Portland plane steers toward path of other airliner. Federal officials are investigating

Neither the FAA, Alaska Airlines nor SkyWest publicized the Portland incident. But it drew attention online this week from a YouTube account that posted the flight locations overlapped with air traffic audio. The video has been viewed 59,000 times and includes more than 300 comments analyzing the incident, including from people who claim to have experience in flying and air traffic control.

The incident occurred around 4:15 p.m. Monday, the FAA said. The visibility in Portland was three quarters of a mile, with heavy rain and mist, according to archived weather information from the National Weather Service in Portland. The downpour released a quarter inch of rain around the time the Alaska flight approached the airport.

The plane aborted its landing due to wind, the FAA said, initiating what’s known in the industry as a “go-around.” Flight records show the Alaska flight dropped to an elevation of 100 feet before ascending.

Meanwhile, SkyWest Airlines flight 3978 lifted off from the parallel runway.

+++ more details in linked article at top +++

Airlines rarely comment on this sort of event, which are, sadly, all too common (in the US). Many possible causes for it, but I can't help thinking trying to fit a quart into a pint pot and poor communications skills (talk, don't gable) are somewhere in the mix.

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

I don't think he will be behind the controls of any plane for a while...
An off-duty pilot tried to take control of Alaska Airlines flight before being subdued, source and airline say

An off-duty pilot riding as a passenger in the cockpit of an Alaska Airlines flight Sunday tried to seize control of the plane headed from Seattle to San Francisco, forcing the flight to divert to Portland, Oregon, according to the airline and a source familiar with the matter.

A pilot assigned to the flight told air traffic controllers a person riding in the cockpit of flight 2059 attempted to turn off the aircraft’s engines in flight. Pilots will occasionally ride a cockpit “jump seat” when traveling in an official capacity or commuting to another airport.

I don't think he will be behind the controls of any plane for a while...

Or any other commercial vehicle as I'm sure his medical is now revoked. Personalty I hope they find a reason that is 100% treatable.

He's facing something like 160 charges so his freedom is going to be somewhat restricted for sometime. Keep your eyes & ears open for Blancolirio view on the matter on YouTube.

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Not what you expect on the roads in Cumbria.

Interesting to note that near the end there it appears that English farmers are similar to Australian farmers- they both think their skulls are indestructible, and helmets are just annoying decorations. Hence the bloke on the quad with no helmet.

---

Grant
Darwin NT

Trains collide.

Bangladesh: Goods train collides with passenger train killing 17.

As well as ships with 1 sinking.

One dead after ships collide in North Sea.

And a pile of people not driving to the conditions yet again.

'Super fog': At the scene of deadly 158-car pile-up near New Orleans.

Casket with body inside ejected from hearse during collision with stolen car

When officers arrived at the scene, they learned the collision involved a Cadillac funeral hearse and a silver Kia reported stolen out of Chicago Heights. The Kia was traveling southbound on Kedzie Ave. at a high rate of speed when it struck the hearse that was heading eastbound on 183rd St.

Village officials say a casket that contained a person's body was ejected from the hearse, and that three individuals exited the Kia and ran from the scene.

One of individuals was located and taken into custody

.

Back on Oct 4 an Airbus A321-253NX on a positioning flight from Stansted had to return to Stansted after 35min due to problems with some of its windows.
During the flight the crew had only been aware of an issue with a single windowpane, after landing the crew inspected the aircraft from the outside and saw that two cabin windowpanes were missing and a third was dislodged, all on the left-hand side of the aircraft. Further inspection revealed damage to the left horizontal stabiliser.

The initial investigation has the found that the cause of the faulty windows was filming done the day before the flight.
There were 12 lighting assemblies (6 on either side) aimed at the centre section, around 6-9 metres from the aircraft. Each one was rated at 12kW- so 72kW on each side.

Interestingly the datasheet for the light assemblies is a bit odd. The minimum distance to a flammable object is 1.5 m.
The minimum distance to the illuminated object is given as 10m

AAIB special notice.

---

Grant
Darwin NT

Don't these film people know that we have LEDs in the 21st century and that we have to save electricity to save the climate? What kind of dinosaurs are these people?

Don't these film people know that we have LEDs in the 21st century and that we have to save electricity to save the climate? What kind of dinosaurs are these people?

But LED do not emit a continuous spectrum needed for photographic film. However I suspect that it will be determined that the light emitted copious photons at some wavelength that damaged some plastic component of the window. This is a photo chemical failure. A heat failure is also possible but the surprise is no other heat damage reported. One might wonder about parked aircraft in the desert too. The final report is going to be interesting.

One nearly in Wiggo's back yard :-(
"It just fell out of the sky" :-(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oWUiLVz-cg

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Apparent Tech Bus Accident Damages Multiple Cars on Castro Street

San Francisco has pretty much gotten over its outward animosity toward tech buses, but a handful of people who were parked on Castro Street Monday morning have fresh reason to be resentful of the tech bus shuttles. A Monday morning Reddit post asking “Why have the police closed Castro Street?” brought numerous commenters saying things along the lines of “A tech bus plowed down the hill backwards through a bunch of traffic.” KPIX has confirmed that a commuter bus struck multiple vehicles on Castro between 20th and 21st streets, and adds that at least one person was injured.

Is this another accident waiting to happen?
GPS Tool to Warn of Local Crash Risks

A Google-owned map tool will now warn drivers about known accident hotspots. But the information might not be all that useful for now.

The new feature uses what Google is hyping as an "artificial intelligence" tool to predict locations with a risk of crashes. It will combine multiple sources including historical crash data, traffic levels, the type of road and user reports. (Source: blog.google)

Users will see an alert if their route is about to take them through a "crash-prone road". The idea is that this will mean they exercise extra caution and pay more attention than normal.

If having the pavement braking up is a problem for road vehicles, it's an even bigger problem for aircraft.



That was the result of the engines ramping up to take off power, and blasting (what can only be described as a shoddy job) the asphalt off of the ground, and as the inset image shows- resulting in chunks of it landing on the aircraft.
Aborted take-off due to runway damage

---

Grant
Darwin NT

Another case of inattentive driving? "-(

Ohio high school mourns band members, parents and teacher killed in multivehicle crash.

An Ohio high school is mourning three students, two parent chaperones and a teacher who were killed in a multivehicle crash while traveling with the school band to a “once in a lifetime” performance Tuesday morning, the Tuscarawas Valley Local Schools superintendent said.

More than 50 students and chaperones were traveling in a charter bus that became entangled in the fiery mid-morning wreck on Interstate 70 in Etna, about 20 miles from their destination in Columbus, state authorities said....


.....While it is still unclear how the wreck unfolded, officials have a rough idea of where the vehicles were when the incident occurred, Homendy explained.

“The motorcoach (carrying students) was traveling westbound on I-70 near Etna. Behind the motorcoach was an SUV carrying passengers that were traveling with the group in the motorcoach,” she said. “They had approached a traffic queue that resulted from an earlier crash on I-70, and a tractor-trailer approached behind the SUV.”...

Myth busted:


Do electric cars pose a greater fire risk than petrol or diesel vehicles?



Such is the lobbying game of sensationalism masquerading for journalism?...

Stay safer folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Myth busted:

Do electric cars pose a greater fire risk than petrol or diesel vehicles?

But do please read to the end:

Any caveats?
The reason for the belief that electric cars are more fire-prone becomes clearer when you watch a video of one: they can be furious infernos.

Paul Christensen, a professor of pure and applied electrochemistry at Newcastle University, studies batteries and helps to train fire brigades. He highlights the ominous risks of “vapour cloud explosions and rocket flames” when the gases burst out of cells.

However, Christensen said the electric car’s reputation was being tarnished by their lithium ion cousins. He has real concerns with electric scooters and bikes that use similar technology but often from unregulated, inexperienced manufacturers, or even DIY jobs using internet-sourced parts. (He advises people never to leave scooters charging indoors or unattended.)

There is also a definite puzzle for firefighters, as battery fires require more water to put out, can burn almost three times hotter, and are more likely to reignite, according to EV FireSafe. Some fire departments have experimented with complete immersion of electric cars in water tanks.

The verdict
Despite the increased danger once a battery fire is burning, the probability of being caught in an EV fire appears overall to be much lower than for petrol or diesel cars, based on currently available data – although this could change as more people get electric cars.

Walker said it was possible that the prevalence of fires in EVs could increase as the average age of batteries on the roads increases. However, at this point, it appears that they would have to multiply by many times to be worse than internal combustion engines.

So, if EVs are concentrated in countries where there is lots of solar power - i.e. arid or near-desert regions - don't expect the fire brigade to carry enough water to put them out, should one catch fire.

You have to join all the dots ...

Given the crack in this thing it must be sitting on its landing gear in shallow water and certainly isn't floating as some reports state. It's just lucky no one was killed and so far there are no reported injuries.

See a plane that landed in the water after it overshot the runway in Hawaii.


Cheers.