TERROR AT 38,000 FEET!!!
- Thread starter Squiggy
- Start date
There but for the grace of god. It could have been much worse.
If the maintenance were adequate, shouldn't they have been able to spot something so catastrophic as the plane coming apart at the bloody seams?!
If the maintenance were adequate, shouldn't they have been able to spot something so catastrophic as the plane coming apart at the bloody seams?!
But it didn't come apart. If this incident shows us anything it's that fuselages should be sufficiently robust to not fall apart, similar to the Airbus A320 landing in the river Hudson and the Boeing 777 which came up short of the runway because of double engine failure at Heathrow.
To be fair, I don't know the spin characteristics of the big jetliners. I suspect they're pretty bad. However, strictly speaking, a stall isn't a big deal; it can feel a bit scary, but all pilots are trained in stall recovery routinely. If a stall is uncoordinated it can turn into a spin, and some spins may be unrecoverable depending on airplane characteristics; that's when it becomes a big deal.
If anything, that plane will probably undergo the most thorough inspection of the fleet. The flight after the accident is always the safest, after all.
Squig, I see they gave you two roundtrip passes. Where can you go with them? Can you just pick any destination? Or are they for the same place as the original flight?
Me, I don't know what I'd do if this happened on a flight I was on. It might put me off that airline altogether. I've done it for much more trivial reasons (I refuse to fly Midwest ever again, and that's just because I hate the fucking Milwaukee airport
). If you have been having the kind of post traumatic effects that you described, are you actually going to use the passes? I don't know if I could. I'd probably be too freaked out.
Then again, in this economy, free airline passes are always a plus...
The passes are two roundtrip tickets for where ever Southwest flies.
I was serious about planning to go to Vegas in a few weeks. There's a Trek convention out there the second weekend in August and a friend of mine wanted me to meet her out there for gambling, geeking, and sex. So, I could use one for that and the other one for flying back home at Christmas. That'll help around the holidays.
Now, will I actually do that considering some emotions that are beginning to develop? I don't know yet. I won't know until next week probably.
Honestly, as far as aircraft malfunctions go, a small hole in the airframe is fairly minor.
Good thing for you that I *do* know how an airline repairs damage! Back in college, I used to co-op with a major airline as an engineer in their repair facility. First, let me tell you that the SRMs (Standard Repair Manuals) will cover a *lot* of different situations, and this one looks to me like it would fall into that category. Damage that wasn't covered by this had to be analyzed by the engineers and a repair is written that has to adhere to FAA guidelines. Also, the skin panel in this area is most likely about 30 feet long and wraps around the entire upper half of the aircraft, so it's not feasible to replace the panel.
In this case, you'd start by putting a patch of skin back where the damage was cut out. Then, you put a repair doubler over that which is one gauge thicker than the repaired skin, which would be 0.032+0.032 = 0.064" -> 0.071" thick. There would need to be at least a double row of fasteners attaching the doubler to the undamaged part of the skin, more as needed to account for the running loads through the skin. Plus, the doubler would be bonded to the skin, but the strength of that bond is not typically accounted for in the analysis.
Basically, you end up replacing the lost strength of the skin in that area, but with extra margins of safety to account for the discontinuities due to it no longer being a "pristine" skin.
Squig, I see they gave you two roundtrip passes. Where can you go with them? Can you just pick any destination? Or are they for the same place as the original flight?
Me, I don't know what I'd do if this happened on a flight I was on. It might put me off that airline altogether. I've done it for much more trivial reasons (I refuse to fly Midwest ever again, and that's just because I hate the fucking Milwaukee airport
Then again, in this economy, free airline passes are always a plus...
The passes are two roundtrip tickets for where ever Southwest flies.
I was serious about planning to go to Vegas in a few weeks. There's a Trek convention out there the second weekend in August and a friend of mine wanted me to meet her out there for gambling, geeking, and sex. So, I could use one for that and the other one for flying back home at Christmas. That'll help around the holidays.
Now, will I actually do that considering some emotions that are beginning to develop? I don't know yet. I won't know until next week probably.
Sounds like that trip to Vegas might be just the thing to help you fly again - lots of incentive to travel there
Indeed. And I just realized I posted this:
A year ago Tuesday in the Sombrero thread.
Oh, oh...will we get neat pictures of the convention from Vegas???
Please say we will get neat pictures.
Since I can't afford conventions much any more even here, I have to live vicariously.
Besides, Squiggyfm you could let it slip that you are the "guy from the plane" and who knows what great heap of goodies you could pull off....the cool geek factor (no it is NOT oxymoronic,
it can work occasionally) of this thread alone could get you a spotlight moment.
Just remember, you do have to get back on the horse and it always helps to take a deep breath. Good luck.
Please say we will get neat pictures.
Since I can't afford conventions much any more even here, I have to live vicariously.
Besides, Squiggyfm you could let it slip that you are the "guy from the plane" and who knows what great heap of goodies you could pull off....the cool geek factor (no it is NOT oxymoronic,
it can work occasionally) of this thread alone could get you a spotlight moment.Just remember, you do have to get back on the horse and it always helps to take a deep breath. Good luck.
That's the twilight zone episode Squiggy mentions in the CNN interview (that's not a sentence I thought I'd be writing
) - the thing in the window is from the TZ episode, sombreros artist's own though Freaky that you did that a year ago though, Squiggy!
That's the twilight zone episode Squiggy mentions in the CNN interview (that's not a sentence I thought I'd be writing
The world has become a strange & disturbing place...
Has anyone PS'd Squiggy's face over Shatners yet in that screencap?
^Just do it yourself
That's beyond my "talents."
Indeed. And I just realized I posted this:
A year ago Tuesday in the Sombrero thread.
oh my
from ntsb advisory..
^ So it really may have been a Wombat assassination attempt? 
Maybe so, but if that hole is ripped open right above your head at 38000 ft you might have a different take on it.
^ So it really may have been a Wombat assassination attempt?
or rather it was the gremlin.
ntsb investigator knocks on the door..
now mr squiggy what did you say about a gremlin??
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