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[Spineker]

What the fuck is going on?

 

[andthebeatgoeson]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_commercial_aircraft

In 2010, I counted 27. For this year, including this crash, I count 7 and the year is half way over.

The circumstances around 2 of the crashes are horrific (maylasia flights) but if that rate status the same, we may not equal 2010. So, I would conclude it's the timing and circumstances.

 

[Sickboy007]

People.

This makes no sense to me, it should be hours of flight vs. hours in a motor vehicle.

 

[mckmas8808]

Another one?

 

[Mac_Lane]

According to Algerian officials, the plane has crashed...

 

[Tc91]

Sky News Newsdesk ‏@SkyNewsBreak 19m
Reuters: Algerian official says missing #AirAlgerie flight en route from Burkina Faso to Algiers has crashed #AH5017

 

[Deleted member 231381]

According to Algerian officials, the plane has crashed...

According to Air Algerie officials, to be precise, rather than Algerian government officials.

 

[andthebeatgoeson]

This makes no sense to me, it should be hours of flight vs. hours in a motor vehicle.

Why time? Harder to track time. Distance can be accurately measured. And some of those means of travel have regulated speeds. So time may throw you off.

 

[Arkanius]

Any survivors?
Depending on the type of crash, there could have been a semi-safe landing.

 

[KingSnake]

Were there weather concerns prior to the flight? If so it should have remained grounded.

Normally the planes just need to avoid the core of storm in their flight path. MD83 is quite an old model and depends also what kind of weather radar has as storms can change their direction suddenly and pilots need to react and change course. And it seems that the pilot asked for a course change, we'll find out what happened after that.

 

[The perfect Dark]

This makes no sense to me, it should be hours of flight vs. hours in a motor vehicle.

Yep, you can't compare flight accidents with car/motorcycle accidents.
It's something different.
I don't trust airplanes, I don't trust one human being having control over a plane with 300 people in it (for hours). Nope, I'm not going to fly.

If something happens you can "say goodbye".

 

[s_mirage]

I don't trust airplanes, I don't trust one human being having control over a plane with 300 people in it (for hours). Nope, I'm not going to fly.

Most of the time it's not one person though, it's two. Two and an autopilot that is used extensively.

 

[KingSnake]

Yep, you can't compare flight accidents with car/motorcycle accidents.
It's something different.
I don't trust airplanes, I don't trust one human being having control over a plane with 300 people in it (for hours). Nope, I'm not going to fly.

If something happens you can "say goodbye".

In most of the plane incidents the pilot still has enough time to react and try to save the plane, while in car accidents it's just a matter of seconds. For each plane crash there are a lot of stories of planes saved by good pilots in some unbelievable conditions.

 

[King_Moc]

Yep, you can't compare flight accidents with car/motorcycle accidents.
It's something different.
I don't trust airplanes, I don't trust one human being having control over a plane with 300 people in it (for hours). Nope, I'm not going to fly.

If something happens you can "say goodbye".

I'm a bit like this, but I fly anyway. I just do so while utterly terrified.

Anyway, I hope the pilot managed to glide to a relatively safe landing.

 

[Sickboy007]

Why time? Harder to track time. Distance can be accurately measured. And some of those means of travel have regulated speeds. So time may throw you off.

It just doesn't make sense. Following the same logic, we could argue that the Apollo missions were safer than driving in a car.

 

[Betty]

People.

.

 

[ZeroAKA]

This isn't making me feel better about my 13-hour flight tomorrow. :/

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

what is going on

 

[King_Moc]

.

Actually, no: http://www.planecrashinfo.com/cause.htm

 

[Opus Angelorum]

.

http://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/safetystudies/SR0101.pdf

Surprisingly survival rates can be very (95.7%) high:

 

[Betty]

Actually, no: http://www.planecrashinfo.com/cause.htm

http://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/safetystudies/SR0101.pdf

Surprisingly survival rates can be very (95.7%) high:

Well okay then, I took down the comment in case it upsets anyone, but it's good to see facts say otherwise about plane crashes being as deadly as we think.

 

[Opus Angelorum]

Well okay then, I took down the comment in case it upsets anyone, but it's good to see facts say otherwise about plane crashes being as deadly as we think.

I caught your edit but I thought it was worth posting for anyone else in the thread

 

[King_Moc]

Well okay then, I took down the comment in case it upsets anyone, but it's good to see facts say otherwise about plane crashes being as deadly as we think.

The best survival rates are right at the back, so sit there

 

[Opus Angelorum]

The best survival rates are right at the back, so sit there

Indeed:

...a study by Popular Mechanics, carried out in 2007. The magazine analysed all crashes since 1971 and found that those in rear seats (behind the wing’s trailing edge) were safest – survival rates were 69 per cent as opposed to 56 per cent over the wing and 49 per cent for those at the front of the plane.

 

[Jimmyfenix]

Oh no

 

[marrec]

The best survival rates are right at the back, so sit there

Indeed:

I will totally roll the dice and sit nearer the front to be less inconvenienced by turbulence.

 

[Betty]

I caught your edit but I thought it was worth posting for anyone else in the thread

It's cool, I saw the person's comment below mine and thought maybe folk who're flying don't want to read what I have to say.

The best survival rates are right at the back, so sit there

Good to know.

 

[Opus Angelorum]

I will totally roll the dice and sit nearer the front to be less inconvenienced by turbulence.

You are 20% braver than me

 

[King_Moc]

I will totally roll the dice and sit nearer the front to be less inconvenienced by turbulence.

I'd that right? I HATE turbulence. It reminds me that I'm in a flimsy metal tube 7 miles up in the air.

 

[Slayer-33]

I don't understand why they don't come up with a universal parachute system for these god damned airplanes (arrest decent or some shit)

 

[Opus Angelorum]

I don't understand why they don't come up with a universal parachute system for these god damned airplanes (arrest decent or some shit)

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20131223-should-planes-have-parachutes

To safely bring down a big commercial airliner such as a Boeing 747 with about 500 people on board, there would have to be 21 parachutes each the size of a football field, says Popov. “It takes about a square foot (0.1sq m) of material to bring down one pound (0.5kg) of aircraft.”

Popov is a member of the UK Civil Aviation Authority.

 

[Halcyon]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/24/us-algeria-flight-idUSKBN0FT0YK20140724

(Reuters) - An Air Algerie flight crashed on Thursday en route from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso to Algiers with 110 passengers on board, an Algerian aviation official said.

There were few clear indications of what might of happened to the aircraft, or whether there were casualties, but Burkino Faso Transport Minister Jean Bertin Ouedrago said it asked to change route at 0138 GMT (9.38 p.m. EDT) because of a storm in the area.

"I can confirm that it has crashed," the Algerian official told Reuters, declining to be identified or give any details about what had happened to the aircraft on its way north.

Almost half of the passengers were French citizens, an airline official said.

Two French fighter jets based in the region have been dispatched to try to locate the airliner along its probable route, a French army spokesman said. Niger security sources said planes were flying over the border region with Mali to search for the flight.

Algeria's state news agency APS said authorities lost contact with flight AH 5017 an hour after it took off from Burkina Faso, but other officials gave differing accounts of the times of contact, adding to confusion about the plane's fate.

Swiftair, the private Spanish company that owns the plane, confirmed it had lost contact with the MD-83 operated by Air Algerie, which it said was carrying 110 passengers and six crew.

A diplomat in the Malian capital Bamako said that the north of the country - which lies on the plane's likely flight path - was struck by a powerful sandstorm overnight.

Whatever the cause, another plane crash is likely to add to nerves in the industry after a Malaysia Airlines plane was downed over Ukraine last week, a TransAsia Airways crashed off Taiwan during a thunderstorm on Wednesday and airlines canceled flights into Tel Aviv due to the conflict in Gaza.

An Air Algerie representative in Burkina Faso, Kara Terki, told a news conference that all the passengers on the plane were in transit, either for Europe, the Middle East or Canada.

He said the passenger list included 50 French, 24 Burkinabe, eight Lebanese, four Algerians, two from Luxembourg, one Belgian, one Swiss, one Nigerian, one Cameroonian, one Ukrainian and one Romanian. Lebanese officials said there were at least 10 Lebanese citizens on the flight.

A spokeswoman for SEPLA, Spain’s pilots union, said the six crew were from Spain. She could not give any further details.

 

[ratcliffja]

I can't tell if this is just a case of the media following a trend of reporting more crashes or if there really are an unusual amount of plane crashes lately.

 

[infinityBCRT]

People.

That graph shows that you're almost 50% more likely to die in a plane over the same distance traveled in a car (Risk based on exposure)

 

[Konka]

I can't tell if this is just a case of the media following a trend of reporting more crashes or if there really are an unusual amount of plane crashes lately.

The two highest profile crashes this year happened under bizarre circumstances. That is why it's so prevalent.

 

[-Plasma Reus-]

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20131223-should-planes-have-parachutes



Popov is a member of the UK Civil Aviation Authority.

What about individual passengers?

 

[marrec]

I can't tell if this is just a case of the media following a trend of reporting more crashes or if there really are an unusual amount of plane crashes lately.

With something like deadly plane crashes, the media ALWAYS reports them.

There have been more recently, but it's not something that should alarm anyone flying as it's still a very small percentage of planes in the air and they're all unconnected. It's not like there's a rash of engine failures in specific planes or a bunch of planes being shot down by terrorists or anything.

 

[Opus Angelorum]

That graph shows that you're almost 50% more likely to die in a plane over the same distance traveled in a car (Risk based on exposure)

Not quite:

http://www.phmsa.dot.gov/portal/site/PHMSA/menuitem.6f23687cf7b00b0f22e4c6962d9c8789/?vgnextoid=8524adbb3c60d110VgnVCM1000009ed07898RCRD&vgnextchannel=4f347fd9b896b110VgnVCM1000009ed07898RCRD&vgnextfmt=print

Deaths per passenger mile should also be considered as a basic risk measure when comparing risks amongst various modes of transportation. Since the average number of passengers in an aircraft far exceeds the average number of passengers in a motor vehicle, the passenger mile risk of air carrier transportation is significantly less than that of motor vehicle transportation.

 

[jmdajr]

Planes. Stop it!

 

[Opus Angelorum]

What about individual passengers?

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/3141/why-don-t-commercial-jets-have-parachutes

Analyzing 49 years of fatal aviation accidents, Boeing found 12 percent happened on the ground, 20 percent while the aircraft was taking off or on its initial climb, and 36 percent while the aircraft was in final descent or landing. So less than a third of the fatal accidents occurred at a point in the flight when parachute use might have been feasible...

 

[The_Inquisitor]

Wreckage found according to twitter. Damn.

 

[Opus Angelorum]

Wreckage found according to twitter. Damn.

Yup (unconfirmed):

The French forces stationed in Mali have detected the wreckage AH5017 halfway between Gao and Kidal, in a very inaccessible desert area.

 

[RustyNails]

What an utterly shit day to wake up.

 

[Kacho]

Damn. RIP

 

[-Plasma Reus-]

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/3141/why-don-t-commercial-jets-have-parachutes

And I always felt the safest when the plane is taking off. Those are very interesting statistics.

 

[Gr1mLock]

What the hell is going on with airplanes these days?

 

[mantidor]

Another one

Flight travel is like nuclear power, is generally very safe, but when it goes wrong it goes horribly wrong.

 

[e_i]

Wow...three plane crashes in one week. Two war planes shot down in the Ukraine. And young man flying around the world crashes. WTF is going on this week?

 

[The_Inquisitor]

I fly out Saturday morning. I would be more likely to die driving to my destination than flying.

As others have stated I believe plane crashes are scarier really due to 2 factors

1) quantity of victims
2) loss of ability to control by said passengers (ie if you're going to be in a fatal car wreck you at least have a sense of being at the steering wheel. )

RIP to the victims.

 

[maliedoo]

Air Algerie Flight AH5017 Crashed in Mali, Airport Official Says

An airport official confirmed to NBC News that wreckage from the plane had been located in neighboring Mali. According to the airport's Facebook page, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro's niece, Mariela, was among the passengers. NBC News could not immediately verify that report.

Citing the transport minister, The Associated Press reported the flight was carrying 51 French nationals, 27 Burkina Faso nationals, eight Lebanese, six Algerians, five Canadians, two Luxemburg nationals, one Swiss, one Belgian, one Egyptian, one Ukrainian, one Nigerian, one Cameroonian and one Malian.