What was the big boom?

[Anonymous]

This is a really dumb question, but short of shooting the plane down, there's nothing they could've done to actually access the people to save them?

I'm imagining how scary it would be if the pilot were incapacitated and the others were not, which doesn't seem to be the case here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I read reporting last night that ATC lost contact with the pilots somewhere over New Jersey on the plane's flight to Long Island. So that's likely when the depressurization occurred.

So they were likely flying for 3+ hours while unconscious. The plane's autopilot seems to have turned the plane around at the Long Island airport when the pilot did not manually engage the landing procedures.

We are very lucky that this plane had enough fuel to crash in a rural area. It's just dumb luck that it didn't crash into a city or a busy area.

This is alarming and I would love to know more from aviation nerds why jets weren't assembled to investigate the first time they lost contact. I have seen the clip of the pilot landing at LAX and ATC yelling at him for not radioing back faster to confirm the runway was clear - like most people I assumed that when ATC radios you, you answer. So I am wondering how they not only lost contact but the plane didn't land, and it made it to DC before the Air Force assembled. God forbid it had run out of fuel over Manhattan, what a tragedy.

Small planes do crash, sometimes in inhabited areas. Remember the plane that crashed into the house by Gaithersburg?

But what do you think the ATC can do about an unresponsive plane at 30,000 feet? Shoot it down? Why would that be preferable?

I am not asking that it be shot down after not responding to the radio once. I am asking why it was allowed to not respond to contact, not land as scheduled, and then fly almost 300 miles before the Air Force assembled.

what do you mean by, allowed? How do you suppose anyone not allows it? It's not at all unusual for ATC to lose communications with a pilot. Especially when they hand off from sector to sector, each with a different frequency. Sometimes they miss the hand-off or are on the wrong frequency. It's does t trigger any immediate alarms and communication is usually restored pretty quickly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^ why did it disintegrate when other planes crash and parts are still recognizable?

oh stop with this nonsense. The plane descended in a death spiral at nearly 30,000 feet per minute. It's goi g to shatter into many small pieces when it craters in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It just happened to run out of fuel in a part of va with few people? I'm not a conspiracy theorist but this story seems a little off.

Most of the country is sparsley populated. You need to get out more and travel outside of big cities. Next time you bok a flight, get a window sweet and actually look out the window.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What would cause a depressurization event in an aircraft like this one?

Malfunction of the system, door or window, not sealed properly, etc.

My question is woukd this type of aircraft have a detection system that would drop oxygen masks?

Small business class jets fly higher than commercial airliners often times. They are not equipped with drop down masks but the pilot should have supplemental oxygen. That said, if the plane depressurizes the pilot has seconds, just a few breaths to recognize the problem and get on oxygen, then dive the plane to get down quickly to a breathable altitude, about 15,000 minimum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll confess to not reading the entire thread but jumped in on pg. 14, not 16. Just saw the news on the crash site. The plane was ...descimated. There were no plane-like parts to be recognized.

I think it was shot down. If it was, will we ever know?

I don't think the Air Force would have any problem confirming that they shot the plane down. The pilot and passengers were already dead, and it posed a threat to people on the ground if it landed somewhere populated.

There is no reason to believe it was shot down. It didn't have enough fuel to get back to TN.

Assuming this was luck that it landed somewhere rural, what happens if we’re not so lucky and it runs out of fuel over a populated area? Would shooting it down be the better option or not b/c the scattering of parts? Do you just let the one unlucky Area bear the brunt of a giant single crash instead of a smattering of pieces?

I live in Arlington and my house rumbles sometimes from the helicopters and jets that fly overhead. You hope for the best but this is a fear of mine. I guess I had assumed there was a better plan for this type of situation.

Why do we allow such old planes with outdate safety features to fly? Someone mentioned a newer plane would have had loud alarms and oxygen masks. Maybe we shouldn’t be letting rich people play roulette with the lives of people on the ground with planes that are decades old. I hate little planes and will never ride in one.

ATC had a reasonable idea of where it would end up, they're good at math. If they knew it would likely crash into Knoxville or Roanoke or another small or large town, they may have made a different decision - or maybe not. Not sure that shooting down an American plane over American soil would necessarily be safer for anyone and it would be a Big Decision.

It seems like shooting it down over a sparsely populated area would be a safer choice than allowing it to crash near a dense area. I think most Americans would understand, especially if the passengers were likely brain dead from lack of oxygen. But agree it would be a big decision and not one I’d envy anyone making.

You are not likely to ever see a civilian aircraft shot down in your lifetime. No matter how much you want to fantasize about it, it's not that simple of a command decision. Our military is not going to shoot down a civilian plane that has lost communication or is errant in it's navigation. Seriously, get it out of your head.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It just happened to run out of fuel in a part of va with few people? I'm not a conspiracy theorist but this story seems a little off.

Most of the country is sparsley populated. You need to get out more and travel outside of big cities. Next time you bok a flight, get a window sweet and actually look out the window.

In the late 70’s, a corporate jet crashed into a neighborhood in McLean at night, and no one on the ground was injured. It was a bit of a miracle, since several houses were damaged, but it is possible, even in a populated area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It just happened to run out of fuel in a part of va with few people? I'm not a conspiracy theorist but this story seems a little off.

Most of the country is sparsley populated. You need to get out more and travel outside of big cities. Next time you bok a flight, get a window sweet and actually look out the window.

In the late 70’s, a corporate jet crashed into a neighborhood in McLean at night, and no one on the ground was injured. It was a bit of a miracle, since several houses were damaged, but it is possible, even in a populated area.

60 years ago a plane crashed and no one was injured? Good information. Thanks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a really dumb question, but short of shooting the plane down, there's nothing they could've done to actually access the people to save them?

I'm imagining how scary it would be if the pilot were incapacitated and the others were not, which doesn't seem to be the case here.

If the passengers are conscious, and can figure out how to get onto the airplane radio to ask for help, there have been a few crazy situations where the air traffic controllers and other pilots have talked the passenger through a descent and landing. There was a case of this last year, a Caravan in Florida, that got a lot of media attention.

There are some companies working on emergency autoland features that could be activated by a passenger. In theory you could make that activation accessible over a data link so someone on the ground could initiate it. But that doesn't exist on any airplanes currently used in passenger service.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It just happened to run out of fuel in a part of va with few people? I'm not a conspiracy theorist but this story seems a little off.

Most of the country is sparsley populated. You need to get out more and travel outside of big cities. Next time you bok a flight, get a window sweet and actually look out the window.

In the late 70’s, a corporate jet crashed into a neighborhood in McLean at night, and no one on the ground was injured. It was a bit of a miracle, since several houses were damaged, but it is possible, even in a populated area.

60 years ago a plane crashed and no one was injured? Good information. Thanks

60 years ago?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It just happened to run out of fuel in a part of va with few people? I'm not a conspiracy theorist but this story seems a little off.

Most of the country is sparsley populated. You need to get out more and travel outside of big cities. Next time you bok a flight, get a window sweet and actually look out the window.

In the late 70’s, a corporate jet crashed into a neighborhood in McLean at night, and no one on the ground was injured. It was a bit of a miracle, since several houses were damaged, but it is possible, even in a populated area.

60 years ago a plane crashed and no one was injured? Good information. Thanks

46 years ago. And the PP said no one on the ground was injured.
Google is your friend: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/04/29/area-plane-crash-kills-2/df137ca3-12e7-4f75-8cf8-6b4e8d689ae4/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It just happened to run out of fuel in a part of va with few people? I'm not a conspiracy theorist but this story seems a little off.

Most of the country is sparsley populated. You need to get out more and travel outside of big cities. Next time you bok a flight, get a window sweet and actually look out the window.

In the late 70’s, a corporate jet crashed into a neighborhood in McLean at night, and no one on the ground was injured. It was a bit of a miracle, since several houses were damaged, but it is possible, even in a populated area.

60 years ago a plane crashed and no one was injured? Good information. Thanks

46 years ago. And the PP said no one on the ground was injured.
Google is your friend: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/04/29/area-plane-crash-kills-2/df137ca3-12e7-4f75-8cf8-6b4e8d689ae4/

Seems like a very rare occurrence.

[Anonymous]

So now it has come out that ATC lost contact with the plane "moments" after takeoff. Bizarre that fighter jets weren't sent to investigate sooner. It was allowed to fly up the East Coast and back!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So now it has come out that ATC lost contact with the plane "moments" after takeoff. Bizarre that fighter jets weren't sent to investigate sooner. It was allowed to fly up the East Coast and back!

This is what I want to know… if it was flying over DC even near the no-fly zone, why weren’t the jets on it then?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So now it has come out that ATC lost contact with the plane "moments" after takeoff. Bizarre that fighter jets weren't sent to investigate sooner. It was allowed to fly up the East Coast and back!

This is what I want to know… if it was flying over DC even near the no-fly zone, why weren’t the jets on it then?

People keep claiming "Oh, you guys think the Air Force is like the avengers." No. I want to know why an unresponsive plane was allowed to fly from Tennessee to Long Island, over very populated cities. I want to know why it didn't not make a scheduled landing and the Air Force didn't scramble jets until 30 minutes later when it was flying over DC. That could've been a bigger tragedy than it was, had it crashed in New York City or in downtown DC. It was flying over Philly, Baltimore...it was a huge risk to people on the ground. How was it flying for several hours without any ATC contact?