Just seconds after takeoff from DC’s National Airport, Air Florida Flight 90 hit the Fourteenth Street Bridge like a wrecking ball, destroying seven cars, killing four people, and tearing away a section of the bridge wall. The plane broke into a dozen pieces on impact.
The anniversary has me thinking back to the story of one person who happened by the crash site on Jan. 13, 1982. The man who jumped into the river when no one of sound mind would. From the heroism chapter of The Unthinkable:
The snow started out lovely, blurring the edges of Washington’s hard…
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Yesterday, I did an interview on NPR’s Talk of the Nation about the Northwest airline overflight. I was amazed, as I often am when listening to NPR, at the callers they got. In a half hour, we heard from two commercial pilots, one smoke jumper, one bus driver, a boat captain and a trucker—all of whom admitted that they struggle mightily with distraction. One of the most memorable recitations of typical distractions came from Paul the Bus Driver:
PAUL: “...[Y]ou’ve got a dispatcher…
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Yesterday, federal investigators interviewed the pilots of the Northwest plane that overshot its Minneapolis-St. Paul destination by 110 miles last week. So far, some people have been skeptical of the pilots’ vague explanation to date: that they got distracted during a heated discussion about airline policy and lost track of time.
But I don’t find that explanation hard to buy, personally. This problem is well-known to pilots. So well-known that they have a name for it—“task saturation”—as well as specialized training to try to avoid it.
The brain works on one thing…
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I’ve heard from a few people today who are wondering what to make of the child survivor of the Yemeni plane crash in the Indian Ocean.
It’s not yet clear how old the child is (early reports said the child was 5—and male; more recent reports point to a 14-year-old girl), and This child is now said to be a 14-year-old girl, but we know little else at the moment. Still, it seems like a good excuse to talk about how children fare in plane crashes in general.
The answer: not well, alas. But…
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When I first heard the news of Turkish Airlines flight 1951 crashing upon landing at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, I couldn’t help but think: “Another one?” Indeed, the crash of Flight 1951 makes for three plane accidents in an incredibly short period. With the onslaught of survivor stories and the revolving cycle of disturbing images, it’s hard not to let it go to straight to your amygdala.
But it’s important to remember the silver lining in all of this. Two out of three of these accidents had few or no fatalities. Continue Reading »
It’s no secret that the crash of Flight 3407 may have been weather related. Recordings reveal that Capt. Marvin Renslow and copilot Rebecca Shaw both commented on the plane’s ice buildup, thus activating the plane’s de-icing system. According to USA Today, the NTSB warned the FAA that icing prevention rules aren’t always adequate:
In response, the FAA mandated that newly designed aircraft receive improved testing in icing conditions. But the agency has not required that existing models receive the new testing.
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Why does Capt. Sully seem so bummed out?
“One of the hardest things for me to do was to forgive myself for having not done something better, something…more complete,” he told 60 Minutes. “The first few nights were the worst, when the what-ifs started. The second guessings. Just replaying it—flashbacks. Were we aware of everything we could have been aware of? Did we make the best choices?”
It’s a reminder that trauma is insidious. It can happen with or without death, with or without loss. The brain works by identifying patterns, and it’s an elegant system. If we can…
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A few more thoughts on the details emerging from the crash of US Air 1549 into the Hudson. I was struck by Capt. Sully’s comment about the way he felt when he realized he had lost both engines. He said this to Katie Couric the other day:
“The physiological reaction I had to this was strong, and I had to force myself to use my training and force calm on the situation.”
He didn’t go into detail about the physical symptoms, but we know from research into the brain in high stress environments what he probably experienced:
If Sully…
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