# "Asians can't fly!" comments after GE235 crash **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 5, 2015, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asians-cant-fly-comments-after-ge235-crash/711882 "2015-02-05T13:30:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 1
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2015, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asians-cant-fly-comments-after-ge235-crash/711882/1 "2015-02-05T13:30:27Z")
OK, I’m just ranting here, and I know that the commenters (not members of the SDMB) whom I’m addressing are only a statistically unrepresentative sample of society, so here goes: As many know, an airplane, flight GE235, recently crashed in Taiwan, and dozens of people have died. A video was shown of the airplane nearly hitting buildings before clipping a bridge and then going into the river. The ridiculing response of many Internet commenters was, **"ASIANS CAN’T FLY!"** Let’s look at the situation here: An airplane suffered an engine flameout. The pilot, faced with such dire circumstances right after takeoff (TOGA - Take Off, Go Around - is a time when you need a lot of engine power) - did what he could, steering the airplane clear of buildings before the inevitable crash. In fact, he is currently being hailed as a hero for having avoided hitting the buildings, which would have surely led to even more casualties. Comments like “Asians can’t fly!” would only make sense if the pilot had been given a perfectly good airplane (no malfunctions) and had been flying stupid stunts on purpose, or somehow mishandled his aircraft and caused a perfectly functional airplane to crash into a river. But this wasn’t that at all. _ **This was an airplane that suffered a critical failure - an engine flameout.** _ You can no more blame an Asian pilot for his airplane behaving erratically during an engine flameout any more than you can blame a white Caucasian pilot for his airplane behaving erratically if the tail rudder snaps off. When an airplane malfunctions, and the Asian pilot crashes as a result, saying “Asians can’t fly!” is as unfair as saying “white people can’t fly!” if an airplane malfunctions and a white pilot crashes as a result. This post actually isn’t a rant about race. I’m not saying “racist!” here. What I find irritating is that people aren’t attributing the blame for the crash correctly. They are blaming the pilot when 1) the pilot had nothing to do with the mechanical failure, and 2) the pilot did the best he could, given the circumstances. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asians-cant-fly-comments-after-ge235-crash/711882)._