Midair Collision over Denver

Post by lbriner » Thu, May 13, 2021, 4:20 PM UTC

ip26 wrote: post #139

mdip wrote: post #62

Wow, that's incredible. Goes to show that people do walk away from plane crashes with some regularity. My father was a pilot[0]. He sold his plane about 15 years ago (to a group of owners, one of which was a priest, I'm sure there's a joke in there). A few of winters later, he was called out to Romeo Airport; the pilot flying the plane that was formerly his had crashed the aircraft a few miles short of the runway in…

It's hard to impress upon folks who have never been in a small plane like that just how ... yeah ... how much it feels like you're hanging onto a kite Went up in a four man single engine chopper once. It had all the reassuring solidity of a bicycle. Never again. I can’t even imagine what the truly tiny ones are like.

Post by thesh4d0w » Thu, May 13, 2021, 4:24 PM UTC

karlkatzke wrote: post #133

Leherenn wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's the issue that in many cases people tried to save the airframe rather than activate the parachute, knowing the aircraft was likely to be written off, and died doing so. It the same when the pilot is equipped with a parachute.

At the point a pilot is considering declaring an emergency, they should do so. Once they have declared an emergency, the insurance company owns the airplane, and the pilot should be focused on preserving as many lives as possible. This is as true for a mechanical emergency like a gear up landing as it is for every other kind of emergency.

Post by jessriedel » Thu, May 13, 2021, 4:25 PM UTC

jmpman wrote: post #135

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you, I was so confused. I was thinking the pilot a genius for bringing and activating a parachute. Now I see it was just great design. > As of 1 May 2021, CAPS had been activated 122 times, 101 of which saw successful parachute deployment. In those successful deployments, there were 207 survivors and 1 fatality. No fatalities had occurred when the parachute was deployed within the certified speed and altitude p…

21 of 122 failed? That’s a concerning statistic. I’d expect closer to 99% success, not 82%. How many fatalities when the parachute failed to deploy? 100%? If so, then you have almost a 1/5 chance of dying when you engage the parachute?

Post by lbriner » Thu, May 13, 2021, 4:27 PM UTC

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #78

ordu wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The pilot is speaking about failed engine after the collision, like it is nothing. Fascinating. I'd be shouting something obscene in such a situation. For half an hour at least, I think.

When people encounter emergency situations in domains they are familiar with they tend to do a pretty good job of rolling with it.

Post by EricE » Thu, May 13, 2021, 4:29 PM UTC

elliekelly wrote: post #111

azalemeth wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. Something else I'd like to point out is that it might seem easy to 'blame the Cirrus' pilot or them call out for inattention, but doing so by itself isn't helpful. Aviation is so safe partly because it has managed to turn a culture of blame into a culture of continuous improvement and shared learning: I'd be very surprised if the airport's procedures came out of this unmodified, for example.

I’ve probably mentioned this book on HN a hundred times but “Black Box Thinking” discusses the aviation culture of avoiding blame and making sure a problem isn’t repeated and how other industries (like medicine) would benefit hugely from a similar approach. It’s really interesting.