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Delta flight hit by firework while landing at Midway Airport on Fourth of July

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Re: Delta flight hit by firework while landing at Midway Airport on Fourth of July

#61
post #22

Off topic but I went to a local town’s medium-sized professional fireworks show this weekend and there were none of those small flash really loud fireworks that shake you to the core. Not even in the grand finale. Oddly they are what I enjoy most. Have they gone out of fashion or do they mess too much with pets?

You mean mortars ?

Re: Delta flight hit by firework while landing at Midway Airport on Fourth of July

#62
post #22

Off topic but I went to a local town’s medium-sized professional fireworks show this weekend and there were none of those small flash really loud fireworks that shake you to the core. Not even in the grand finale. Oddly they are what I enjoy most. Have they gone out of fashion or do they mess too much with pets?

I believe those are called "salutes".

Re: Delta flight hit by firework while landing at Midway Airport on Fourth of July

#63
I recently moved to the St. Louis area for a software job at Boeing. I'm actually in a nice quiet neighborhood in St. Charles right under the flight path for planes landing at Lambert Field.

The fireworks last night were insane. All around me folks were setting off commercial grade fireworks bursting hundreds of feet in the air. The house was shaking, my dogs were freaking out, one of them had a seizure. The air was filled with smoke and smelled of gun powder. It was one of the craziest things I've ever experienced.

Next year I'll definitely be planning an out-of-town vacation for the 4th to some location with firework restrictions.

I don't know what the planes were doing; I didn't hear or see any landing with all the smoke and noise.

Re: Delta flight hit by firework while landing at Midway Airport on Fourth of July

#64

They really should be controlled a lot more - a nearby house was hit by some sort of Roman candle thing and completely burned down the other night. There was at least a lot less "illegal fireworks" when people had the drive two states away to buy them.

Doesn't help in California because people buy them in Nevada and resell them. Apparently that's easier to do nowadays due to the Internet?

https://oaklandside.org/2026/07/01/illegal-fireworks-police-...

> Despite strict fireworks bans in many cities, including Oakland, they’ve become a year-round nuisance in the Bay Area. And one of the primary ways they’re spread is through the enterprising but illegal work of small-time dealers who obtain the contraband from licensed shops outside of California, sneak it into the state, and then sell hundreds and even thousands of pounds of explosives out of homes, vehicles, storage units, and even corner stores.

Re: Delta flight hit by firework while landing at Midway Airport on Fourth of July

#65
post #50
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many fireworks are designed to explode at altitude . The biggest risk is probably if the firework is ingested into an engine (also a major risk for bird strikes).

99% of them also don’t have enough explosive force to do more than damage a hand.

What about the 1%?

Re: Delta flight hit by firework while landing at Midway Airport on Fourth of July

#66
post #65
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

99% of them also don’t have enough explosive force to do more than damage a hand.

What about the 1%?

Clearly the plane wasn’t hit by one, eh, or we’d have an entirely different headline.

Re: Delta flight hit by firework while landing at Midway Airport on Fourth of July

#67
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many fireworks are designed to explode at altitude . The biggest risk is probably if the firework is ingested into an engine (also a major risk for bird strikes).

Given the sheer quantity of energy that's already being continuously released in an engine would a small firework actually pose more danger than a bird? There's no bones in a firework after all.

Even small bird strikes are usually a non-event, as the engines are designed to withstand them (there's a very well-known YouTube video of frozen chickens being fired into one, and those are already a lot bigger and harder than most birds they'll encounter.) It's the big ones that make the news.

Re: Delta flight hit by firework while landing at Midway Airport on Fourth of July

#68
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rather than regulate fireworks out of existence wouldn't it be better to fix the problem at the root? Why do we permit such fire prone housing to be built just to save a few dollars?

What alternative do you propose?

[deleted]

Re: Delta flight hit by firework while landing at Midway Airport on Fourth of July

#69
post #63

I recently moved to the St. Louis area for a software job at Boeing. I'm actually in a nice quiet neighborhood in St. Charles right under the flight path for planes landing at Lambert Field. The fireworks last night were insane. All around me folks were setting off commercial grade fireworks bursting hundreds of feet in the air. The house was shaking, my dogs were freaking out, one of them had a seizure. The air was…

> one of them had a seizure

It's insane to me how much dogs are supposedly loved by such a large chunk of the pop, and yet people proceed to go apeshit with fireworks fully knowing how badly this affects them.

Re: Delta flight hit by firework while landing at Midway Airport on Fourth of July

#70

Am I the only one who thinks the risks are worth the reward? People are celebrating, kids are having fun. Yes a few people blow their hands off, but are we going to remove everything, one by one, in the name of safety?

Come on, it’s not a choice between complete anarchy and complete restriction. It is very, very fair for society to be like “hm I think X activity is easy to abuse in a way that hurts innocent bystanders,” and then limits the activity to people with licenses and training or things like that. Like no, it’s totally not cool to give a free pass to people who are putting other people’s lives and homes at risk. How would y…

> Like no, it’s totally not cool to give a free pass to people who are putting other people’s lives and homes at risk. How would you feel if your house burned down because your neighbor did something stupid?

We quite literally have a long and rich tradition of laws to handle exactly this.

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