Lead story on the national news this morning, miraculously enough, was Air Algerie 5107. How NBC determined a jetliner vanishing with 150+ souls aboard to be more important than a prank on an NYC bridge, I'll never know.
Am I the only person who's frustrated that none of the stock photos of planes in Air Algerie livery are actually of an MD-83? That's, like, a plane aspie thing, isn't it?
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Yesterday they had a picture of a MIG-29 as a SU-25 on Yahoo news.
I guess close enough is good enough for what passes as news for the masses.
Gerry
Oh my god, a Millennium reference. Hadn't thought of that audiovisual abortion in a while. I may have to re-watch it now.
WOW, what an obscure movie reference - "Millennium" from 1989!
Return with us now to the 1960s when every aviation "incident" was reported as involving a Boeing 707 or a Piper Cub.
Weird thing is the "dead people on a plane crash" idea was written about is several books. Trevanian's "Loo Sanction", one of Brad Thor's recent books [IIRC], and in the new Sherlock Holmes series with Benedict Cumberpatch. I wonder if this is based on a real event?
I don't know if getting the airplane picture wrong is a plane aspie thing, but I take those kinds of errors as a reminder that the people who write the news don't know what they are talking about and mostly just mindlessly parrot what someone has told them.
It costs a pile of money to paint an airliner, usually into six figures. If Air Algerie's deal with SwiftAir is a short term contract, it is probable the planes were not repainted so there are no MD83s in Air Algerie livery to take pics of.
Al_in_Ottawa
Well, first it was the Malaysian Air liner that disappeared over Southeast Asia/Indian Ocean somewhere, then it was the Malaysian Airliner shot down over East Ukraine, and NOW its an Air Algeria airliner just disappearing again?
The conversation with the managing editor in the newsroom doubtless went something like,
"Here's another airliner disappeared, let's headline it."
"No, put it on page three, international news, next to the Indian grain harvest and the Argentine cattle stories. If we lead with it it might make people afraid to fly, or afraid of terrorists, and we can't have that. Headline the white flags story. It might turn out to be a Tea Party operation, and we can mention how the Brooklyn Bridge was built by immigrants."
Homebru, or the early 80's, when a coworker complained that if it was a Douglas airplane it was identified in the first sentence, but if it was a Boeing it was saved for the second paragraph.
Windy: That was back when the Death Chariots were dropping out of the sky with popping cargo doors.
They dealt with the bad press by renaming the DCs, I guess.
Now that ISIS has a nearly inexhaustible supply of MANPADs, courtesy of the retreating Iraqi Army, expect to see more airliners drop out of the sky in jihaddi controlled areas.
They understand airplanes about as well as they understand guns... sigh
One hears stories about african maintenance - or lack thereof.
Just mentioning that in a part of the world where duct tape is considered overdoing it, a 'plane falling out of the sky isn't necessarily a sign of foul play.
Coco,
There is a difference between sub-saharan and North Africa.
You could not pay me money to fly a subsaharan airline. Or rather it'd be so much much money I'd bring my own aircraft...
North African airlines definitely the B team, but less risky.
Also, ManPads are not generally rated as effective against multi engine passenger a/C at altitude, at least not "catastrophically"...
Anon: May have a point there. MANPADs are more dangerous near airports.
How about the soundtrack they overdub in movies for helicopters - usually the standard Bell twinrotor whup-whup-whup - even when it's a Hughes 500? Or a screaming 4 cylinder sound for a twin cylinder bike.
There's also a crash in Taiwan, 40 dead. It sure seems to be a bad time for third-world airlines.
Coincidentally - I hope - I'm currently reading the chapter of Mentats of Dune where the largest spaceliner company is training agents to sabotage its competitors.
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