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Man Who Stole Plane Near Seattle Raises Troubling Security Question

nytimes.com

131–140 of 213 posts

Re: Man Who Stole Plane Near Seattle Raises Troubling Security Question

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Many people commit suicide without such a final moment of exhilaration. ...and without costing tax payers (F-15 fighter jets scrambling) and private companies (the airlines that owned the crashed plane) millions of dollars, causing stress and anxiety to people boarding other flights at Seattle airport and the subsequent delays to everyone else.

You’ve clearly never been suicidal. When you are, you don’t care about anything; not even yourself. Also, nothing scares you. So when you finally kill yourself, pain to yourself and others are the least of your worries.

I don't think the person you replied to claimed anything in contradiction to what you wrote.

Re: Man Who Stole Plane Near Seattle Raises Troubling Security Question

#132
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Bombardier Q400 can seat 80 people and weighs 40,000 lbs empty.

Which is about half of the weight of a loaded 18 wheeler.

Uh, yeah, but a "small prop plane" is 1/50th of a loaded 18 wheeler then. Big difference between the plane here and a "small prop plane".

Re: Man Who Stole Plane Near Seattle Raises Troubling Security Question

#133

Two things really caught me about this story besides the security implication. First, the skill Russell deployed from (only?) having used a PC flight simulator surprised me. If Russell in fact never had any flight experience outside a simulator, well, I'm just stunned at what he was capable of doing. (Linked in article, here for convenience.) [0] Second, and more importantly, Russell's demise is tragic, pure and simp…

Being a mechanic, he was probably used to the pre-flight checklist (pretty much how to get the plane ready to fly). Then there's the takeoff checklist. It's checklists all the way down.

It's really not that hard. It's just consistency, talking on the radios, and years of experience to know how to handle anything unexpected that makes the pilot. Even then... there's probably a checklist for it.

Re: Man Who Stole Plane Near Seattle Raises Troubling Security Question

#134
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My uninformed guess is that the F-15 were scrambled to intercept if the plane started heading towards Bangor, Bremerton shipyards or JBLM. Lots of military bases and critical infra up in the PNW, thankfully it didn't appear to be the case in this incident.

I'm not sure they were terribly worried about JBLM considering they were trying to talk him into landing there.

They probably wouldn't have if he claimed to be a terrorist or didn't reply at all...

Re: Man Who Stole Plane Near Seattle Raises Troubling Security Question

#135

It seems to me to be a continuation of the pattern of labor 'Going Postal' in the labor hostile environment that has emerged since Reagan. This should be a wake-up call to everyone in the country. We can't survive without being able to trust and respect each other as human beings. Part of that is recognizing that even the most humble occupations deserve a fair wage and chance at advancement in life. If we can't respe…

Pointless attempt to tie a political view to a tragedy, please don't do this. There have been massacres, bombings, dramatic suicides, etc long before the Reagan administration and none of them have claimed "If I would have only had 20% more compensation I wouldn't have violently murdered these 20 people." P.S. It's godspeed, not "God speed".

Does it happen more in America than in European countries with more socialist policies?

Re: Man Who Stole Plane Near Seattle Raises Troubling Security Question

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Many people commit suicide without such a final moment of exhilaration. ...and without costing tax payers (F-15 fighter jets scrambling) and private companies (the airlines that owned the crashed plane) millions of dollars, causing stress and anxiety to people boarding other flights at Seattle airport and the subsequent delays to everyone else.

You’ve clearly never been suicidal. When you are, you don’t care about anything; not even yourself. Also, nothing scares you. So when you finally kill yourself, pain to yourself and others are the least of your worries.

> You’ve clearly never been suicidal. When you are, you

Your mental health experiences aren't the mental health experiences of everyone else.

Re: Man Who Stole Plane Near Seattle Raises Troubling Security Question

#137

It seems to me to be a continuation of the pattern of labor 'Going Postal' in the labor hostile environment that has emerged since Reagan. This should be a wake-up call to everyone in the country. We can't survive without being able to trust and respect each other as human beings. Part of that is recognizing that even the most humble occupations deserve a fair wage and chance at advancement in life. If we can't respe…

Often these types of suicides aren't given publicity, though this one was too much of a spectacle to ignore. There was a man who shot himself on the steps of a government(?) building, which is a town over from where I'm originally from, because he was laid off. A friend showed me the note he left on Facebook before it got deleted. It was very clear that he had been struggling financially for years and the layoff was…

India's freemdom was gained, in part, by self immmolation. Can't be spreading that dissidence because it would lead to 'copy cats'. We don't actually want to fix the issue but rather sweep it under the rug like public mental health.

Re: Man Who Stole Plane Near Seattle Raises Troubling Security Question

#138

It seems to me to be a continuation of the pattern of labor 'Going Postal' in the labor hostile environment that has emerged since Reagan. This should be a wake-up call to everyone in the country. We can't survive without being able to trust and respect each other as human beings. Part of that is recognizing that even the most humble occupations deserve a fair wage and chance at advancement in life. If we can't respe…

Often these types of suicides aren't given publicity, though this one was too much of a spectacle to ignore. There was a man who shot himself on the steps of a government(?) building, which is a town over from where I'm originally from, because he was laid off. A friend showed me the note he left on Facebook before it got deleted. It was very clear that he had been struggling financially for years and the layoff was…

Wasn't entirely deleted from the record -- his story lives on in a small but nonzero way with this comment of yours, for example.

But yes, sad that it probably didn't get the attention he wanted. Was there no news article explaining his suicide and the causes?

Re: Man Who Stole Plane Near Seattle Raises Troubling Security Question

#139

It seems to me to be a continuation of the pattern of labor 'Going Postal' in the labor hostile environment that has emerged since Reagan. This should be a wake-up call to everyone in the country. We can't survive without being able to trust and respect each other as human beings. Part of that is recognizing that even the most humble occupations deserve a fair wage and chance at advancement in life. If we can't respe…

I predict we're going to see many more such incidents of labor "going postal" in the near and medium term. Doubly so if the economy contracts and goes into a recession.

Just look at the situation in NYC with ride-sharing and all the taxi driver suicides.

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