Good point.
I’ve told the story before but when I was in USAF pilot training in the early 1980s, one of my classmates got a B-52 assignment. His grandfather was one of the very first B-52 pilots. My classmate today is old enough to plausibly have a grandchild flying the B-52. I lost touch with him and have no idea if he really does have such. But he sure could.
The Air France issue should have been resolved en-route by the carrier. From all the articles I’ve read it was a pilot decision. Air France said it was for “operational reasons”.
A '57 Chevy is newer than the B-52.
The B-52 / SkyWest incident sounds like the Tower’s fault. The B-52 crew was in contact with Approach Control and the Tower. Both planes should have been made aware of the other.
The SkyWest pilot sounded like he was 18 and rambled on-and-on about the maneuver.
In a bizarre coincidence, I saw a '56 Chevy on the road today.
Deleted. Wrong thread.
Graphic video of plane crash in Italy.
Eyewitness Enzo Bregoli said they saw the plane flying low, but it did not seem to be in any sort of trouble. According to a translation of their comments to Corriere della Sera, they said: “Suddenly, the pilot seemed to lose control: the ultralight spun around and fell straight down onto the road, nose-first. If he had just tried to turn, it could have hit me. The moment the aircraft touched the asphalt, it immediately caught fire.”
Russia’s Interfax news agency said there were adverse weather conditions at the time of the crash, citing unnamed sources in the emergency services. Several Russian news outlets also reported that the aircraft was almost 50 years old, citing data taken from the plane’s tail number.
Here’s a bit more on that Russian crash:
The info is of course real preliminary, but wiki sez …
The weather was decent at the airport. Although it had probably been poor earlier. There was a weather delay at the departure airport but it’s unclear whether that was for weather there, enroute, or at the detsination where they later crashed.
They had missed an approach and were maneuvering around for a second approach when they crashed ~10mi from the field.
It’s a minor city in the Russian Far east, so the airport facilities and approaches are probably rather limited. Assuming typical approach procedures found most everywhere in Russia and the west, nothing about the weather suggests they should have missed that approach due to weather. Unless the approach has unusually high minimums, perhaps due to terrain.
The weather may have been conducive to icing.
It’s unclear whether they simply mistakenly flew into the side of terrain under control (CFIT), or they lost control first whether due to icing, instrument failure, engine failure, buffoonery, etc., then plummeted until they met the ground.
And one more time…
Southwest Flight Abruptly Drops Nearly 500 Feet to Avoid ‘Midair Collision’
A Southwest flight dropped 475 feet to avoid a “midair collision” with a Hawker Hunter aircraft.
Southwest flight 1496 took off from Hollywood Burbank Airport just before noon Friday, headed an hour east to Las Vegas. But about six minutes after departure, it rapidly descended from 14,100 feet to 13,625 feet, according to flight tracking website Flightradar24.
Whoa, whoa. A Hawker Hunter???
And the article said there were several Hawker Hunters in the area. Not impossible, but I’d like some confirmation of that. Maybe somebody heard Hawker and didn’t realize it’s a common type of bizjet? There are civilian Hunters flying as warbirds, and maybe some for commercial purposes (aggressor training perhaps), but they’re not common.
Yeah I’d think a Hunter in the US would be quite uncommon.
Looks like it was indeed a Hawker Hunter.
This one appears to be civilian registration, but the pessimist in me is wondering whether there is a pattern of military/missionized aircraft causing issues with civilian operations. I think I just want to blame Trump somehow.
That’s a reach.
Oh, I know, I’m just in a mood to look for something to blame and he seems like a good target.
I see them on ADS-B down here in SoCal regularly. They’re operated by ATAC and contracted by the DoD for opposing force stuff. Dunno exactly what.
The Hunter was also a flight of two. Wingman about a mile behind the aircraft shown. They were VFR, issued a turn, reported SWA in sight. SWA was told to stop climb at 14,000, but ballooned up some and was returning down when they got the RA.
So SWA didn’t follow instructions and had to dive back down to their assigned altitude. What are the odds the news outlets correct their reporting.
The instructions might have been too late. Ye cannae change the laws of physics Jim!