USAir 1549 "blonde" FA story, A LIE!

[X-Forces]

And despite being completely submerged the APU provides air and electric to provide comfort in the cabin....

You mean that's not possible?

Man, next you're going to tell me that 9 or 10 large ballons can't really lift a half million pound plane. Say it isn't so.

 

[Qgar]

Cool, huh? Must've deployed the snorkel to the surface before they sank, lol.

Course in Airport '79, when George Kennedy's character was promoted from maintenance chief to co-pilot the Concorde, they were able to outmaneuver the F-4 chasing them and decoy it's AIM-9s with a flare gun....cool!

HEY, don't be dissin' my favorite movie character, Joe Petroni (played soo well by GK). From the first time I saw him in the original "Airport," I was hooked. Now THAT is a manly man!

 

[MikeD]

HEY, don't be dissin' my favorite movie character, Joe Petrone (played soo well by GK). From the first time I saw him in the original "Airport," I was hooked. Now THAT is a manly man!

I believe he was the only actor to play in all 4 of the Airport-series movies (Airport, AP'75, AP'77, and AP'79), and as the same character.

 

[KLB]

AP'77 is on AMC right now. What a coincidence?!

 

[tprops4me]

My goodness, FA's blindly opening doors, cockpit crews failing to communicate with cabin crews,
pilots failing to hit the ditch switch.......... Now I understand the endless hero worship!
Think Chesney will address these matters in his "memoir"?
Or maybe a poem?

If I remember correctly the first rule of an emergency is to fly the plane.

 

[jynxyjoe]

My goodness, FA's blindly opening doors, cockpit crews failing to communicate with cabin crews,
pilots failing to hit the ditch switch.......... Now I understand the endless hero worship!
Think Chesney will address these matters in his "memoir"?
Or maybe a poem?

Wow. What's your major malfunction.

 

[MQAAord]

Eh, "Snoopy" made his feelings clear in the earlier thread about Sully "cashing in" on a book deal.

Considering Snoopy's previous attitude, I'm really not going to get worked up about what he says here either.

 

[Jbird86]

BTW guys, Airport '77 is on AMC right now....

 

[AngelFuree]

How do we know what she saw if/when she assessed out the window of that AFT exit?

Could she see that the water was high enough to come in that exit? In looking out any exit, water would have been visible. I've never done an real ditching. I've never assessed out a window of a plane in a river, so I really can't say what she may or may not have seen.

While it certainly sounds like her story conflicts with pax testimony/observations, I will not throw stones or anything about opening the door, without more information. What did she see? What did the other F/As see out their door windows? What kind of training/information does US give their F/As about a/c attitude in a ditching?

She very well may have been in the wrong to open that exit. But I want more specific information before making a judgement.

See...I don't think anyone's judging her for opening the door. They're judging her because she lied and put the blame on "a passenger." Please don't tell me you would lie too if you were under the same spotlight. I know it sucks for her to look back at her mistake, if any, but everyone's safe now and that's what matters. No reason to lie about it, much less of a reason to be the ultra-dramatic lady she was in those interviews. I think that's why people are reacting the way they are.

 

[MQAAord]

See...I don't think anyone's judging her for opening the door. They're judging her because she lied and put the blame on "a passenger." Please don't tell me you would lie too if you were under the same spotlight. I know it sucks for her to look back at her mistake, if any, but everyone's safe now and that's what matters. No reason to lie about it, much less of a reason to be the ultra-dramatic lady she was in those interviews. I think that's why people are reacting the way they are.

All I'm saying is that I don't think I have enough information. Pax aren't always right either... The article says the NTSB is away of "conflicting reports" of what happened, and I'll wait to pass judgement until I read the official report. I'm sure they're conducting interviews of all the pax, and we'll see what those interviews turn up.

Pax accounts of incidents/accidents can vary widely, and have varying degrees of accuracy. So can crewmembers accounts... I'm not saying she did or didn't lie. I'm not saying the pax did or didn't lie. Bill was on a flight commuting home a few weeks ago and the a/c had a compressor stall just as take-off power was applied. The takeoff was aborted, and they headed back to the gate. Bill overheard on pax on the phone saying, "OMG, there was a loud bang, and we almost crashed, I almost died!"

I didn't see any of these interviews where she appeared "dramatic", I haven't watched any of the TV interviews of any of the crew. I sincerely hope she didn't lie about what happened during the evacuation. There is even the possibility of PTSD and even if she really did open the door, perhaps she truly believes [perhaps wrongly] in her own mind that she didn't.

In all situations like this, I'm just one of those people who really takes the "he said/she said" stuff with a grain of salt. I tend not to believe anything the media says because they're all about the sensationalism of it. I hope I'm not coming off as totally defending this F/A, because I'm not. I do not know what would cause a person to outright lie about the circumstances of an evacuation, but I want to hear the FULL report from the NTSB, instead of a letter one pax wrote.

 

[WacoFan]

I always thought it was somewhat curious that a pax would be able to rise and go to the back before the FA would get out of the jumpseat. Perhaps she was dealing with the cut on her leg and someone raced back. Perhaps she simply panicked and opened the door. End result is that everyone lived and we have that picture of the dork wearing his life-vest backward.

 

[SpiceWeasel]

Pax accounts of incidents/accidents can vary widely, and have varying degrees of accuracy. So can crewmembers accounts... I'm not saying she did or didn't lie. I'm not saying the pax did or didn't lie. Bill was on a flight commuting home a few weeks ago and the a/c had a compressor stall just as take-off power was applied. The takeoff was aborted, and they headed back to the gate. Bill overheard on pax on the phone saying, "OMG, there was a loud bang, and we almost crashed, I almost died!"

If I wasn't getting paid to be a professional and suck it up when I hear comments like this, I'd laugh in that persons face and call them an idiot, hopefully while they're still on the phone (for good measure).

 

[BobDDuck]

I actually just took the time to read the article (and I'm still confused as to what it was really about) and I don't mean to cast doubt on the guys story but if he was sitting in 24B (which it states he was) there is no way in hell he could have seen either one of the aft exits unless he got up into the aisle and moved back to the lavs. He may very well have turned around and NOT seen any passenger back there but there is no way he could have seen the doors themselves.

 

[AngelFuree]

All I'm saying is that I don't think I have enough information. Pax aren't always right either... The article says the NTSB is away of "conflicting reports" of what happened, and I'll wait to pass judgement until I read the official report. I'm sure they're conducting interviews of all the pax, and we'll see what those interviews turn up.

Pax accounts of incidents/accidents can vary widely, and have varying degrees of accuracy. So can crewmembers accounts... I'm not saying she did or didn't lie. I'm not saying the pax did or didn't lie. Bill was on a flight commuting home a few weeks ago and the a/c had a compressor stall just as take-off power was applied. The takeoff was aborted, and they headed back to the gate. Bill overheard on pax on the phone saying, "OMG, there was a loud bang, and we almost crashed, I almost died!"

I didn't see any of these interviews where she appeared "dramatic", I haven't watched any of the TV interviews of any of the crew. I sincerely hope she didn't lie about what happened during the evacuation. There is even the possibility of PTSD and even if she really did open the door, perhaps she truly believes [perhaps wrongly] in her own mind that she didn't.

In all situations like this, I'm just one of those people who really takes the "he said/she said" stuff with a grain of salt. I tend not to believe anything the media says because they're all about the sensationalism of it. I hope I'm not coming off as totally defending this F/A, because I'm not. I do not know what would cause a person to outright lie about the circumstances of an evacuation, but I want to hear the FULL report from the NTSB, instead of a letter one pax wrote.

I understand what you mean. However, I think it'd be close to impossible for a passenger to hallucinate that a uniform-wearing FA opened a door. Either that, or the pax was lying. We'll see what the final report says.

On the same note, it could have been another blonde FA deadheading or nonreving in uniform. We'll see.