Wednesday, February 25, 2009

no accident

Some interesting stories have emerged from the recent plane crashes in New York. Two Blount County women have now met because they were both on the plane that crash landed in the Hudson River. The News Sentinel featured them on Sunday.

I was even more interested in the Florida family who avoided the fatal crash near Buffalo. A gate agent at Palm Beach International Airport rerouted them off Flight 3407 for two reasons. They missed the boarding call for their flight to Newark, where they would have gotten on the doomed plane. Rather than rush to catch their scheduled flight, the gate agent advised them to switch to a different airline. Turbulence and delays in Newark also factored into the decision.

My father used to say that he missed a deadly crash due to the Immaculate Reception. He regularly flew to Miami on business for Bacardi Rum. In 1972, he had plans to see the Dolphins in the AFC Championship game near the end of their undefeated season. Back then, the rules for which team hosted playoff games were different than today. Even with their record, the Dolphins were not guaranteed home field advantage. When Franco Harris made his improbable catch and helped the Steelers defeat the Raiders, it meant the Dolphins would have to travel to Pittsburgh the next week. The flight my father probably would have taken from New York to Miami, had the Dolphins hosted the Raiders, crashed into the Everglades on Friday, December 29, 1972.

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2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

This may have been the dumbest aviation accident ever. The crew was so occupied with a burned out light bulb on the nose gear indicator that they lost 2,000 ft of altitude and never checked the instruments.

The low altitude warning came 12 seconds before impact and the crew didn't touch the controls because they believed they were still at 2,000 ft.

103 people died.

2/27/2009  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Justice For The Clarence Center 50
Photos and biographies of the aircrash victims, links, and the full text of this message, can be found at:
http://indictsturgell.blogspot.com/2009/02/justice-for-clarence-50.html

America continues to learn that the victims of the Clarence Center aviation disaster were great people.

But one example:
The late “Dawn Monachino of Clarence typically drove 10 hours round-trip to Pennsylvania, every two weeks, to be with her mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease”.
http://www.buffalonews.com/516/story/581786.html

Dawn was a hero. So were her fellow passengers.

Quiet Rockland extends thoughts, sympathies, and prayers to families and friends of the victims of this horrible airplane crash which occurred near Buffalo, New York in the nearby hamlet of Clarence Center, Continental (Connections) Flight #3407, on Thursday/Friday, February 12/13, 2009.

The victims of the Flight #3407 crash were kind and decent people, with hopes and dreams. In their honor, we again call upon Congress, USDOT Secretary LaHood, and The President, to please fix the Federal Aviation Administration and restore a Culture of Safety to our aviation system.

3/01/2009  

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