Discussion: Whistleblowers Expose Problem That Could Cause Plane Collisions

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Discussion for article #240522

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Yet another reason to dislike flying.

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Wake Turbulence, in case it isn’t clear, is caused by vortexes that spin off the tips of airplane wings, particularly the wings of big, heavy planes during takeoff and landing when they are flying more slowly and at high angles of attack. Think of a horizontal tornado stretching back, outwards, and downwards from each wing tip, for several hundred yards.

Pilots are trained to fly above or well to the side of the flight path of planes in front of them, so as to avoid the little tornadoes, but in inclement weather the tower has to help ensure that plane #2 doesn’t take off into the vortexes of plane #1 ahead of it.

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I hit a wake vortex once. I was unamused.

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To try to catch the problem, controllers have to go through the time-consuming process of reviewing flights plans, calling pilots and searching through paper strips that are passed among controllers and marked to track a plane's progress from taxing to takeoff. Then they compare the information on the paper strips to data displayed on computers.

Isn’t this just absurd in the era of Big Data? Paper strips? Really? I feel so safe now.

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So why are airlines filing so many amended flight plans in the first place? Can they be discouraged from doing so while the database fixes are (very carefully) put in place?

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Gee, five whistle blowers alerted them to the problem.

Just when are they planning to arrest them for patent infringement or some such trumped up charge?

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This is why Unions are important in government. Unions give cover for security and safety workers to bring these things out in the open. That sniveling traitor Reagan was mighty tough with the civilians at Patco but he ran with his tail between his legs to Granada when that Hezbollah filth killed hundreds of Marines the CIC left hanging in the breeze. Satan take Ronald Reagan and whatever rump soul he had.

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progress from taxing to takeoff

I thought this was an FAA matter. How did the IRS get involved?