Word: 747s
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...chairman James Hall made it clear that the fuel, transformed from a stable liquid state to volatile vapors by the exhaust heat from air conditioners cooling the plane on a hot July evening, was so combustible that almost anything could have touched it off; that 970 other currently active 747s may be at some risk for the same catastrophe, especially when the air conditioning is overworked; and that, in Hall's opinion, the industry has been remiss in checking those planes for danger and researching ways to fix the tanks. According to papers released by the Federal Aviation Administration...
...American traveling public has in this issue," he said in a deceptively soft drawl. "In this country, we look to the FAA for regulations on safety." Incensed that in the months since the crash, industry inspectors have checked the fuel-tank safety of only 52 of the 970 Boeing 747s in operation, Hall asked Boeing officials whether the 52 included Air Force One. Receiving the predictable affirmative answer, he harrumphed, "Every airline passenger has as much right to safety as the President...
...what has amplified the destructive power of modern fishing more than anything else is its gargantuan scale. Trawling for pollock in the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska, for example, are computerized ships as large as football fields. Their nets--wide enough to swallow a dozen Boeing 747s--can gather up 130 tons of fish in a single sweep. Along with pollock and other groundfish, these nets indiscriminately draw in the creatures that swim or crawl alongside, including halibut, Pacific herring, Pacific salmon and king crab. In similar fashion, so-called longlines--which stretch for tens of miles...
...mechanical failure, by a bomb or, less likely, by a missile attack. If in fact TWA Flight 800 fell under its own weight because of metal fatigue or faulty engineering, then my father has it right: you'd be crazy ever to fly again. But this seems unlikely. 747s don't just plummet into the sea in a ball of flame because of technical flaws. Aviation is not a perfect science, but almost all crashes are attributable to some problem not intrinsic to the airplane...
...that monitors pilots' skills throughout their career. "Most pilots are fatalistic," he said about his good fortune. But he and other TWA pilots had little, if any, doubts about the cause of the tragedy. "That aircraft has had 25 years' experience without a catastrophic accident," says a veteran, and "747s don't just fall out of the air." Adds the lucky first officer: "There is nothing a crew member can do to make a plane blow up like that...