Inciting fear and panic in flyers - Washington Post strikes again

wsuffa

wsuffa

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Bill S.
It was a go around for heaven's sake. A routine go-around....

Instead, with a mighty roar of engines, the plane rocketed into a steep climb.

The gasps on board were mirrored by the reaction in the airport waiting area as the underbelly of the climbing plane seemed to skim just overhead.

The remarkable thing about the aborted landing of Alaska Airlines Flight 6 from Los Angeles last week was that it wasn’t remarkable at all; it happens regularly at National. Another plane was sitting on the runway, and air-traffic controllers gave the pilot prudent instructions to keep everyone safe.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/local...common/2010/09/20/AFJz39xB_story.html?hpid=z3
 
wsuffa said:
It was a go around for heaven's sake. A routine go-around....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local...common/2010/09/20/AFJz39xB_story.html?hpid=z3
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Where do newspapers find these drama queens to quote? I'd think passenger manifests aren't available for newspapers to seek these people out...

Cooley’s experience, which left people on board shaken and caused a woman in the next row to say her “life flashed before her,”...

Seiously, how do these people cope with life on a daily basis? Double down on the Depakote when the kid at Starbuck's forgets the sprinkles?
 
"OMG we're getting hijacked we're gonna die". Sigh.

Mandatory universal miliatary service should once again be a requirement.
 
Instead, with a mighty roar of engines, the plane rocketed into a steep climb.

The gasps on board were mirrored by the reaction in the airport waiting area as the underbelly of the climbing plane seemed to skim just overhead.
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Ah yes, journalists -- wannabe novelists. :rolleyes:
 
Do tires really thud on tarmac? Have I been forgetting to brace myself?
 
If you're the type of person whose "life flashes before your eyes" because of a balked landing, the life that flashes by must be very dull indeed.
 
ScottM said:
They are standing right next to the guy who is talking about how the TSA is keeping everyone safe from terrorists.
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I guess I could see how the newspaper editor might send the overnight reported to National to interview the people from the sleeping controller incident. But WaPo also quoted a person on a flight that went around 10 days earlier. How did the reporter find that person?
 
I've seen go-arounds at National. They can be nail biters, especially if you are seeing it from the end of the runway - hard to tell what the separation is. One of them I knew was going to be a go-around because the plane was higher than it should have been if it were actually landing, as I saw it go overhead (I was standing at the end of the runway).

If I saw two jetliners trying to take up the same runway at similar times I'd gasp too. I'd say that is a pretty normal reaction to seeing something unusual happen, regardless of how commonplace it is for those people who see this all the time/have done it themselves. Who knows how close this one was.
 
Sometimes I see people skiing who are afraid to go down, or off, something that I think is rudimentary. I don't make fun of them, though.
 
Another plane was sitting on the runway, and air-traffic controllers gave the pilot prudent instructions to keep everyone safe.
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It's hilarious how it's assumed that the pilots will just keep going and ram right into another plane, building, mountain or anything else if ATC doesn't tell them to do otherwise.
Do the reporters truly believe that pilots don't have a functioning brain and will kamikaze into something unless they're told to do otherwise?
 
woodstock said:
I've seen go-arounds at National. Who knows how close this one was.
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I've been on the plane for go'rounds at DCA. Other than threading the river, it really is no big deal. You get 10 more minutes in the air. Within the last couple of years, I've been on the plane for go arounds at ATL (twice, including one involving a TS cell over the other runway and heavy wind gusts, which was pretty 'interesting'), MCI (twice), and IAD. No big deal, and the captain made an announcement when things in the cockpit were in order.

I've also been on rejected take-offs at DCA.... that's a bit more interesting when the pilot uses the entire length of the runway.

Obi Heed Kenobi said:
Sometimes I see people skiing who are afraid to go down, or off, something that I think is rudimentary. I don't make fun of them, though.
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My comment was about the journalism, not the pax comments.
 
How small of a gap do the big boys need for wake turbulence avoidance?
 
Bill -- you're completely right: this type "reporting" is better left to People or TMZ.

Journalism becomes gossip when Who, What, When, Where, and Why is replaced with "So, how did you feel?"
 
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