Feb 13 2009
24 Hours And Two Airplane Crash Landings
I was shocked and saddened to hear the news that a plane has crashed into a house in Buffalo, New York in the early hours of this morning. I think many of us are trained to hear the worst after 9/11 when we hear that a plane has a crashed in a residential area but this looks like it is just a terrible accident. Continental flight 3407 flying from Newark to Buffalo Niagara plummeted into a single house after making a series of severe pitches and rolls. Apparently the crew had noticed a build up of ice on the wings. Although that report in unconfirmed as yet, there was apparently nothing to suggest mechanic failure occurred on Continental flight 3407.
Luckily enough, a woman and child were able to escape from the house in Buffalo that the plane hit but another person was not so lucky. There were also 49 people killed aboard Continental flight 3407, 4 of which were crew. I want to extend my condolances to the families of those killed because it was undoubtedly a real tragedy.
The second airplane that came down did so today at London City Airport. The British Airways flight from Amsterdam lost its front wheels as it touched down and made an incredibly hard landing that could have been so much worse than it actually was. None of the passengers or crew were badly injured or killed so we should all be incredibly thankful about that. The pilot apparently reacted admirably and deserves a lot of credit for landing the plane without extensive damage occurring.
It seems that the weather is not only affecting our ability to get to work and stay on the road but also now to stay in the air and indeed on the runway. Here’s hoping that no more such incidents occur in the near future!
