Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< This makes one believe that God is out there >>> I guess God just didn't love the people nearly as much that happened to be on all the troubled flights that crashed and were killed.
Originally Posted By DAR That's not what I meant, but if you should know there is a very nice streak going on: <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2009-01-11-airlinesafety_N.htm" target="_blank">http://www.usatoday.com/travel...ty_N.htm</a>
Originally Posted By Mr X I think that's a great thing. I would guess it has less to do with divine intervention than with increased vigilance, state of the art equipment, enhanced safety procedures, and excellent training. But then, you could just figure that God is more pleased with us these past couple of years than in times past (he's probably happy about slamming down all those gay marriages, and is rewarding America!). I hate to go all cynical on this one, because I really and truly do LOVE when stuff like this happens and the incredible efforts of many heroes results in a disaster averted. I LOVE it. Makes me feel great all around (I still do, even now days after the crash) about humanity and what we are capable of in the best of moments. But to claim it's "gods intervention" or something really does strike me as odd. It even sort of cheapens it as far as I'm concerned. Hearing blowhard Bill O'Reilly take the opportunity to insist that a miracle occured, and that the "godless" are stupid to think otherwise, does not make me feel any more religious about things to say the least (quite the opposite). What about all those folks who perished on that other crash out of New York just days after 9/11? Similar situation. Did they do something wrong or something? God sure wasn't helping out THAT day (some people died on the ground too!). Just sayin.
Originally Posted By dshyates Yoyu, know, the Mircle on the Hudson happened about an hour after Obama announced that he was going to end "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". And that gays could openly serve in the military. I guess God doesn't hate America and its gay lovin' ways anymore.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN The only reason why all of those people survived that water crash was because: 1) Pilot's professionalism putting the place down. 2) Flight attendant shouting brace commands to passengers to minimize the impact's forces on the body, and keeping the cabin "safe" for departure. (Keep this in mind the next time you feel the need to keep your carry on bags unstowed properly, seatbacks or tray tables down during the critical moments of any flight.) 3) The aircraft did not break apart upon hitting the water because... again a) pilot's professionalism and b) still waters on the Hudson at the moment of the accident. If the waters on the river had been rough (wavey or windy), the plane could have broken into separate pieces and trust me, not everyone would have made it out alive. 4) Flight attendants shouted commands as soon as the plane came to a stop and di what they were supposed to do in such type of water landings.. a) NOT open the back doors below the tail, to avoid the plane from going down like the Titanic, and b) FA's opened the front doors and deployed the raft/slides to maintain the plane's nose afloat, getting more valuable time to evacuate the passengers. God had nothing to do with this so-called "miracle". Otherwise, God would have prevented the birds from crashing into the plane in the first place. Proper training and perfect execution of emergency procedures, along with the best weather conditions possible, were the reasons why everyone made it out alive. On a humorous note.. go back and see the pictures of all passengers on the plane as they awaited rescue. Notice how all of the freely upgraded Fisrt Class passengers were seating comfortably on the rafts, while the main cabin pukes were waiting on the wings, with water up to their knees, hoping for the best. Moral to the story: it pays to be a frequent flyer and getting those free upgrades to First Class.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< On a humorous note.. go back and see the pictures of all passengers on the plane as they awaited rescue. Notice how all of the freely upgraded Fisrt Class passengers were seating comfortably on the rafts, while the main cabin pukes were waiting on the wings, with water up to their knees, hoping for the best. Moral to the story: it pays to be a frequent flyer and getting those free upgrades to First Class. >>> To adapt a couple of lines from the movie "Titanic:" "More than half the people on this airplane won't have room in a liferaft!" "Not the better half!"
Originally Posted By TDLFAN The truth is.. on the A320, there is 1/3rd over capacity on the rafts based on a load of approx 160 passengers. However, in a water ditching, the two aft door slide/rafts are not usable since the tail's weight sinks the door's lower edge below water. Therefore those doors are NOT to be opened at all.
Originally Posted By Mr X Which begs the question..why do they have rafts attached to doors that shouldn't be opened in water. Duh. Nice piece of engineering right there Boeing/Airbus/whoever. Anyway, one of the stewardesses actually DID try to open the back door. She was unable, and then told the hapless passengers to move forward. Lucky for them she failed. Well trained indeed. lol.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< The truth is.. on the A320, there is 1/3rd over capacity on the rafts based on a load of approx 160 passengers. However, in a water ditching, the two aft door slide/rafts are not usable since the tail's weight sinks the door's lower edge below water. Therefore those doors are NOT to be opened at all. >>> In what situation other than a water ditching would you need to use the aft slides as rafts? I can't think of any. If there aren't any others, then counting the aft slides as part of the raft capacity seems inappropriate.
Originally Posted By dshyates I believe I heard on the news that the plane was equipped with a "ditch switch". This switch closed vents on the bottom of the plane and diasbled the the rear doors. Captain "Sully" utilized the switch.
Originally Posted By Mr X thank goodness. otherwise the actions of that stewardess could've made things much worse! (I can understand how one would panic though..I sure would be trying to open the nearest door!)
Originally Posted By LPFan22 ~~~God had nothing to do with this so-called "miracle". Otherwise, God would have prevented the birds from crashing into the plane in the first place. Proper training and perfect execution of emergency procedures, along with the best weather conditions possible, were the reasons why everyone made it out alive.~~~ God had everything to do with how it all took place... from the birds and the weather to who was on the plane and where they were seated. Everyone on that plane had the free will to follow all of the safety procedures and that's what they did. Good for them. Good for God.
Originally Posted By Mr X Thus God had everything to do with air disasters that resulted in everyone perishing, too. Right?
Originally Posted By vbdad55 sorry - he's no longer in office is he ? just thought I'd beat someone to that
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder How do we know the flight attendant tried to open the rear doors?
Originally Posted By fkurucz <<Thus God had everything to do with air disasters that resulted in everyone perishing, too.>> If there is a God and an after life, then dying really isn't a big deal. It can be unpleasant however. Does God just let things run of their own accord or does He intervene in everything (or is it somewhere in between?). Who knows.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN >>I believe I heard on the news that the plane was equipped with a "ditch switch". This switch closed vents on the bottom of the plane and diasbled the the rear doors. Captain "Sully" utilized the switch.<< That is correct. Also, for the information of some ignorant person here, the flight attendants ARE trained to evaluate every possible exit regardless of the exit being used or not, and this is to make sure every possible way of escape is available to them. If she did not open the back door is because (based on the briefing I have recieved from the incident) she clearly saw that it was un-usable... so if her making a good call on it is a mistake, then those passengers were lucky to have her on board, as opposed to some erratic passenger that would have tried to opened the door no matter what. <--that is the type of people that usually get seats at the emergency door exits. SuperDry, all slides used on most new commercial planes (with the exception of some older ones) are designed to be used as both water rafts and slides (for land evacuations). That is the only reason why they are also found installed in the back doors of all planes. Only the emergency procedures depending on the emergency at hand change.
