Less of the synacism…I’ve had some very good times as a result of celebrity chat up lines :p:diablo:

😀

Do tell !!

Sorry, the cynicism is non-negotiable at the moment – it’s getting me through the day at the moment 🙂 Normal service resumed on 16.08.09 when I return to the northern hemisphere, rain and Guinness.

You even have to check the date!

I don’t really see anything that terrible in this report to be honest, certainly not as bad as some of the rubbish I’ve seen lately. Apart from the scarey headline and possible overdramatic descriptions of the Qantas incident, it seems to put its point across in a fairly well reasoned, moderately well backed up way. It’s one of the better media reports I’ve seen to be honest!

Paul

I agree that the article is well balanced and far from hysterical.

It touches on several points which are surely apposite to everyone’s safety –

1. The HCI on commercial airliners can be a vexed area when pilots are presented with unusual or pressured situations – haven’t there been several crashes caused by pilots misinterpreting the information they are receiving/receiving the wrong information from the computers/receiving no information from the computers/receiving too much information from the computers?

2. Modern planes are very smart but their programmed responses aren’t always intuitive to the human brain and the workloads in the cockpit during said abnormal situations can overburden the crew.

3. Commercial aircraft are generally very safe but the wiring and computers are far from infallible and the safety first over cost ethos advertised by airlines is up for debate.

4. The BEA practice the black arts – maybe not, but given their reported behaviour during the Concorde enquiry is the idea of protecting vested interests so easily dismissed?

If anyone can point out inaccuracies in what Block, NASA, Hounsfield et al are reported as saying in this article please share…

I’ve had and continue to have no problem flying on A-330s. I’d more than likely end up at my destination – but if you’re the lucky winner of the raffle it seems you are fecked. And I don’t think it’s any harm for a newspaper to talk around the issue a bit – still what do I know – I’m just the cargo 😉

(…And… there isn’t a newspaper out there that isn’t a tabloid under the skin and a mouthpiece for the political views of the people who write it. Unelected people telling you what to think… some of them are disguised as broadsheets (‘clever’ unelected people telling you what to think)….

a perusal of today’s ‘esteemed’ Guardian website will reveal an incisive article by Hadley Freeman on ‘Why you never want to fall victim to a celebrity’s chat-up line’…. OMG read it now!!!

Oh, and the London Times has three salad recipes from Gordon Ramsey – say goodbye to dull BBQs!!!!

Pay your quid and take your choice…

Pretty little bird (wasn’t aware of it’s existence before you posted) but it looks very familiar – two away from a 146 in engines and numbers

Sky News website reporting it as A330-200.

It took them 40 hours to find a plane that crashed within 30 seconds flying time of the airport ???

Given that they must have known the approximate direction it was heading that seems staggering…

LTN-LPL Easyjet, Christmas, late nineties.. we were sat in the plane on the taxiway for about an hour and a half prior to departure. There were nationwide storms that night and very fast gusting crosswinds promised at our destination. After an age the pilot came on and said there was a possible window opening up in the weather at LPL and that we were going to ‘give it a go’ – I’ll never forget those words – they were said with confidence but perhaps poorly chosen.

We took off in torrential rain and the whole flight was a cocktail shaker and a half – the worst I’ve experienced by a long stretch. We got to LPL and the pilot was really fighting it – crabbing in all the way over Runcorn, Halewood and down to a successful landing – the only time I’ve ever been in a plane where the entire cabin burst into spontaneous song – ‘the leaving of Liverpool’ 😀

I happened to be last off the plane that night and asked the Captain if it was a bad one from where he was sitting (he looked like a punch-drunken fighter). He just smiled and informed me he was back down to LTN in 1/2 an hour – hats off to him!

No-one’s really comparing Ryanair to any other airline, what people are referring to is the way they seem to dream up charges form nowhere. I’m not really sure why you bring up flying around the globe in cattle class and comparing that to Ryanair. What’s relevence does you flying around the world have to Ryanair? :confused:

Paul

Of course people compare Ryanair to other airlines – by what other criteria can they be benchmarked? :confused:

I use my illustration of flying cattle class with other airlines (wherever) to point out that for short flights (peoples frustrations with their booking/taxation/free seat policy systems apart) there really is no difference between sitting on a Ryanair 737 and any other airline – it’s a fairly cramped seat, in a noisy metal tube with people you’d just as soon not rub elbows with.

For my part, as I say, I’ve haven’t had half the trouble with Ryanair as other more prestigious carriers such as AF, AA, KLM etc… maybe that’s just my good fortune.

As for taxes versus cost of flights I see no difference between Ryanair and any other carrier – it’s just that Ryanair make up different names for theirs.

I’m sure Ryanair aren’t everyone’s cup of tea and they don’t have the cachet of other airlines but they get the job done, mostly and perhaps the greif they get is a little excessive.