BTW Myself I am very nervous when flying in helicopters, despite living near the Sikorsky factory, with a neighbor who was an engineer there, and a friend in flight test, another who was an executive secretary. Igor once lived a mile away. The worst thing I ever saw in my life was the aftermath of a helicopter crash. I was sent to cover one by my hometown paper. A Jet Ranger when down in the woods and exploded. Almost nothing was left of it. The 2 occupants were expelled, intact, and were not yet covered when I arrived. I will leave it at that. I took me three days to get over it. One little piece breaks...all over. Really, really, sad.
My original flight instructor (fixed-wing) was a USMC helicopter pilot. He used to tell me that *nothing* about fixed-wing piloting should be considered "difficult," compared with the risks built into flying a helicopter. (And, apart from the risks, there's the reality that you need to keeping using all four extremities — both hands, and both feet — while flying rotary-wing. In contrast to fixed-wing, where you can sort of coast more of the time. Except in landings, when you're using all four at once.)
He was exaggerating for effect, but I took the point. Have never wanted to learn to fly a helicopter, and have only been aboard them a handful of time over the decades. They make me nervous.
Thank you. By the wildest of coincidences, Deb and I were driving near that site on 101 at just about the time of the crash. (We must have been there just before the crash, since we didn't see the fire or any other effects.)
I've made that "keep it tight" base-to-final turn on the "short" runways at SBA many times. (When carrying sightseers or other passengers, I've often requested a delay vector to use the "long" runway instead, specifically to avoid putting passengers through the toward-the-mountains-then-sharp-turn of the shorter runways.)
I am very glad to hear that people aboard this plane survived.
In the '70's and '80's I fell into the commonly held notion that efficiency and competence were present only in the private sector; "government workers" were, with rare exceptions, grotesquely incompetent. My attitudes then were much like dt's attitudes now. But I learned better, especially after becoming a public school teacher later in life, and even more so when I began to travel and I began to understand the gigantic complexity of air travel and the phenomenal skill and dedication required to maintain the degree of safety that exists, even now.
As the song says, I've looked at life from both sides now.
I think it all boils down to our overall attitude toward our fellow humans: do we view them as competitors or enemies who need to be superseded or vanquished, or do we view them as fellow humans, fallible and yet guided in most cases by cooperation, altruism and a desire to do their best? This goes for our local emergency responders as well as the cleaners and retail workers we encounter on a daily basis.
They say we typically assume the same about others that we know to be true about ourselves. This is why I enjoy these missives by one who is competent, skilled, and compassionate: he recognizes and highlights these same attributes in others. When dealing with dt's remarks, however, we get the opposite take on our fellow humans. Since he has spent his lifetime overcoming his incompetence and corruption with bluster (in other words, being inauthentic to the extreme), he assumes this in others. Hence, the D.C. crash must have occurred due to human/systemic failure, and of course that human failure has to be related to what, in his mind, is wrong with the system: too many "others." And of course, it's always the fault of those who disagree with him.
Thank you for this very eloquent explanation. Even though I grew up in a very conservative, Goldwater-voting community, and then was in college before your time, in the "government is the enemy" era, I've long respected and admired the average-civil-servant types. Many of the parents of kids I grew up with had those jobs — at the nearby Air Force base, or with county, state, or fed govt agencies.
When I interviewed both Joshua and Jason Carter last fall, at an event honoring their grandfather, Joshua said that on the morning after the 2024 election, he watched "Chernobyl" to lift his spirits ...
Thank you, James. I saw this briefing & share your assessment!
I was troubled, however, by the demeanor of the NTSB go-team members for the DCA mid-air collision, in their initial public briefing. They seemed oddly uncomfortable explaining how the process does *not* involve speculation ahead of verification, seeking blame (vs. responsibility). These are points that are always made by the NTSB to set expectations.
But I sensed a strong degree of discomfort (fear?) during this briefing.
Fear that the NTSB and participating parties will be accused of some kind of malfeasance, suffer intimidation and interference, or simply be silenced if the facts do not play out in a fashion that supports a particular political POV.
Anyone else have a similar reaction? Or am I just being hypersensitive?
With the caveat that this was posted on Pprune (where the “r” stands for “rumor”:
“The NTSB says it will no longer email news outlets or reporters with notifications of upcoming press conferences, including those on plane crashes in Washington and Philadelphia.
Same reaction: sense of palpable fear that they cannot win without compromising themselves. No confidence their own professionalism will be respected, now or when their work is completed. And they are correct, from what we saw this week.
Thank you for posting this. We all know that people in airport controls do a very difficult job very well and for anyone to try to ascribe motives that are really almost insane is criminal and without any humanity at all.
Thank you. It may not "make a difference" to speak up on behalf of people calmly doing their jobs. But I fear it would make a difference to pretend that the attacks on them are fair or justified, or that what is happening is "normal."
I just keep thinking about how that blob’s D.E.I. blathering will hinder recruitment of qualified people who aren’t straight white men, in a field that is suffering severe staffing shortages.
Anecdata: for the Bat Mitzvah of a family friend, Deb and I have given the wonderful young woman an "introduction to flight" lessons, specifying that it be with a female flight instructor. (And the one we have in mind has done check flights for me over the years.) The darkness, bigotry, and squalor of making *most* of America's population (counting women, plus non-whites of all descriptions) is just appalling.
“I know that people like the ones you hear—public employees, serving the public—did their jobs, under stress, very well.”
As of course will the dedicated Federal employees at the NTSB in trying to figure out what happened here. How does even a hot-rod bizjet climb as high in 3 track miles as this one apparently did to come down at a very steep angle and high speed straight into the ground? But of course they will figure it out. They always do.
Yes. Maybe there is some chance that the fact-based, careful, non-partisan, no-BS rigor of the aviation safety community could get people's attention, as it comes under casual attack. People have some background sense that this is a part of public infrastructure that *works*—and maybe they will see the significance of threatening to burn it all down.
Jim, I just wanted to say how greatly I appreciate your speaking plainly about these events, and those who use them for ill. No euphemisms, elides, circumlocutions. It is refreshing. More of our "very serious people" should follow your example.
I take it that the air-traffic controllers whose professionalism Mr. Fallows highlights here, and of whom there are already too few, are among those that Musk is targeting with his reported effort to make radical reductions in civil-service staffing -- an effort being taken with the apparent endorsement of President Trump.
My understanding is that this is the case. Certainly they went out of their way to dissolve the Aviation Security Advisory Commission less than 24 hours after Trump took over. (I haven't looked it up but assume that must have been part of the Project 2025 "Year Zero" agenda.)
Thank you for highlighting and lauding what these folks do while dodging the insults and slurs from the folks in the right-wing DEI program, folks who lack morals, ethics, empathy, expertise, you name the quality. Ironically, this is why I made a bunch of tee shirts for my team of VA MDs, shirts which say “another useless government employee.” I’ve been a physician for 30 years in the state and federal government systems, with private sector gigs on the side. The work at the VA is the most fulfilling, even more so whenever the kakistocracy doubles down on the disrespect. We try twice as hard to be perceived as half as good. Thank you for shining a light on these heroes. Any of Trump’s minions wouldn’t last a minute doing these folks’ jobs.
Thank you. During his five years as a Navy doctor, and off and on as as small-town internist after that, my dad worked extensively in VA facilities. The whole VA system has been enormously modernized and improved since those post-Korean-War days. But I agree with your assessment.
We are all searching for "what is to be done?" these days. Calling out people who serve the public with quiet, unheralded, and often-disparaged competence is one tiny step. At least for today.
And he just picked the guy whose name started with an A!
But why doesn't the public care to respect these people, or even acknowledge their existence? These are the unknown people, the little people, that America is supposed to be all about.
Too many people are overdosing on the thrill of breaking rules.
Speaking of respect: my late brother flew used to fly a charter Lear out of Teterboro, NJ, with people whose names you know on board, and if there was ever an aircraft that demanded respect, it was the Lear. With an accident record to prove it. Don't let it get away from you!
I have a friend who gets her healthcare through the VA. She is consistently impressed with the care and competence she gets there even though it is a long drive (almost 50 miles one way.) It is every bit as good as the care I get in our community which is blessed with many very fine doctors.
Thank you for what you do. And for the VA's "Insomnia Coach" app which it developed to help in the fight against PTSD. Our Government at work. The app has helped my in my fight after my wife died.
Thank you so much. I always thought Camille would outlive me, despite the challenges of SCI that she faced. I was so totally unprepared, everything I did was to protect her. I did not think of me.
I am doing more, and out and about, and trying to raise money for a Professorship in her name, but there are a lot of hours in the day. 44 years together is a lot.
Give big hugs to the ones you love, because you don't know what the duck will happen tomorrow.
Today, a reporter interviewed me about the fascist attempt to destroy the FBI. Not that I have a LOT of love for the FBI, though I have encountered many people in the bureau whom I respect greatly. But I made a comment (I don't know if it aired; if I could watch and listen to myself, I might be the Dodger broadcaster) that if you have a cold, you don't call a plumber; if you have a clogged drain, you don't call a doctor. Our country has increasingly doubted expertise. James Fallows reminds us that people who know what they're doing matter. A lot.
Since the issues of DEI/gender and the ability to fly a helicopter have been raised, this old piece of film immediately came to mind:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDI9nh2WHBo
Also, what does Jeff Bezos, about to marry a helicopter pilot, think about this?
https://www.tmz.com/2023/06/28/lauren-sanchez-lands-jeff-bezos-helicopter-on-yacht-sardinia/
I love that 1938 newsreel!
Pretty funny as a retort, isn't it!
BTW Myself I am very nervous when flying in helicopters, despite living near the Sikorsky factory, with a neighbor who was an engineer there, and a friend in flight test, another who was an executive secretary. Igor once lived a mile away. The worst thing I ever saw in my life was the aftermath of a helicopter crash. I was sent to cover one by my hometown paper. A Jet Ranger when down in the woods and exploded. Almost nothing was left of it. The 2 occupants were expelled, intact, and were not yet covered when I arrived. I will leave it at that. I took me three days to get over it. One little piece breaks...all over. Really, really, sad.
My original flight instructor (fixed-wing) was a USMC helicopter pilot. He used to tell me that *nothing* about fixed-wing piloting should be considered "difficult," compared with the risks built into flying a helicopter. (And, apart from the risks, there's the reality that you need to keeping using all four extremities — both hands, and both feet — while flying rotary-wing. In contrast to fixed-wing, where you can sort of coast more of the time. Except in landings, when you're using all four at once.)
He was exaggerating for effect, but I took the point. Have never wanted to learn to fly a helicopter, and have only been aboard them a handful of time over the decades. They make me nervous.
Jim,
Article on a recent SR-22 crash. Fortunately, with no deaths.
https://www.noozhawk.com/witness-shares-account-of-goleta-plane-crash-chp-officer-hailed-as-hero/
Thank you. By the wildest of coincidences, Deb and I were driving near that site on 101 at just about the time of the crash. (We must have been there just before the crash, since we didn't see the fire or any other effects.)
I've made that "keep it tight" base-to-final turn on the "short" runways at SBA many times. (When carrying sightseers or other passengers, I've often requested a delay vector to use the "long" runway instead, specifically to avoid putting passengers through the toward-the-mountains-then-sharp-turn of the shorter runways.)
I am very glad to hear that people aboard this plane survived.
In the '70's and '80's I fell into the commonly held notion that efficiency and competence were present only in the private sector; "government workers" were, with rare exceptions, grotesquely incompetent. My attitudes then were much like dt's attitudes now. But I learned better, especially after becoming a public school teacher later in life, and even more so when I began to travel and I began to understand the gigantic complexity of air travel and the phenomenal skill and dedication required to maintain the degree of safety that exists, even now.
As the song says, I've looked at life from both sides now.
I think it all boils down to our overall attitude toward our fellow humans: do we view them as competitors or enemies who need to be superseded or vanquished, or do we view them as fellow humans, fallible and yet guided in most cases by cooperation, altruism and a desire to do their best? This goes for our local emergency responders as well as the cleaners and retail workers we encounter on a daily basis.
They say we typically assume the same about others that we know to be true about ourselves. This is why I enjoy these missives by one who is competent, skilled, and compassionate: he recognizes and highlights these same attributes in others. When dealing with dt's remarks, however, we get the opposite take on our fellow humans. Since he has spent his lifetime overcoming his incompetence and corruption with bluster (in other words, being inauthentic to the extreme), he assumes this in others. Hence, the D.C. crash must have occurred due to human/systemic failure, and of course that human failure has to be related to what, in his mind, is wrong with the system: too many "others." And of course, it's always the fault of those who disagree with him.
Thank you for this very eloquent explanation. Even though I grew up in a very conservative, Goldwater-voting community, and then was in college before your time, in the "government is the enemy" era, I've long respected and admired the average-civil-servant types. Many of the parents of kids I grew up with had those jobs — at the nearby Air Force base, or with county, state, or fed govt agencies.
The 2/3rds of the American electorate that doesn’t vote, doesn’t care, and/or is maga will be getting a very difficult civics lesson, I fear.
Related aside: if the above resonates with you, I don’t recommend re-watching HBO’s excellent “Chernobyl”.
Sigh.
When I interviewed both Joshua and Jason Carter last fall, at an event honoring their grandfather, Joshua said that on the morning after the 2024 election, he watched "Chernobyl" to lift his spirits ...
Wow.
Thank you, James. I saw this briefing & share your assessment!
I was troubled, however, by the demeanor of the NTSB go-team members for the DCA mid-air collision, in their initial public briefing. They seemed oddly uncomfortable explaining how the process does *not* involve speculation ahead of verification, seeking blame (vs. responsibility). These are points that are always made by the NTSB to set expectations.
But I sensed a strong degree of discomfort (fear?) during this briefing.
Fear that the NTSB and participating parties will be accused of some kind of malfeasance, suffer intimidation and interference, or simply be silenced if the facts do not play out in a fashion that supports a particular political POV.
Anyone else have a similar reaction? Or am I just being hypersensitive?
https://youtu.be/mH0tk7SiCF8?si=wIIbadClgh0QLFko
I had the same reaction.
With the caveat that this was posted on Pprune (where the “r” stands for “rumor”:
“The NTSB says it will no longer email news outlets or reporters with notifications of upcoming press conferences, including those on plane crashes in Washington and Philadelphia.
Instead, all notifications will be made on X.”
Not a good look or a good sign.
Same reaction: sense of palpable fear that they cannot win without compromising themselves. No confidence their own professionalism will be respected, now or when their work is completed. And they are correct, from what we saw this week.
Thank you for posting this. We all know that people in airport controls do a very difficult job very well and for anyone to try to ascribe motives that are really almost insane is criminal and without any humanity at all.
Thank you. It may not "make a difference" to speak up on behalf of people calmly doing their jobs. But I fear it would make a difference to pretend that the attacks on them are fair or justified, or that what is happening is "normal."
I just keep thinking about how that blob’s D.E.I. blathering will hinder recruitment of qualified people who aren’t straight white men, in a field that is suffering severe staffing shortages.
Yes.
Anecdata: for the Bat Mitzvah of a family friend, Deb and I have given the wonderful young woman an "introduction to flight" lessons, specifying that it be with a female flight instructor. (And the one we have in mind has done check flights for me over the years.) The darkness, bigotry, and squalor of making *most* of America's population (counting women, plus non-whites of all descriptions) is just appalling.
“I know that people like the ones you hear—public employees, serving the public—did their jobs, under stress, very well.”
As of course will the dedicated Federal employees at the NTSB in trying to figure out what happened here. How does even a hot-rod bizjet climb as high in 3 track miles as this one apparently did to come down at a very steep angle and high speed straight into the ground? But of course they will figure it out. They always do.
Yes. Maybe there is some chance that the fact-based, careful, non-partisan, no-BS rigor of the aviation safety community could get people's attention, as it comes under casual attack. People have some background sense that this is a part of public infrastructure that *works*—and maybe they will see the significance of threatening to burn it all down.
Jim, I just wanted to say how greatly I appreciate your speaking plainly about these events, and those who use them for ill. No euphemisms, elides, circumlocutions. It is refreshing. More of our "very serious people" should follow your example.
Gary, thank you. I appreciate it.
I take it that the air-traffic controllers whose professionalism Mr. Fallows highlights here, and of whom there are already too few, are among those that Musk is targeting with his reported effort to make radical reductions in civil-service staffing -- an effort being taken with the apparent endorsement of President Trump.
My understanding is that this is the case. Certainly they went out of their way to dissolve the Aviation Security Advisory Commission less than 24 hours after Trump took over. (I haven't looked it up but assume that must have been part of the Project 2025 "Year Zero" agenda.)
Thank you for highlighting and lauding what these folks do while dodging the insults and slurs from the folks in the right-wing DEI program, folks who lack morals, ethics, empathy, expertise, you name the quality. Ironically, this is why I made a bunch of tee shirts for my team of VA MDs, shirts which say “another useless government employee.” I’ve been a physician for 30 years in the state and federal government systems, with private sector gigs on the side. The work at the VA is the most fulfilling, even more so whenever the kakistocracy doubles down on the disrespect. We try twice as hard to be perceived as half as good. Thank you for shining a light on these heroes. Any of Trump’s minions wouldn’t last a minute doing these folks’ jobs.
Thank you. During his five years as a Navy doctor, and off and on as as small-town internist after that, my dad worked extensively in VA facilities. The whole VA system has been enormously modernized and improved since those post-Korean-War days. But I agree with your assessment.
We are all searching for "what is to be done?" these days. Calling out people who serve the public with quiet, unheralded, and often-disparaged competence is one tiny step. At least for today.
How about this example?
https://www.vox.com/vox-conversations-podcast/23030205/vox-conversations-michael-lewis-against-the-rules-experts
And he just picked the guy whose name started with an A!
But why doesn't the public care to respect these people, or even acknowledge their existence? These are the unknown people, the little people, that America is supposed to be all about.
Too many people are overdosing on the thrill of breaking rules.
Speaking of respect: my late brother flew used to fly a charter Lear out of Teterboro, NJ, with people whose names you know on board, and if there was ever an aircraft that demanded respect, it was the Lear. With an accident record to prove it. Don't let it get away from you!
......
Our problem: respect is anathema to ego.
I was just reminded of this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Speech_(painting)
And, re bravery, this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H1JHVI7kCo&t=921s
Related question: why do we not typically cry when we see physical beauty, but do when we see moral beauty?
And, what is the opposite of moral beauty?
I have a friend who gets her healthcare through the VA. She is consistently impressed with the care and competence she gets there even though it is a long drive (almost 50 miles one way.) It is every bit as good as the care I get in our community which is blessed with many very fine doctors.
Thank you. My impression too.
Thank you for what you do. And for the VA's "Insomnia Coach" app which it developed to help in the fight against PTSD. Our Government at work. The app has helped my in my fight after my wife died.
I am so sorry about this profound loss.
Thank you so much. I always thought Camille would outlive me, despite the challenges of SCI that she faced. I was so totally unprepared, everything I did was to protect her. I did not think of me.
I am doing more, and out and about, and trying to raise money for a Professorship in her name, but there are a lot of hours in the day. 44 years together is a lot.
Give big hugs to the ones you love, because you don't know what the duck will happen tomorrow.
My condolences for your loss. I wish you long life, and I’m glad you found some help there.
Thank you for your appreciation of these hard working, unsung heroes. A lot of us in government try to do a good job.
Thank you. I appreciate your attention and support.
If there is anything threatening self-esteem of the current administration and the people who voted them in, it’s actual competence.
Alas, you're right.
Today, a reporter interviewed me about the fascist attempt to destroy the FBI. Not that I have a LOT of love for the FBI, though I have encountered many people in the bureau whom I respect greatly. But I made a comment (I don't know if it aired; if I could watch and listen to myself, I might be the Dodger broadcaster) that if you have a cold, you don't call a plumber; if you have a clogged drain, you don't call a doctor. Our country has increasingly doubted expertise. James Fallows reminds us that people who know what they're doing matter. A lot.
Michael, thank you. Well put. And this is as bad as any of us anticipated.