conditions also, fuel dump [to reach more or less Max Landing Weight fuel levels] needs to be closely monitored. This can normally be achieved electrically by the FMS software, but it fails once electrics are monitored off [no power to jettison circuits bus, and possibly also to all fuel gauges].
A mechanical device [auto-closing, float-operated dump valve] needs to be installed to stop unattended dumping once it reaches specific minimum fuel level. In some a/c it is easy to start jettison early in the checklist [then forget about it and perhaps the auto-shutoff will be electrically disabled by completing the checklist leading to fuel shortage]. This may not have been a factor with SR111 but it is apparent that Smk/Elec/Air Switch position 2/3 OFF disables the Fuel Dump (auto low-level shut-off).
Consider a light airplane. In one case a wooden prop delaminated on one blade. The imbalance caused the engine to tear from its bolts and fall off the plane. The change in center of gravity caused the plane to leaf backwards undergoing terrible aerodynamic strain until the wings ripped off. The plane landed in bits and pieces -- all because a little glue in the prop gave way.
Now mulitply the force a thousand times for a jet engine.
What page?
I thought catastrophic engine failure too until I saw the tail.
Looks like bomb in the tail or mechanical sabotage.
Time to round 'em up on the Ponderosa.
I hope this doesn't go the way of Flight 800...
I quit watching in disgust around 4:00, took a nap then got up and decided to post here, and didn't read much before posting.
So, "they"- Fox news and the "experts" they had on all day to convince me that this was an accident are what is getting me down...
One "expert" was even trying to dispute the bomb theory by saying that they match the baggage to the passenger, and he seemed to think that was convincing evidence that there couldn't possibly have been a bomb on board.
This kind of crap is what really pisses me off. Even an 8 year old could spot that statement as illogical nonsense.
One theory is that the fuel tank was punctured by an explosion and fuel spewed into Jamaica Bay.
The relatively small fire at the impact point does suggest less than full tanks and fuel may have been found in the Bay.
A head on shot at a 12' circular target coming straight at the shooter at under 2,000 yards would not be hard to accomplish.
I doubt this caused today's crash, but it could cause tomorrow's. My solution has nothing to do with gun control, but the moving of our NG troops from inside the terminals to the approaches.
I'm leaning more bomb than either sabotage or cat. engine failure.
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