To be clear, my response was to a comment by wx1996 that questioned whether the data from FlightRadar was simply in error. For some reason that boggles my mind, that comment got downvoted, and it now looks like I'm agreeing with a comment above it blaming airline hiring policies. Since FlightAware won't let me modify or move my comment, I want it to be very clear that my "I'm wondering the same thing" comment IS NOT in response to the diversity hire comment above.

(Written on 02/17/2023)(Permalink)

I'm wondering the same thing. I too looked at, and fail to see, the descent. Also, a descent and then climb of 1500' in each direction in less than a minute, at rates of over 8000 fpm (roughly 20 degrees down attitude), would have thrown items all over the cabin, likely injured people, and would have had a few hundred passengers saying something to the media the second they walked off the plane at SFO. But I don't recall hearing a thing about this at the time. That doesn't mean nothing happened, or that the crew didn't do something wrong (hence the report). But it also doesn't mean the airplane really actually plunged that low. I'm wondering, and purely speculating, if they didn't like momentarily accidentally change their altimeter setting or something. That could both cause an errant ADS-B reading, and also start to command the aircraft (within normal, less aggressive, flight parameters) to start to try to "correct" to the perceived change in barometric altitude. They would be far fro

(Written on 02/17/2023)(Permalink)

For those who ridicule the NEED for a Space Force, they are woefully unaware of the threats and challenges that we face in the space environment today... and they aren't getting any better. They also echo those who, 75 years ago, argued that the air domain was nothing but long-range artillery, and ridiculed the idea of an independent Air Force. For those who ridicule the idea simply because of which president ended up putting his signature on the legislations, well that's just pathetic. The need for a USSF was in discussion YEARS before the previous president every even announced his intent to run. The fact that he was the one who got it across the finish line is no reason to rally against a service that clearly puts the security of our country first. Sometimes it's okay to actually put our country's well-being ahead of political partisanship.

(Written on 11/11/2022)(Permalink)

Pretty sure it cost a helluva lot less than the $60+ million it would have cost to write the jet off as a total loss.

(Written on 11/04/2022)(Permalink)

Dave, I agree with you about how this forum has really degraded. Having said that, I don't know the actual percentages, but I think a relatively small number of the folks here these days have a pilot's license. Just my speculation, but as word about FlightAware as a tracking tool started to spread outside the pilot community, to the general passenger population, the quality of the commentary here seems to have gone downhill. Not that pilots don't ever make stupid posts, or that non-pilots don't have insightful things to add, but as a whole it definitely seems to have become more toxic and less thoughtful.

(Written on 07/01/2022)(Permalink)

You seem to have missed the entire point of this story. Simultaneous takeoffs on parallel runways probably happen thousands of times a day around the world. That wasn't the point. They were highlighting the fact that those two rival airlines coordinated a symbolic simultaneous departure to highlight the full reopening of those routes that had been so dramatically curtailed over the last 20 months. It was a deliberate PR event, hence the reason the media covered it.

(Written on 11/15/2021)(Permalink)

The people downvoting this comment apparently don't understand what (I think) JMARTINSON was getting at. Pilots don't "get ejected from" aircraft, as the story says. Getting XYZ'd from something implies that the action happened to them involuntarily, ie... a person getting thrown ("ejected") from a vehicle in an accident because they weren't belted in. Pilots "eject from" a disabled aircraft because THEY are the ones initiating the sequence. It doesn't happen to them accidentally. As Forrest says, people may think this is a small point, but it isn't. The English language matters, and semantics matter because the misuse of even a word or two can dramatically change the context of a story. There are few places in which this is more important than amongst the media, who sadly often seem to be amongst the worst offenders.

(Written on 09/27/2021)(Permalink)

I was about to post the exact same observation. "Journalism" at its finest. Never mind how many BASIC details about the incident that she didn't bother to include in the story. I would imagine her "research" into the story amounted to about 3 minutes worth of Google searching.

(Written on 06/18/2021)(Permalink)

We fly single-engine fighters over the open ocean ALL THE TIME.

(Written on 06/18/2021)(Permalink)

The F-35s are in Alaska, in Utah, in Arizona, in Florida, in Japan... to name a few places. But not in Hawaii. So, hence, you scramble the F-22s that ARE in Hawaii, to respond to a "threat" near... Hawaii.

(Written on 06/18/2021)(Permalink)