The burnt-out hulk of Saudia Flight 163, circa August 1980. 301 people lost their lives on August 19, 1980 as a Lockheed L-1011 Tristar made an emergency landing due to an in-flight fire, and burst into flames before evacuation. It remains the deadliest accident involving a L-1011. [674 x 473]
Is that the one inwhich the crew were utter cretins (like literally & criminally so) & didn’t open the doors for about 40 minutes?
There’s an unvelievable quote of the first officer on that flight: a flight assistant comes into the cockpit & asks "may we evacuate the passengers?" … & he replies "when we’re on the ground – yes!".
Is it a sin that when I see a picture of a broken crashed aeroplane it makes me feel like weeping … but that reports of the casualties don’t do that?
Those scenes in which the fire engines are racing down the runway to catch-up with an emergencily landing aeroplane in some way stricken: it brings to mind the handmaidens hastening to the aid of a mighty & noble queen who’s just been stabbed by some assassin.
Update
I think the reason I don’t care about the fatalities but do care about the plane is that when a plane is in fight, it’s in its natural & proper environment … but the people who board the plane are making an outrageous (& possibly even blasphemous) presumption when they board a plane in order to fly in it. And, then if the plane crashes … always because it’s been sloppily serviced or mishandled by the crew (the human factor again!) survivors & the relatives of the fatalities are up-in-arms as though they have a divinely-conferred right not only to fly but to fly without risk! … & that is one of the barmiest conceits I have ever come-across. So for these reasons I care not one jot about the passengers who perish in these crashes.
SassyCoburgGoth
Is that the one inwhich the crew were utter cretins (like literally & criminally so) & didn’t open the doors for about 40 minutes?
There’s an unvelievable quote of the first officer on that flight: a flight assistant comes into the cockpit & asks "may we evacuate the passengers?" … & he replies "when we’re on the ground – yes!".
Is it a sin that when I see a picture of a broken crashed aeroplane it makes me feel like weeping … but that reports of the casualties don’t do that?
Those scenes in which the fire engines are racing down the runway to catch-up with an emergencily landing aeroplane in some way stricken: it brings to mind the handmaidens hastening to the aid of a mighty & noble queen who’s just been stabbed by some assassin.
Update
I think the reason I don’t care about the fatalities but do care about the plane is that when a plane is in fight, it’s in its natural & proper environment … but the people who board the plane are making an outrageous (& possibly even blasphemous) presumption when they board a plane in order to fly in it. And, then if the plane crashes … always because it’s been sloppily serviced or mishandled by the crew (the human factor again!) survivors & the relatives of the fatalities are up-in-arms as though they have a divinely-conferred right not only to fly but to fly without risk! … & that is one of the barmiest conceits I have ever come-across. So for these reasons I care not one jot about the passengers who perish in these crashes.