February 2nd, 2004, 11:46 am
QuoteOriginally posted by: LongThetaPlanes are very well qualified to handle any mechanical/electrical emergency that one can logically anticipate, in ways that are much better than depolying a parachute: The wings are very robust and flexible, planes can fly with one engine only, every electrical part has a back-up part, they are built to withstand very heavy turbulence (just keep your seat belt on), very heavy thunder strikes (though you may become temporarily deaf), etc, etc. Problems arise for reasons that simply cannot be logically anticipated, or that can be attributed to human errors of judgement: the pilot goes whacko and decides to do something really stupid and take his passengers with him (EgyptAir off the East Coast), collisions on take off (Singapore Airlines in Taiwan) or even in mid air (Russian charter plane over Switzerland) due to air traffic controller's mistakes, bad landings (Qantas in Manila -- no one was killed, but came really close), bad maintenance (a plane can drop like a stone a few meters above the ground on take off). In all such cases, parachutes will not be of any help. When comes to such possibilities, we have to have faith in the pilot, co-pilot, maintenance people and air traffic controllers.Now when I think about it, every time I drive my car, with cars coming at full speed from the opposite direction, I trust that none of these other drivers will decide to swerve a little and enter into my lane. Because if they do, whether intentionally or accidentally, then I know and I'm fully aware of the fact that there is nothing that I can do to avoid a head-on collision. There is no way to take action within a split second and avoid a collision of that type. In that sense, every time I drive from home to work, I have faith in the good judgement of about ---- I don't know, maybe 5,000 people. That's a lot more than the number of pilots, co-pilots, maintenance and air traffic controllers that I trust every year.dude, don't think about it too much...Just take a few shots of good scotch, and bite your lip. forget about the analysis.