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The saddest part about it not being a terrorist attack is that when it's all said and done, this will most likely come down to some sort of error or negligence. I would have a very hard time dealing with the fact that a family member is dead due to someone else's mistake.
Frankly, while a terrorist attack would certainly be horrible, I'd find another explanation even more terrifying. A Boeing 777 having some kind of complete catastrophic failure at cruising altitude with no apparent warning?
There's always the possibility that one of the pilots decided to commit suicide or that terrorists might have taken control of the plane and, in either case, the plane was simply flown into the ocean in more or less one piece. That would explain the lack of debris.
This is exactly why I try not to fly anymore. It has nothing to do with terrorists, it has everything to do with what you just said. It all started when that plane from Mexico going up to Seattle, pit stop at LAX, crash landed in to the Pacific. It was found out later that a part of the plane malfunctioned that some worker, (forget who it was), had been trying to tell them for years that it needed to be investigated, and he got branded a whistle blower. My trust went straight out the window after that.
That crash scared the crap out of me. With that being said, ever drive or ride in a car? Statistically, you are far safer on a plane. The last fatal crash involving a US airline was in January of 2009. The last involving a non-regional airline was in November of 2001.
I am a frequent flyer. I have elite status on American. I'm also a somewhat nervous flyer and, no matter how much I fly, it doesn't improve that much. But, when thinking about it rationally, you are very safe flying...at least on US airlines and really first-world airlines in general.
Yeah, thanks to the lessons of accidents in the past, aviation is pretty damn safe. Statistically, the most dangerous part of flying is driving to the airport.
I am a frequent flyer. I have elite status on American. I'm also a somewhat nervous flyer and, no matter how much I fly, it doesn't improve that much. But, when thinking about it rationally, you are very safe flying...at least on US airlines and really first-world airlines in general.
I studied Aerospace Engineering, I am not afraid of flying at all when it comes to thinking about the Airplane itsself. However, I am not a very trusting person and it does sometimes make me nervous to think that a pilot has complete control over my life. The pilot suicide thing does make me uneasy every once in a while.
In regards to your other post, I just have such a hard time seeing a B777 going down like that without some sort of serious human error. It'd definitely make things a little scary, even though it's an anomaly.
I wouldn't call it a "dry run" if it caused the plane to crash.
I'm leaning towards an accident that quickly incapacitated the crew, the plane continued to fly (off it's planned flight path) until it became unstable and nosedived in with little footprint in land or sea. Perhaps a 'ghost plane' incident like 1999 South Dakota Learjet crash - or the windscreen failed/something crashed through it incapacitating the crew.
I know the speculation is getting more crazy but the longer it takes to find the plane the less likely are the more conventional explanations. At the moment we are looking for explanations as to why there is no debris field found for a plane that went missing at 36,000 feet.
Chances are at 36k ft the aircraft was on autopilot, so even with the crew incapacitated it should have kept level for quite some time. It would have eventually come back into radar range.
If a 777-200 exploded at that altitude due to a bomb or something else, the amount of heat generated would probably show up on some satellites used to track ICBM launches.
A catastrophic structural failure, like a wing falling off, would probably have the full attention of the flight crew to the point where they didn't have time to call ATC and let them know they were going down. But something like that seems highly unlikely especially given the service history of that model.
I studied Aerospace Engineering, I am not afraid of flying at all when it comes to thinking about the Airplane itsself. However, I am not a very trusting person and it does sometimes make me nervous to think that a pilot has complete control over my life. The pilot suicide thing does make me uneasy every once in a while.
In regards to your other post, I just have such a hard time seeing a B777 going down like that without some sort of serious human error. It'd definitely make things a little scary, even though it's an anomaly.
I don't have your knowledge, but this is somewhat similar to my fear. There are a few types of planes that worry me, but for the most part I'm very confident in the plane. Even if something is wrong with it, I'm confident that it can land safely. Extended overwater flights scare me since there's nowhere to land.
Flights in bad weather do as well but this has more to do with the pilots. To me, it's not so much a fear that the pilots are suicidal but more a fear that they just don't care or are incompetent (I know this makes no sense). On a recent flight, for example, I was concerned the anti-icing system would not be on (we were flying through ice). I've also been concerned that the pilots would fly right in the middle of thunderstorms, etc.
On a modern plane, non-overwater flights, and in good weather I'm very calm. Irrational that I'm not otherwise I know...
Even when I'm nervous, though, I still can get on the plane and I'm not so nervous that others can tell.
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