'60s/'70s FAA safety poster:
Get-there-itis
May someday bite us!
There was a particularly bad heli-skiing crash in BC this year–at least 4 fatalities. The pilot had a heart attack. Sometimes your time is just up.
I did some high level VIP support at one unit in the .mil I was assigned to. I seem to recall one time the boss made a special point to make sure everybody understood he wasn’t on a suicide mission. If the weather is bad and the pilots think it is unsafe to continue the mission he was not going to second guess them in any way. There is a lot of pressure to please the boss at every echelon.
It’s a similar or related problem with subordinates or passengers. Numerous post accident investigations have shown that people often feel intimidated or frightened to say anything “I didn’t want to get in trouble”. They didn’t speak up when they could have, with disaster following.
Good crew coordination is important - “If you see something that you think is wrong, or unsafe, or whatever speak up! I won’t get mad at you. Far from it. We can talk about it when we’re back safely on the ground.”
One time coming in on short final to Spokane in crappy snowy weather on a passenger flight I could see trees on the mountain side right out my window getting what I thought was awfully close, but what the hell do I know? “That can’t be right, can it?” It really started to bother me, and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. I kept looking around for a stew or somebody, nobody else seemed to care about landing in a snowstorm, people reading their magazines.
Look back at the window. Maybe it will be better. Yeah ….no, that doesn’t look any better. I was about ready to jump out of my skin. Just how far do those wings really extend anyway? Just about the time I thought I ought to say something heard the engines spool up big time, we pitched up and ”Oops, let’s try that again” was broadcast over the intercom while they proceeded with a go-around and we landed fine on the next try. Maybe everything was copacetic, I dunno.
Iran is one of the few countries that’s on good terms with Russia (and vice versa).
Aside: King Canute didn’t actually believe that he could do that. He was surrounded by yes-men, and was trying to prove a point to them.
Yes, that’s precisely why it would be epic.
Hence, the word “actually”. To emphasize the lack of irony.
CNN says the new president-elect, Masoud Pezeshkian, is a “reformist” who narrowly beat his “ultraconservative” opponent.
Don’t know much about the guy. The article says he’s of mixed Azeri-Kurdish ancestry (possibly with some Armenian mixed in based on the name), a former health minister, and that he’s spoken against the Islamist regime in the past, which seems promising.
I’ll ask my wife to check in with her Persian family and friends for comment.