Stories to Ponder When You Are Feeling Sorry for Yourself
Updated on 2023-10-27
Contents
- A Year Without a Kitchen Sink (2023-06-22)
- Case Study of Failed Posterior Spinal Fusion (2023-06-22)
- Engine Failure Results in a Nightmare Flight (2023-10-27)
- First Officer Deliberately Plunges a Plane Load of Passengers and Crew Members to Their Deaths (2023-09-18)
- When Kids Kill: The Murder of James Bulger (2023-06-22)
A Year Without a Kitchen Sink (2023-06-22)
In September 1996, Roxy Whalley fled an abusive husband after years of mental and physical abuse, eventually becoming a mobile nomad. Following is her story.
Case Study of Failed Posterior Spinal Fusion (2023-06-22)
In the following videos, Dr. Douglas Gillard discusses a failed posterior spinal fusion suffered by a Middle Eastern man who became severely disabled as a result. You’ll be aghast at what the quack doctor did to the unfortunate man.
Engine Failure Results in a Nightmare Flight (2023-10-27)
Imagine the most frightening amusement park ride you’ve ever been on. Now multiply that experience thousands of times. That experience is what the crew and passengers of Lauda Air flight 004 must have experienced.
Lauda Air flight 004, a Boeing 767-300ER, flying from Hong Kong to Vienna, Austria, departed Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok, Thailand on 05/16/1991 at 23:02 (11:02 p.m.) local time after a refueling stop. The flight consisted of 10 crew members and 213 passengers.
At 23:08, the flight crew received a REV ISLN advisory warning. The warning indicated a possible system failure that could cause the thrust reverser on the number one engine to deploy in flight. On jet engines, thrust reversal is accomplished by causing the jet blast to flow forward. Thrust reversal is used on jet aircraft to help slow them down after touch-down, reducing brake wear and enabling shorter landing distances.
The flight crew discussed the advisory warning for five minutes. After determining that the warning was just an advisory, the flight crew took no action.
At 23:18, while flying over mountainous jungle terrain between Suphan Buri and Uthai Thani provinces in Thailand, the number one engine reversed thrust in flight causing engine thrust to be reduced to idle. The idle engine thrust caused a disruption of lift on the aircraft’s left side, resulting in the aircraft to immediately begin a diving left turn.
The cockpit voice recorder picked up sound similar to airframe shuddering, followed by sounds of metallic snaps. Buffeting, maneuvering overload, and excessive speed resulted in pieces of the rudder and the right elevator to separate. Then followed down-and-aft separation of most of the right horizontal stabilizer from maneuvering overloads. The maneuvering overloads were caused by the flight crew’s attempt to control the airplane and arrest the high-speed descent.
A torsional overload then caused the separation of the vertical and left horizontal stabilizers. At that point, the aircraft had completely lost all of its tail resulting in a sharp nose-over of the plane, producing excessive negative loading of the wing. The aircraft went into a diving speed of Mach 0.99, breaking the sound barrier. The aircraft then brokeup in mid-air at 4,000 feet, crashing into a remote forest area.
Most of the wreckage was scattered over an area roughly one square kilometer in size at an elevation of 600 meters about 100 kilometers northwest of Bangkok, Thailand, close to the border between Burma and Thailand. There were no survivors.
Outstanding video re-creation of the catastrophe by TheFlightChannel. Don’t watch too many of the videos on TheFlightChannel. You may not want to fly again.
How a Broken Engine Caused this Plane to Suddenly Fall Apart Over Thailand | Testing the Limits
What wasn’t mentioned in the video was the fact that nearby villagers descended upon the crash site and began looting everything that could be removed. You can read more about the looting here as well as the comments section of the video.
First Officer Deliberately Plunges a Plane Load of Passengers and Crew Members to Their Deaths (2023-09-18)
EgyptAir Flight 990, a Boeing 767, bound for Cairo, Egypt, departed JFK International Airport in NYC after a scheduled stop on Oct 31, 1999. The flight contained 203 passengers and 14 crew members. 33 of the passengers were Egyptian military officers returning from a training exercise.
20 minutes after takeoff, the relief first officer entered the cockpit and suggested that he relieve the command first officer. The command first officer protested because the relief crew was not supposed to take over until after 5-6 hours of flight time. However, the command first officer eventually relented and left the cockpit.
A few minutes later, the command captain left the cockpit to use the restroom. Seconds later, the cockpit voice recorder recorded the relief first officer making the statement, “I rely on God.” Seconds later, the relief first officer disconnected the autopilot. The relief first officer then moved the throttle from cruise power setting to idle. Then the relief first officer performed the necessary procedures to cause the plane to begin a rapid nose dive.
4 minutes later the aircraft began to break apart in mid-air at 10,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean. There were no survivors.
Why did the command captain not intervene or think it strange when the relief first officer suggested relieving the command first officer?
Don’t watch too many of the videos on TheFlightChannel. You may not want to fly again.
See How This Pilot Deliberately Crashed His Plane into the Atlantic Ocean
When Kids Kill: The Murder of James Bulger (2023-06-22)
On February 12, 1993, 2-year-old James Bulger accompanied his mother on a shopping trip. A momentary period of inattention resulted in James being abducted and lead away by two 10-year-old juvenile delinquent boys and later brutally murdered. The story, as can only be expertly told by the creator of the Descent Into Darkness YouTube channel, reinforces my being so protective of my daughter when she was younger.
When Kids Kill: The Murder of James Bulger
Post header image courtesy of StockSnap on Pixabay.
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