Good Pilots Are Hard To Find...
Tragedy stuck Midway Airport in Chicago Thursday night when a Boeing 747 from American Airlines slid off the end of a snowy runway and into civilian traffic, landing on several cars and killing a 6-year-old boy.
The officials at Chicago's Midway Airport claim the crash was a result of harsh weather conditions, with snow recorded falling at a 1 inch-per-hour rate. Slick conditions and bad visibility all added up to the tragedy of that night, ending in the death of a child.
Nonsense.
I talked with the wreakage officials myself and listened to the in-cockpit recordings which continued running all throughout the crash:
Pilot: "...and then Lex's dead mother tells him to let Johnathan win the senate election so he can be a good person."
Co-Pilot: "That's insane. What did Lex do?"
Pilot Trainee: "Uh, guys...the runway's coming up. Shouldn't we be setting the flaps down or something?"
Pilot: "Hey kid, don't worry. We've done this a thousand times."
Co-Pilot: "Yeah, and my friend said he even did it after spending three hours at the airport bar before take-off. It really isn't that hard, or they wouldn't let humans do it. Military pilots can even take off with just 300 feet of runway on a boat...we've got 6,500 in Chicago. Don't worry about it."
Pilot Trainee: "But the tower said we should--"
Pilot: "Tower, shmower. What do they get right anyway? They're not even real pilots like us, just telephone operators to help us do what we do best."
Pilot Trainee: "And what is that?"
Pilot: "Well, I'll tell you what we do..."
Pilot Trainee: "No, I mean what is that?"
Pilot: "Oh, that? That's just highway 70..."
Pilot and Co-Pilot: "Crap."
Pilot Trainee: "You guys are so fired."
And the point is, those airports aren't even that hard to land on. I used to be a pilot for the Carribean Islands, and I've seen alot worse.
For instance...
Then there's this other island...
The mountains are bad, too...
The officials at Chicago's Midway Airport claim the crash was a result of harsh weather conditions, with snow recorded falling at a 1 inch-per-hour rate. Slick conditions and bad visibility all added up to the tragedy of that night, ending in the death of a child.
Nonsense.
I talked with the wreakage officials myself and listened to the in-cockpit recordings which continued running all throughout the crash:
Pilot: "...and then Lex's dead mother tells him to let Johnathan win the senate election so he can be a good person."
Co-Pilot: "That's insane. What did Lex do?"
Pilot Trainee: "Uh, guys...the runway's coming up. Shouldn't we be setting the flaps down or something?"
Pilot: "Hey kid, don't worry. We've done this a thousand times."
Co-Pilot: "Yeah, and my friend said he even did it after spending three hours at the airport bar before take-off. It really isn't that hard, or they wouldn't let humans do it. Military pilots can even take off with just 300 feet of runway on a boat...we've got 6,500 in Chicago. Don't worry about it."
Pilot Trainee: "But the tower said we should--"
Pilot: "Tower, shmower. What do they get right anyway? They're not even real pilots like us, just telephone operators to help us do what we do best."
Pilot Trainee: "And what is that?"
Pilot: "Well, I'll tell you what we do..."
Pilot Trainee: "No, I mean what is that?"
Pilot: "Oh, that? That's just highway 70..."
Pilot and Co-Pilot: "Crap."
Pilot Trainee: "You guys are so fired."
And the point is, those airports aren't even that hard to land on. I used to be a pilot for the Carribean Islands, and I've seen alot worse.
For instance...
Then there's this other island...
The mountains are bad, too...
The point is that a little snow shouldn't be so much that it causes the plane to go off the edge and into a freaking freeway. What they need for training is runways like these...for the sake of insentive.
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