Snoozing Pilot Mistakes Venus For Aircraft; Panic, Injuries Ensue 307
Cazekiel writes "In January 2011, an Air Canada Boeing 767 carrying 95 passengers and eight crew members was on route to Zurich from Toronto when its First Officer, fatigued and disoriented from a long nap he'd taken, panicked in seeing what he believed to be a U.S. cargo plane on a collision course with his aircraft. The panicking F.O. pushed forward on the control column to make a rapid descent. Only, it wasn't an aircraft he'd been looking at, but Venus. According to the article: 'The airliner dropped about 400 feet before the captain pulled back on the control column. Fourteen passengers and two crew were hurt, and seven needed hospital treatment. None were wearing seat belts, even though the seat-belt sign was on.' The only danger in this situation had been the F.O. napping for 75 minutes instead of the maximum 40, as the disorientation and confusion stemming from deeper sleep was the culprit in this mix-up. However, the Air Canada Pilots Association, 'has long pressured authorities to take the stresses of night flying into account when setting the maximum hours a pilot can work,' taking into account that North Atlantic night-flights are hardest on an already-fatigued pilot."
Air Canada? (Score:5, Funny)
Were many beavers injured?
Shame they don't have cabin video (Score:5, Funny)
then they could just show video of what happens if you don't use your seatbelt on an aircraft to that 10% of idiots that know better instead of the boring safety talk.
New safety message (Score:5, Funny)
That's no moon. (Score:5, Funny)
Thankfully Not... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Thankfully Not... (Score:5, Funny)
100% of all planes involved in terrorist attacks, hijackings and crashes have had pilots on board! when will government make us safe from these terrors of the skies!
Re:Thankfully Not... (Score:5, Funny)
They also had wings too - OMG so do birds!
c'mon, think about the alternative! (Score:5, Funny)
Everyone is piling on this guy now, but think about what would have happened if he'd actually HIT Venus - nobody would have survived that! Think, people, THINK!
Re:c'mon, think about the alternative! (Score:5, Funny)
I'm picturing something like the steamroller scene in Austin Powers only much, much longer...
Re:Shame they don't have cabin video (Score:5, Funny)
true enough, but have you ever been stuck in the toilet when turbulence strikes? not fun.
having to change a baby during turbulence is quite fun, but a little scary (baby was fine - i was bouncing around and the little bugger was giggling at me).
Re:Thankfully Not... (Score:5, Funny)
I'd be more suspicious of Venus... clearly it was trying to take down a passenger aircraft, the classic cowardly maneuver of a terrorist. And it is a known hoarder of deadly chemicals used in the manufacture of WMD. Who knows how far along it's program already is, since it has never allowed IAEA inspectors beneath it's all-concealing clouds?!
Did Gary Larson Predict This? (Score:4, Funny)
We may never know. [cmu.edu]
Re:Air Canada? (Score:4, Funny)
just your mom's
Re:Is this a bad thing? (Score:5, Funny)
I can totally sympathize with this pilot. True story .. I was driving through Yukon a few years ago and I had been on the road for twelve hours that I could barely stay awake so I pulled off in a rest area, climbed in the back seat, and fell asleep.
At some point, another driver pulled into the rest area and his lights woke me up. All I saw were trees and I thought I had fallen asleep at the wheel and crashed in the woods. I panicked. I climed out of my sleeping bag, climbed into the front seat, started my car, and pulled a 360 before I realized what the hell was going on. The other driver probably thought I was nuts.
Moral of the story ... Thank god I'm not a pilot :)
Re:Air Canada? (Score:5, Funny)
Beavers aside, I don't actually see what the problem is. What if the situation were reversed? Way, way worse.
You mean if Venus mistook the pilot for another planet?
Re:air canada is a terrible carrier (Score:5, Funny)
just fly cathay pacific
Sounds great! OK then, let me just check out the options for Zurich to Toronto on Cathay. Hmm... OK seems we've got Zurich to Hong Kong, then Hong Kong to Toronto. Only 33 hours of travel, compares to 9 hours on Air Canada, at three times the cost. Makes perfect sense.
Re:Shame they don't have cabin video (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Thankfully Not... (Score:5, Funny)
They also had wings too - OMG so do birds!
Breaking News. Terrorists are training swallows to carry coconut shaped bombs.
Re:air canada is a terrible carrier (Score:2, Funny)
OTOH, the following actually makes some kind of sense:
Its not just that 9 hours of Anonymous Coward can seem like 33 hours of root canal; but Anonymous Coward has an odd idea of what 9 hours means....
Re:Shame they don't have cabin video (Score:4, Funny)
then they could just show video of what happens if you don't use your seatbelt on an aircraft to that 10% of idiots that know better instead of the boring safety talk.
Everyone's got (n) hours to kill in a perfectly good aircraft and video is the best they can do?
The hell with video, they should do a live demonstration. Anyone un-belted who the pilot hasn't successfully removed from their seat after 5 minutes gets a free airline meal as a prize :^)
It Worked! (Score:4, Funny)
The good news is that the evasive action was successful, and the plane did not hit Venus.
Re:Thankfully Not... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Air Canada? (Score:5, Funny)
You mean if Venus mistook the pilot for another planet?
In Soviet Russia that scenario could be completely feasible.
Re:Thankfully Not... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Thankfully Not... (Score:4, Funny)