irrational fear of flying

[bigbill]

I guess he avoided multi-story buildings, so they had to figure out another way to make him "fall."

[rwsaunders]

He should have borrowed the presidential train as apparently Vlad’s not a big fan of flying either. I also like the theory that he’s just moved to Vlad’s retirement place in Venezuela or one of Messi’s compounds in Argentina, where he’ll resume his career as head chef to the Kremlin.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/10/europ...cmd/index.html

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/putin-esc...sia-noahs-ark/

[gregl]

Does a discussion of Prigozhin even belong in this thread? After all, he had a very rational fear of flying...

Greg

[echappist]

All the larger geopolitical issues aside, it's gotta be sobering for at least the family and friends of the aircrew, who presumably had nothing to do with Prigozhin himself, unwitting pawns entangled in a situation beyond their control.

[Chik]

All the larger geopolitical issues aside, it's gotta be sobering for at least the family and friends of the aircrew, who presumably had nothing to do with Prigozhin himself, unwitting pawns entangled in a situation beyond their control.

Sorta, kinda. The plane belonged to Priggo so I'm guessing the crew were on his payroll, that is, not there by accident, not knowing who might be on the flight.

His other plane, however, made it safely to Moscow, which I thought was interesting: clearly, there was no interesting cargo on that flight.

The idea that Priggo faked it was raised amongst my mates, but I think he loves attention too much to even stomach the idea of going dark. Plus, his air force general buddy had already disappeared, so I think it was just a matter of time.

Having seen some photos posted on Twitter, my ex-military buddies were surprised that they could even identify the corpses so quickly.

[Chik]

PSS...that's my 6th go-around in 4 years and I'm not even a pilot! The most unique involved a flight in 2019 from Heathrow to Venice, where we first aborted the landing to be diverted to Bologna, then we aborted the landing in Bologna and eventually landed in Milan. We were told that the water on the runways was a result of aqua alta; seasonal flooding. When we landed in Milan at 1am, British Airways couldn't provide an answer as to how we were actually going to get to Venice, "just come back tomorrow at 8:30am and we hopefully will have an answer". We decided to book a train from Milan to Venice.

BA are marvellous when they are good, but when they're not, they're really shit. There's nothing in-between with them. But then, the misfortune of facing Italian ground staff probably didn't help either.

One of the trips to Singapore had our flight circling the airport several times. Is that what's called a go around? I had a head cold which led to excruciating pain in my ears as the cabin pressure changed on approach and kept circling, with, of course, the fasten seat belt sign lit. I think I have a fairly high tolerance for pain, but I had tears in my eyes. I finally called for a flight attendant and asked for a half full cup of hot water to put against my ears. It probably wasn't a very long period, but it seemed like eternity. I think it was the third and last country in three weeks so I was tired already, and that episode really pooped me out. Luckily, the work in Singapore was virtually stress-free, thanks to our people there, but yeah, that ear-ache is very well etched in my memory.

PS, speaking of seatbelts, on another flight (I forget where I was going), the seatbelt sign was off. We suddenly hit some air pocket or whatever (apologies, I have no idea what's what up there) and sent one passenger across the aisle up so high and hard that he hit the overhead storage thingy and cracked open his head. The turbulence was only for a split second. I always have my seatbelt on when I'm in my seat, and I have not changed my procedure after seeing that episode.

[j44ke]

Sorta, kinda. The plane belonged to Priggo so I'm guessing the crew were on his payroll, that is, not there by accident, not knowing who might be on the flight.

His other plane, however, made it safely to Moscow, which I thought was interesting: clearly, there was no interesting cargo on that flight.

The idea that Priggo faked it was raised amongst my mates, but I think he loves attention too much to even stomach the idea of going dark. Plus, his air force general buddy had already disappeared, so I think it was just a matter of time.

Having seen some photos posted on Twitter, my ex-military buddies were surprised that they could even identify the corpses so quickly.

Flight was going from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Friend in Prague says rumor there is speed of recovery on the ground was such that there must have been a team already out waiting. And that possible missile trail in original video suggests that footage might have been shot from missile launch site. And that Prigozhin and co. were dead already to ensure no survivors possible.

[72gmc]

I had a head cold which led to excruciating pain in my ears as the cabin pressure changed on approach and kept circling, with, of course, the fasten seat belt sign lit. I think I have a fairly high tolerance for pain, but I had tears in my eyes. I finally called for a flight attendant and asked for a half full cup of hot water to put against my ears. It probably wasn't a very long period, but it seemed like eternity.

This happened to me when I was a kid, returning home from my first airplane trip ever. My poor mom felt terrible for me. I recall dreading the sound of the engines winding up, knowing that meant the plane was going around again.

[Chik]

Flight was going from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Friend in Prague says rumor there is speed of recovery on the ground was such that there must have been a team already out waiting. And that possible missile trail in original video suggests that footage might have been shot from missile launch site. And that Prigozhin and co. were dead already to ensure no survivors possible.

Ah, I thought both planes were going the other way.

So, Priggo and mates were already dead before the plane got shot down?

Ps, I just reread the BBC article and it says that the second plane landed safely in the Moscow region. That’s where my memory got scrambled.

[j44ke]

Ah, I thought both planes were going the other way.

So, Priggo and mates were already dead before the plane got shot down?

Ps, I just reread the BBC article and it says that the second plane landed safely in the Moscow region. That’s where my memory got scrambled.

Well that's the rumor in Prague. That and 19czk might still get you a pivo.

[ides1056]

"Don't insult the alligator until you've crossed the river."

[Chik]

Well that's the rumor in Prague. That and 19czk might still get you a pivo.

Lol

[Dave Thompson]

"When you tweak the tail of a tiger, you better have a plan to deal with his teeth".

[rwsaunders]

+/- 4,800 pilots suspected of falsifying their medical records…VA benefits the key issue…pretty sad.

https://apple.news/AJaxzNfCJRomzlNngKVl6dQ

[bigbill]

I think it's a slippery slope to target pilots for failing to report issues that likely existed when they were flying in the military. It would be easy to rationalize that if they could land a Hornet on a pitching carrier deck, they could land a 737 on a long runway.

For their claims and disability payments, I think there's an issue with how Veterans are handled and encouraged to report every minor condition when they leave active duty. The system compares the person who joined the military to the person leaving active duty, even if decades have passed. Everything wrong with a Veteran is because of his/her military service. When I retired, the DAV enrolled me in the VA and had power of attorney to handle my claim with the VA. The VFW does the same thing. I got a kick out of the article quoting an American Legion person when most of their members cannot join the VFW because they never saw combat or were forward deployed. I am a life member of the American Legion because they helped my son get into the Naval Academy. I am also a life member of the VFW and an officer at my local post.

[busdriver1959]

I can’t imagine these short hops on wide-bodies to be very efficient. It’s like me starting my 2.0t engine for a 10 minute drive, and the engine hasn’t even properly warmed up before shutting down.

Do these at least have decent load factors?

Similarly, a 2-hr (if that long) hop btwn MKE and Louisville (in the case of UPS, though on a cool old school trijet) or btwn MKE and MEM on a 767F seems a tad wasteful unless they can fill up that cargo space.

Yes, they do tend to be pretty well loaded. However, it doesn't take a lot of boxes to pay for the flight. There's a lot of money in freight. When Fedex has a really bad quarter, it's still a really good quarter compared to the companies who fly the other kind of cargo, self loading cargo.

[rwsaunders]

Delta flight #79 from Prague to JFK experiences an engine failure on takeoff.

[j44ke]

Delta flight #79 from Prague to JFK experiences an engine failure on takeoff.

...

Well that's quite something.

[gregl]

Delta flight #79 from Prague to JFK experiences an engine failure on takeoff.

By all appearances and accounts I’ve read, this incident was handled professionally by all stakeholders (pilots, ATC, airport fire/rescue). This is why the training is rigorous and pilots are regularly evaluated for performance.

Greg

[j44ke]

By all appearances and accounts I’ve read, this incident was handled professionally by all stakeholders (pilots, ATC, airport fire/rescue). This is why the training is rigorous and pilots are regularly evaluated for performance.

Greg

I thought the pilot sounded amazingly cool on the audio.