Plane accidentally flew around the world (2018) • Hacker News Board

Re: Plane accidentally flew around the world (2018)

#41

Post by samschooler » Tue, May 10, 2022, 10:37 PM UTC

fargle wrote: post #4

dredmorbius wrote: post #3

I'm shocked that this story hasn't had significant discussion on HN. Several earlier submissions, but no uptake. It is worth the read.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17018851 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15537891 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10804868

I'm sad the bottom two links are broken, its by far the best version. Here it is preserved https://web.archive.org/web/20170615134729/http://lapsedhist...

Re: Plane accidentally flew around the world (2018)

#42

Post by walrus01 » Tue, May 10, 2022, 10:38 PM UTC

speeder wrote: post #19

I am kinda sad that the Brazillian part in that story is how they forced them to stay because of Yellow Fever, but then they stole stuff from inside the plane... The saddest part of this, is that I am not even surprised :( As Brazillian I deal all the time with online distrust with Brazillians, and often when people explain why they distrust us, I can't fault them, there are even online games where Brazillians have t…

to be honest your post sounds a lot like some Egyptians I know who seem compelled to apologize for the endemic tourist scams, bribery/shakedowns/corruption, unethical taxi drivers, sexual harassment etc in Cairo.

Re: Plane accidentally flew around the world (2018)

#43

Post by sharksauce » Tue, May 10, 2022, 10:43 PM UTC

The amazing part to me is that Pan Am didn't just have them land in Miami and relieve them with a fresh crew. Story is way better the way it's told, though.

Re: Plane accidentally flew around the world (2018)

#44

Post by mulmen » Tue, May 10, 2022, 10:44 PM UTC

It's a tragedy that none of the 314s survive to this day. What an amazing period in aviation history.

Re: Plane accidentally flew around the world (2018)

#45

Post by Stratoscope » Tue, May 10, 2022, 10:51 PM UTC

As I read this I thought it sounded familiar. The story is based largely on the book The Long Way Home:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00457XJ2K/

The author acknowledges this at the end of part three and recommends that you buy the book. I recommend it too.

If you are interested in the story of the China Clippers and other flying boats, I also recommend the mini docudrama series Across the Pacific:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0887SGVPX/

And the fun movie China Clipper:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FGI69ZG/

Re: Plane accidentally flew around the world (2018)

#46

Post by ars » Tue, May 10, 2022, 10:54 PM UTC

Kind of an irrelevant question I suppose - but did they have to pay for the fuel at each stop? The way it's written the various bases gave them fuel and other things out of kindness.

Re: Plane accidentally flew around the world (2018)

#47

Post by Tijdreiziger » Tue, May 10, 2022, 11:31 PM UTC

samschooler wrote: post #41

fargle wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17018851 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15537891 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10804868

I'm sad the bottom two links are broken, its by far the best version. Here it is preserved https://web.archive.org/web/20170615134729/http://lapsedhist...

That seems like an older version of the present article to me.

Re: Plane accidentally flew around the world (2018)

#48

Post by GekkePrutser » Wed, May 11, 2022, 12:42 AM UTC

stuff4ben wrote: post #26

Am I the only one wondering why this hasn't been made into a movie? Nostalgia for that time period and a compelling tale. Just needs a love interest plot line and I think it'd do pretty well.

Why do historical movies always have to have a love story inserted into them? I don't get that.

Re: Plane accidentally flew around the world (2018)

#49

Post by rpmisms » Wed, May 11, 2022, 1:31 AM UTC

elnatro wrote: post #22

speeder wrote: post #19

I am kinda sad that the Brazillian part in that story is how they forced them to stay because of Yellow Fever, but then they stole stuff from inside the plane... The saddest part of this, is that I am not even surprised :( As Brazillian I deal all the time with online distrust with Brazillians, and often when people explain why they distrust us, I can't fault them, there are even online games where Brazillians have t…

Well, don’t read too much into that. There are rude people everywhere. From what I know, Brazil produces high-quality software developers/computer scientists (elixir and Lua come from Brazil). Of course there are big social issues in Brazil but… aren’t there in all western countries? Poverty, unemployment, violence (maybe Brazil is an outlier in this case), etc.

Brazil has smart people, but boy do they have a crime problem. Brazil is to the US as the US is to the UK when it comes to gun crime, for example.

Re: Plane accidentally flew around the world (2018)

#50

Post by not2b » Wed, May 11, 2022, 1:44 AM UTC

glonq wrote: post #12

I unexpectedly flew around the world once. Was supposed to do Canada-Germany-Dubai and then back again, but Lufthansa went on strike before my flight home so I ended up doing Canada-Germany-Dubai-China-Canada.

I've done San Francisco to Hong Kong to Bangalore, then back via Frankfurt to SFO, but that's not fully around the world, and neither was your route, because we didn't cross the equator or go 20,000 km (earth's circumference), just a Northern Hemisphere smaller circle. A route involving NYC and Aukland is the real thing, and considerably longer.