Why I love (and fear) flying!
Today Iโm flying home to Nice for the summer! I got my studies done for this semester and now itโs finally time to take a break. ๐ค
For the niche group of people who care about what model of plane I will be on, I will be flying on a Boeing 737-800!
In relation to planes, Iโve been watching so many air disaster videos and documentaries lately. ๐ญ One because flying will most often bring up my casual interest in aviation, two because itโs like a weird kind of reverse psychology where my brain thinks โIf I watch enough videos about planes crashing, then I wonโt crash!โ Exquisite logic, I know. I would most likely be the worst person to fly with because one look over my shoulder and you see Disaster Breakdown breaking down the breakdown of a certain plane playing on my phone (awesome YouTube channel by the way, HIGHLY recommend checking out her channel).
So to pass the time until I board my flight, since I got to the airport EXTREMELY EARLY, I will talk about one incident I can remember! Keep in mind, I am NOT an aviation expert, let alone the biggest amateur expert in aviation, as my interest is more casual than anything. So I will miss out on a lot of details. Nonetheless, it is still an interest of mine!
US-Bangla Airlines Flight 211
I believe this is the perfect case study as to why you should absolutely take control over a situation when your supervisor can clearly cannot do that. I first heard of this incident from Air Disasters/Mayday which to preface, I know probably has a divisive reputation as to itโs reliability and etc etc (personally I like to make fun of it for other reasons but thatโs for another post ๐). But this story was so batshit insane that itโs burned into my brain.
First, the captain, who had a very experienced career in flying, was going through a lot personally, and actually submitted his resignation to the airline. During this flight, he was making very abusive statements to his first officer about a female trainee who questioned his instructor abilities and apparently he had to resign because this trainee pilot and him were involved in an affair. Regardless of the background, he was crying and mentioned he didnโt sleep because of his stress, WHICH IS NOT IDEAL FOR A CAPTAIN, especially since the airport they were heading to (Tribhuvan International Airport) is a very complex one to land at. It also doesnโt help that this was first officerโs first time landing at this airport and the captain was supposed to instruct her given his experience. Furthermore, this captain also began to smoke in the cockpit, which wouldnโt be out of place in the 1950s, except this was all taking place in 2018.
Skipping ahead now, when the plane was supposed to land this captain than began to fly this plane incredibly erratically which confused the hell out of the air traffic controllers. Then the plane began to fly STRAIGHT TOWARDS THE FUCKING AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL TOWER. Thankfully it missed but that is the part I remember the most about this incident since I have never heard of any air incident where the atc tower itself was nearly or straight up compromised! US-Bangla eventually did line up for the landing, only for the rough flying from the captain to catch up to the aircraft as it skidded off the runway and crashed into a fence. Only 20 out of the 71 people on board survived. Itโs an awful accident but just goes to serve why proper screening no matter how experienced the pilot is, is important.
Anyway thatโs just one plane crash I can recount from my memory but hopefully you can see why that one was very notable to me! I do hope to continue yapping about more plane stuff in the future since itโs fun :D
Happy and safe flying, comrades! โ๏ธ
