Jack Van Burace
10-07-2006, 02:19 PM
I found this really good for a debate, because it gets to many points we've argued already here, which involves the press' manipulation of facts.
Some of you might already know of the recent plane crash that took place in Brazil, killing 154 people (150 passangers + 4 crew), when it shocked with a comercial smaller airplane. The comercial airplane lost the end of a wing and a bit of it's tail, but made it safely into a military airport close by.
At first, nobody had any idea of what could have happened, but as investigations moved on, they checked onto the smaller plane's blackbox and verified the tower logs. The smaller airplane was out of it's route, and verified on the blackbox, didn't respond to any of the comunication attempts made by the comand tower. Their transponder wasn't signaling either, but as experts checked IT WAS WORKING PERFECTLY FINE. Take note of it.
The smaller plane's pilots had signed a paper in which stated that they should lower their altitude on the next segment of the way, which they didn't. And the plane never stoped receiving comunication attempts from the tower, which means that it weren't on a 'Shadow Zone', or any other sort of cloud that would interrupt the functioning of the equipment.
Also, traveling 1000 feet higher would reduce it's fuel expenses, which was unauthorized but profitable for them. The tower couldn't do anything about it's altitude, because they couldn't check it. By the radar, you only see the position, not the altitude, and it was thought that the pilots were following the route that they signed for (yes, authorities have their signature on that paper), so changing the other plane's altitude would be more dangerous.
All that's missing is the other plane's blackbox to verify in it too, to be entirely sure that the two american pilots of the smaller comercial jet Legacy were trully irresponsible and are guilty of intended homicide (of 154 ppl, since they acted recklessly). They've had their passports taken, and are beeing held in custody.
But what news do we get this morning? 3 US senators have e-mailed Mrs. Rice asking for her intervention on this case, that these two man shouldn't be held there, and that they're worried about their sake. Well, they're criminals, what did they expect? And apparently, the New York Times and a few other journals have reported that "there's public pressure to condemn the two americans without proof, so the brazilian authorities are speculating that they turned off their transponder to fly in higher altitudes and save fuel.". They also say that "Brazilian authorities are turning their views to the malfunctioning of the Legacy's equipment, which hasn't functioned so far.", which is by the way entirely false.
I mean, are these reporters writing on gossip, or are they really trying to make enough public opinion for the release of these two men? Why would they stick up for these irresponsible assassins? What they say about brazilian authorities statements is completely false, since we've seen them speaking live, and what they say has nothing to do with what the NYT said, completely the opposite. But as I was saying in the beggining, this has much to do with press management of public opinion, god knows to what intent.
The mistakes of these two american pilots were at the number of 3 at least: a) if they had tried contact with the tower and the equipment wasn't functioning, they could have spoken to other airplanes; b) they should have stayed on the altitude that they signed off for; c) there's a code you can signal through your equipment that says you're out of comunications whatsoever; d) since their equipment was working perfectly fine, as all the experts have testified, they shouldn't have turned it off.
If you don't wanna count d), as the NYT's reporters, go ahead, there are still 3 left. These reckless men, in my opinion, must rot in jail for sure.
Some of you might already know of the recent plane crash that took place in Brazil, killing 154 people (150 passangers + 4 crew), when it shocked with a comercial smaller airplane. The comercial airplane lost the end of a wing and a bit of it's tail, but made it safely into a military airport close by.
At first, nobody had any idea of what could have happened, but as investigations moved on, they checked onto the smaller plane's blackbox and verified the tower logs. The smaller airplane was out of it's route, and verified on the blackbox, didn't respond to any of the comunication attempts made by the comand tower. Their transponder wasn't signaling either, but as experts checked IT WAS WORKING PERFECTLY FINE. Take note of it.
The smaller plane's pilots had signed a paper in which stated that they should lower their altitude on the next segment of the way, which they didn't. And the plane never stoped receiving comunication attempts from the tower, which means that it weren't on a 'Shadow Zone', or any other sort of cloud that would interrupt the functioning of the equipment.
Also, traveling 1000 feet higher would reduce it's fuel expenses, which was unauthorized but profitable for them. The tower couldn't do anything about it's altitude, because they couldn't check it. By the radar, you only see the position, not the altitude, and it was thought that the pilots were following the route that they signed for (yes, authorities have their signature on that paper), so changing the other plane's altitude would be more dangerous.
All that's missing is the other plane's blackbox to verify in it too, to be entirely sure that the two american pilots of the smaller comercial jet Legacy were trully irresponsible and are guilty of intended homicide (of 154 ppl, since they acted recklessly). They've had their passports taken, and are beeing held in custody.
But what news do we get this morning? 3 US senators have e-mailed Mrs. Rice asking for her intervention on this case, that these two man shouldn't be held there, and that they're worried about their sake. Well, they're criminals, what did they expect? And apparently, the New York Times and a few other journals have reported that "there's public pressure to condemn the two americans without proof, so the brazilian authorities are speculating that they turned off their transponder to fly in higher altitudes and save fuel.". They also say that "Brazilian authorities are turning their views to the malfunctioning of the Legacy's equipment, which hasn't functioned so far.", which is by the way entirely false.
I mean, are these reporters writing on gossip, or are they really trying to make enough public opinion for the release of these two men? Why would they stick up for these irresponsible assassins? What they say about brazilian authorities statements is completely false, since we've seen them speaking live, and what they say has nothing to do with what the NYT said, completely the opposite. But as I was saying in the beggining, this has much to do with press management of public opinion, god knows to what intent.
The mistakes of these two american pilots were at the number of 3 at least: a) if they had tried contact with the tower and the equipment wasn't functioning, they could have spoken to other airplanes; b) they should have stayed on the altitude that they signed off for; c) there's a code you can signal through your equipment that says you're out of comunications whatsoever; d) since their equipment was working perfectly fine, as all the experts have testified, they shouldn't have turned it off.
If you don't wanna count d), as the NYT's reporters, go ahead, there are still 3 left. These reckless men, in my opinion, must rot in jail for sure.