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OT: Why I'm a very nervous flyer
Jun. 1st, 2009 11:34 amHaving landed in a thunderstorm when in FL recently, this sort of thing scares the poop out of me:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6408678.ece
Back in 2001, I was on an Air France flight--on an Airbus--from Washington Dulles to Paris. We hit some humdinger turbulence about two hours into the flight, the kind where you feel some drops and they have to rev up the engine to get through the next waves of rough air. Nice to see the Airbus cracks up like an eggshell in bad enough turbulence :O. Why didn't the pilot go around the storm or find a smoother altitude? I've been on flights before that changed route to avoid bad weather. Even if the pilot believes the bird can handle it, in commercial aviation, the pilot is supposed to keep in mind the comfort and safety of civilian passengers who don't necessarily want to experience the joys of flying into a cyclone. This is the beginning of hurricane season and virtually all Atlantic hurricanes are spawned in the general area where that flight was going.
I know it's way more dangerous to drive down the street than fly on a commercial jet, but no car is going to pull an Oceanic 35,000 feet above a freeway.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6408678.ece
Back in 2001, I was on an Air France flight--on an Airbus--from Washington Dulles to Paris. We hit some humdinger turbulence about two hours into the flight, the kind where you feel some drops and they have to rev up the engine to get through the next waves of rough air. Nice to see the Airbus cracks up like an eggshell in bad enough turbulence :O. Why didn't the pilot go around the storm or find a smoother altitude? I've been on flights before that changed route to avoid bad weather. Even if the pilot believes the bird can handle it, in commercial aviation, the pilot is supposed to keep in mind the comfort and safety of civilian passengers who don't necessarily want to experience the joys of flying into a cyclone. This is the beginning of hurricane season and virtually all Atlantic hurricanes are spawned in the general area where that flight was going.
I know it's way more dangerous to drive down the street than fly on a commercial jet, but no car is going to pull an Oceanic 35,000 feet above a freeway.
