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Keith Wheelock's avatar

Jim We were sailing in Long Island Sound in July 1949 when we heard that the Yankee game was interrupted by a tornado. We immediately went into our emergency drill: lowering sails and setting a tiny steadying jib.

When a tremendous storm struck Long Island Sound, we were safe. A yawl near us sailed under with four passengers drowned. We picked up a number of sailors whose boats had capsized.

In addition to our often practiced emergency drill, we kept a huge set of shears handy to cut away rigging in the event of a broken mast.

As you underscore, be prepared for the unexpected, which occurs with considerable frequency.

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Dan in Maine's avatar

Except for those of us who have experienced the thrill of an in flight electrical system differential fault resulting in a (temporary, fortunately) loss of all electrical power at night, (the dreaded 6 light trip, to excite the old B727 pilots among us), the required flashlight in the kit bags of some airline pilots had become more of a dead battery receptacle. Technology tended to make us complacent if we let it. But we, most of us, learned to kept 'em in ready fashion, fortunately. I remember the Delta accident at DFW. Ten years earlier, in June of '75, Eastern flight 66, a B727 crashed short of the runway at JFK killing almost everybody. I remember seeing news reports that day with "officials" blaming the wreck on "pilot error". But NTSB later determined that a microburst caused windshear had been the cause, but added the caveat that the flight crew "had failed to recognize the severe weather hazard", and called that failure a contributing factor. Interestingly, the terms windshear, and downburst, were at the time all but unknown to most of us. The industry, with help and some heavy lifting by the FAA, the National Weather Service, the Airline Pilots Association and other interested parties quickly recovered the data from the EAL Flight Data and Cockpit Voice Recorders and built simulator scenarios duplicating all the data available, and got it programmed into flight simulators all over the world. For years, every semiannual trip to recurrent sim training included required instruction and evaluation on procedures to recognize and respond to wind shear phenomena, and specific non-intuitive changes were made to shear-emergency crew coordination and go-around procedures per aircraft type. For years afterwards it was ( and I hope still is) a staple of the airline training experience. The DAL accident pointed out that even with this new awareness across the industry, sometimes Mother Nature just is going to have her way. But the longer term safety record proves the essence of constructive inquiry based on known facts, and the willingness, at the time, of the industry to look inward to achieve the most essential goal whatever the cost.

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