Comments on: Air Bus AF 447: Sorrow, lack of information and sensationalism

By: Taras

Taras — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 13:29:27 +0000

Tail of Airbus A330 made out of composite material like plastic. It is not durable as aluminum, simple crack may cause it to broke off in harsh turbulence. It happen once before in New York. Air France try to hide it now, they occupy all families of victims with their lawyers, families will get 10% of what they should to get or even less, and no investigation will be made other then Air France ones. It’s sad that other people now in great danger of flying those airplanes from Airbus. Airbus French based company, probably owned by same people as Air France. Euros rules, isn’t they? How many more people have to die?

By: R. Ashok Kumar

R. Ashok Kumar — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 10:30:17 +0000

The comments so far are revealing and I feel compelled to add mine in order to get at the ultimate truth in these days when there are rapid surge waves of persistent changes in weather, even rapid change in an instant, significantly more than before. See therefore my read on the three air crashes in June and July of 2009 at
http://collateralsofclimatechange.blogspot.com/
The upshot of my research is that the design basis of envelopes of the aircraft and of other structures in general- like railways and metro bridges are beginning to be exceeded with significant frequency due to excessive instantaneous cumulative electrical load demand being placed on hydrogenerators occurring in heavily dammed regions. Also in the monsoon by rapid changes of water masses behind such dams- see that rainfall on the Indian Subcontinent was sudden and like an impulse function on July 14 2009 and July 15 2009 which resulted in a major earthquake on 15th July near New Zealand in a familiar location during the dam era. This calls immediately for the application of the precautionary principle and stop flights through local intertropical convergence or divergence regions until the matter is settled by deliberations among all knowledgable sections of society, expert and otherwise. It is absolutely necessary in view of research results indicating non-tectonic causes for many many earthquakes and hotspots.

By: Will

Will — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 05:26:23 +0000

Paula makes an unusual, unique and interesting point. Humans are fascinated by the macabre, the sensational – tragedy, violence and mayhem. This might be especially so when it comes so swiftly and suddenly and in an unforeseen manner.

Many layers of technology and advancement have distanced us, but not removed us at all, from the shared human things which we all are as a society; the bonds forged out of our natural instincts which we now call something else. One could no more ask our fellow human beings, confronted by the knowledge of a massive threat to our society, to shut it off by boycotting a newspaper. Beneath that boycott will always rest the basic human need to know what happened to that plane, what happened to those passengers on the Titanic, what happened to the hunters who left our cave never to return.
It is the basic mystery of life at the very essence of our civilization.
Who do we detest for asking? Oursevles.

By: A. Wilkinson

A. Wilkinson — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 06:55:08 +0000

Speculation is often one of the most important tools used by investigators who peform multiple “what if” scenarios as an aid to finding the ultimate truth surrounding an aviation accident. You are right in observing the macabre interest shown by the media in the “what if” speculations of those who are investigating this catastrophe, however, there is another important reason for the interets in this case. The fact that a seemingly “perfect” safety record for this aircraft was demolished over the open ocean in such a horrific way sits at the core of a very basic fear that permeates the sub-conscience of those who fly often. That is the fear of puting ones life in the hands of technology.
Untill this accident is fully explained, the entire frequent flying world will be warily observing the progress of this investigation, while at the same time making every effort to supress those deep hidden fears.

By: Paula Góes

Paula Góes — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 09:07:52 +0000

There is a wonderful post (in Portuguese) by Brazilian journalist Ana Carolina Moreno, in which she says that we are the real vultures – we feed the media with our interest in this type of coverage. After all, we are those who buy newspapers, who watch TV, who click on links with a “juicy” headline. We search the information and find it.

I will translate an excerpt here:

“You, who don’t give a shit to very serious matters, but then tries to mobilize the blogosphere with a campaign against the telephone operator that mistreated you.

You who know the name of the single crew member who had Brazilian nationality. You who criticized that there would soon be news pieces about the passengers who would take this flight, but for various reasons were spared. And then after you read this story from beginning to end. I am afraid to say, but in this case the journalists are not vultures. You are the vultures who outsource their work searching for sordid details to which you are so attracted. It is time for everyone to start taking their responsibility.

Would you like to solve this problem? The key word is this: boycott. Do not buy newspaper. Read only online news on politics, culture, or you can even read about your soccer team. But do not click on the newspaper’s headlines. Make the most clicked headlines of your favorite news website be clear of “Air France”. On the coffee break, if anybody mentions the accident, change the subject, rather than repeat what you have just read, often with wrong information (because journalistic rigour is only applied to journalists, the grapevine is exempt, right?)”.

Read it all in Portuguese: http://www.trezentos.blog.br/?p=1583

By: Magic Dragon

Magic Dragon — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 02:49:14 +0000

Money, capitalism the idea of profit forces companies (airlines in this case) to reduce costs and increase risks (in this case to flying passengers)! It’s simple!

By: ericka

ericka — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 02:34:56 +0000

very interesting story – I hope we will find a way to value evaluations not just eyeballs so that this kind of thing does not continue

By: Thiana Biondo

Thiana Biondo — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 14:12:34 +0000

I totally agree with both of you. In my opinion, the Brazilian media should let the audience now about its interests each time they publish a information.

In that case, as Michael said it is to sell. I think it’s understandable that papers, magazine and TV programs are business products. But, everything has a limit, even more when someone is talking about the lost of lives and the suffering of families. My condolences to all who lost someone in that tragedy.

By: Julio Cesar Camerini

Julio Cesar Camerini — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 13:00:15 +0000

Oi Thiana,
Muito Obrigado por suas palavras!
Muito legal mesmo seu Blog!
Vou colocar um Link no meu para direcionar ao seu blog!
Parabéns por seu trabalho ai!
Conte sempre com o amigo aqui no Brasil
Julio Cesar

By: Michael Franklin

Michael Franklin — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 00:00:08 +0000

There is, of course, the issue of trust… and that leaves the media/press without much to work with. News is not reported for the sake of the people or information but for how much profit that can be generated from it. It should also be noted that in some societies, the media is a tool of government or corporate policy makers so… what gets printed is what is approved without regard to fact.

In the end, AF447 was indeed a tragedy but we can only blame ourselves for what it has all become.

By: Diego Casaes

Diego Casaes — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 22:24:29 +0000

I think this type of Journalism unfortunately is what we often get here in Brazil. The ‘Air France 447 flight’ tragedy media coverage has been so sensationalist that makes us really sad if it keeps going like this.

I wonder if when they find the black-box and the data and voice recorders news reports are going to play the audio for the audience? That would be really disrespectful but I’m quite sure they’re going to do this…