2009, unlucky year in aviation?

ktsai91

Well-Known Member
I have a bad feeling that 2009 is an unlucky year. Why? 1. The economy is bad and it bites aviation in the butt. 2. There are too many plane crashes in such a short amount of time and many people died.

Any comments?
 
Hell, aircraft carriers on a cruise....if they lose less than a certain number of planes, it was a good cruise. Sometimes, the job being a complex one, things just happen. No rhyme or reason as to when or why.


"We should all bear one thing in mind when we talk about a squadron mate who rode one in. He called upon the sum of all his knowledge and made a judgment. He believed in it so strongly that he knowingly bet his life on it. That he was mistaken in that judgment is a tragedy, not stupidity. Every commander and contemporary who ever spoke to him had an opportunity to influence his judgment, so a little bit of all of us goes in with every troop we lose."
 
Stuff happens. None of it is related.

2009 is no more "unlucky" of a year than anything else. Calendars and years...and "luck" for that matter...are all inventions of humans, not some supernatural force.

Bad things happen in aviation -- we have just been fortunate that the last decade has been pretty good to us in terms of aircraft safety.
 
The entire year of 2009 is shaping up to be a bad one. I think the addition of aircraft accidents to the other bad news out there just magnafies it a bit. I would say it has been a bad year for commercial aviation.
 
Hell, aircraft carriers on a cruise....if they lose less than a certain number of planes, it was a good cruise. Sometimes, the job being a complex one, things just happen. No rhyme or reason as to when or why.

What is a realistic # for aircraft they expect to lose? When does this happen? Can't get a trap in, and have to ditch?
 
What is a realistic # for aircraft they expect to lose? When does this happen? Can't get a trap in, and have to ditch?

Don't know the exact numbers, and H46Bubba could definitely touch on this better. But there's any number of ways to get killed on a carrier deck. Planes run into each other, cold cat on takeoff, bolter enough and can't hook up with the airborne tanker, no divert due to blue water, have a ramp strike on landing, be off centerline on landing and hit numerous other aircraft, bolter with not enough speed to get airborne again, taxi off the deck, suck someone down an intake or into a prop, etc, etc. The ways to get killed are limited to the imagination.

But it comes with the territory of carrier aviation. Its an accepted known.
 
Mike, where did you get that quote from? It ties in perfectly with a safety piece I'm writing to present to our management.
 
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Mountain Goats: Check plus. "No Children" would also be kind of appropriate, eh? Although, frankly, probably just about anything he's ever written would be appropriate if it's about dying.
 
I think there has just been more focus on the negative so far this year, and not enough focus on the positive.:)
 
Along those lines, I guess this was a good year on the US Highways:

..... (CNN)<!----><!--===========IMAGE============--><!--===========/IMAGE===========--> -- The number of Americans killed on U.S. highways last year was the lowest since 1961, the Department of Transportation announced Monday. The number of fatalities on U.S. highways dropped in 2008 to its lowest level since 1961.<!--===========/CAPTION=========-->

Last year's death toll was put at 37,313. In 1961, the number of lives lost was 36,285. The numbers were compiled by the DOT's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
:sarcasm:
 
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