News Weird News Compilation

[Ibix]

Hey, take my word for it!

I'm a professional forger, and I have the certificates to prove it.

 

[Klystron]

A pilot who lied about his flying experience to secure a job at British Airways was said to have been caught when he pressed a button 'no qualified pilot would'​

https://www.businessinsider.com/bri...esume-flying-experience-pressed-button-2022-4Hey, take my word for it!

Why I dislike "Business Insider". Bunch of titles without useful information.

I wonder which button it was...

My guess: He tried to engage reverse engine thrust to slow the aircraft while in the air?

Engage engine fire suppression system?

Had to be potentially catastrophic to warrant an investigation...

 

[DaveE]

Why I dislike "Business Insider". Bunch of titles without useful information.

You can mark me down as very skeptical about the reporting of this anywhere. The news media just isn't any good at reporting the technical side of aviation.

OK, sure, he lied and got caught. But what about type ratings, simulator training, check rides, etc. The big airlines just don't let anyone show up with some paper and fly. He must have appeared qualified to a few people during training; people whose job is to see if you're doing it right. Even experienced pilots have to do this during recurrent training.

 

[Astronuc]

My guess: He tried to engage reverse engine thrust to slow the aircraft while in the air?

I would hope he was tested on a simulator before being allowed to fly/operate an aircraft.

 

[Klystron]

I would hope he was tested on a simulator before being allowed to fly/operate an aircraft.

One may hope. Simulator time can be expensive and spotty even at major airlines. Imagine how often No-Name airlines can afford to put entire crews through motion simulations. Crews learn to coordinate decisions and actions. Amateur pilots lack this training.

When I wrote code for full-scale flight sims, we were encouraged to fly often. I became a fairly adept sim pilot with ATC operators giving the entire panoply of weather, traffic, equipment malfunctions, pre and post flight checklists, etc. I logged many sim hours flying out of SFO and Moffett NAS.

Even so, simulators remain as distinct from actual cockpits in jet transports loaded with passengers, crew, luggage and fuel as a child in a go-cart entering the Indy 500 or demolition derby.

The motions and cues are radically different even on '6-degrees of freedom' full motion sims. Real aircraft lack the dampers and feedback of hydraulically actuated motion. Real pilots know this and feel it through their skin, compensating for every move even as they perform the action.

Sims are tolerant and forgiving, like a good teacher. Actual moving atmosphere and weather staggers the imagination. I worked for years creating and improving ongoing software package with an ME and weather scientists to develop realistic weather maps and motions for advanced sims. The actual weather, say approaching DEN (Denver CO), or Bristol UK, if translated to full motion would destroy the sim. Even watered down within safety parameters, experienced flight crews left the sim shaking and unsteady from reaction.

 

[Astronuc]

Actual moving atmosphere and weather staggers the imagination.

I've been on some interesting flights. One in particular involved a 727 landing at a regional airport. There was a strong gusty crosswind, at least 20 mph. The place was landing to the NW, with a wind from the W or SW. We approached fast, and I thought, too high. We got to the end of the runway, still going fast, and were about 50 feet above the runway, when all of a sudden the plane jumped about 20 or 30 feet. The pilot brought the plane down, but we were then about half-way down the runway. Just as we passed the terminal, the pilot increased power to engines and we pulled up. We did 270° turn and landed to the SW, with a much smoother landing. The wind was still blowing strong with gusts as we walked to the terminal.

 

[Klystron]

The best 'live to talk about it' stories never make the news.

Dead heading on fully loaded L-1011 landing at ATL (Atlanta Airport GA) seconds before a hurricane closed all operations. The Captain and First Officer rode that beast like witches ride broomsticks on Walpurgis night. We danced with the weather.

That Lockheed model features three jet engines mounted in the tail. I sat in the rearmost seat next to flight attendants inside, engines right outside. Hit my head. Then my knees nearly smashed my face. Head again. Never experienced motion that extreme outside Vietnam War. Enormous α (pitch, angle of attack). Sideways rain. Hail pounded fuselage. Lightning provided illumination as interior lighting failed.

Hardest touchdown I ever felt in any transport. Flames shot from engines as Captain reversed thrust, FO speaking calmly and unhurriedly and unheard over intercom. Thought right engine would migrate through fuselage. Winds howled louder than engines, if believable. What a great flight!

 

[jack action]

Florida rejects 41% of new math textbooks, citing critical race theory among its reasons

 

[BillTre]

And they aren't saying which books are rejected or why!
To me it appears to be a possible opportunity for someone to make money by eliminating some of the books they don't publish.
(Trying to avoid politics by not naming names.)

 

[BillTre]

Florida rejects 41% of new math textbooks, citing critical race theory among its reasons

There are already some funny articles about this not so funny topic:
Milbank, www.washingtonpost.com/… Under the headline “X Saves Florida Kids From Being Indoctrinated by Math”.
A quote:

At a time when Floridians by law “don’t say gay,” much less “trans,” this banned book brazenly teaches about the “Transitive Property of Equality.” Not only are impressionable minds taught about the “transformation of functions,” but also they are even indoctrinated in “describing transformations” and — appallingly — “sketching transformations.”

 

[nsaspook]

CNN+ -> CNN- after one month.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/21/media/cnn-shutting-down/index.html

CNN+, the streaming service that was hyped as one of the most significant developments in the history of CNN, will shut down on April 30, just one month after it launched.
CNN+ customers "will receive prorated refunds of subscription fees," the company said.
...
One CNN+ staffer at the town hall described the sentiment as "total and utter shock" that morphed into despair.
"At first people were really freaking out," explained the person, who requested anonymity to candidly describe the situation. "And then, toward the end of the meeting, it just turned to sadness. Every team was just huddling with each other."

"CNN had poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the new streaming app"

 

[mfb]

Maybe they can start CNN++ later.

 

[Hornbein]

Now it's CNN-.

 

[berkeman]

What do you do when FFs are trying to fight an apartment fire and some yo-yo has parked his SUV right in front of the fire hydrant? (skip the first 50 seconds of the video)

https://www.firehouse.com/apparatus...blocking-a-fire-hydrant-during-apartment-fire

 

[jack action]

What do you do when FFs are trying to fight an apartment fire and some yo-yo has parked his SUV right in front of the fire hydrant? (skip the first 50 seconds of the video)

https://www.firehouse.com/apparatus...blocking-a-fire-hydrant-during-apartment-fire

View attachment 300407

He's lucky they didn't go full "Backdraft" on it:

​

 

[berkeman]

Okay, we may need to have annual award for the weirdest news item submitted in this thread. Here's my front-runner for 2022 so far...

A woman who accidentally dropped her cellphone into the hole of an outhouse in a national forest and fell in while trying to retrieve it had to be rescued by firefighters in Washington state.

Brinnon Fire Department Chief Tim Manly said the woman, who was at the top of Mount Walker in the Olympic National Forest northwest of Seattle, had been using her phone when it fell into the toilet on Tuesday, The Kitsap Sun reported.

Manly said she disassembled the toilet seat and used dog leashes to try and get the phone and eventually used the leashes to tie herself off as she reached for it. That effort failed and she fell into the toilet headfirst.

“They didn’t work very well and in she went,” Manly said.

The woman was alone and tried to get out for 10 to 15 minutes. Reunited with her phone, she called 911, Manly said.

 

[Ibix]

I love that the Fire Chief's name is Manly. With a name like that you can't take a job pushing paper...

 

[DaveC426913]

I love that the Fire Chief's name is Manly. With a name like that you can't take a job pushing paper...

 

[berkeman]

Well, at least his first name is "Les" and not "Mo"...

 

[mfb]

Burr?

You arrive at the fire and see Burr McBurney^'s face.

 

[Borg]

Okay, we may need to have annual award for the weirdest news item submitted in this thread. Here's my front-runner for 2022 so far...

I can't imagine the hazmat cleanup they would have had to do on the ambulance after that.

About the only way to top that is if another person does the same thing while trying to take a selfie.

 

[berkeman]

I can't imagine the hazmat cleanup they would have had to do on the ambulance after that.

In my HAZMAT First Responder training, one of the mantras was "The only way the patient is getting in my ambulance is if they are wet and naked" (implying that they have been de-con'ed by Fire hoses...)

 

[DaveC426913]

I can't imagine the hazmat cleanup they would have had to do on the ambulance after that.

Hmph.

Eight years ago, I had an incident where some** of my inside juices decided to be outside juices. I was in bed in our second floor loft.

The paramedics came - saw the radius of the splash zone - and would not touch me; they just stayed at the top of the stairs. Despite the certainty that I would black out if I stood up (because of aforesaid missing inside juices), they made me crawl to the stairs, then skootch down the stairs on my bum (lest I black out and fall), and into the bathroom shower (where I blacked out) so I could get hosed down before they would touch me. The last words I remember were "Please, I would like to lie down on a gurney now."

My wife did the cleanup without a hazmat suit.

** [EDIT] sorry, it was only one inside juice - the really important one that's not supposed to ever become an outside juice - it's just became an outside juice by way of a plethora of non-sterile exits. And there was a lot of it.

 

[Borg]

In my HAZMAT First Responder training, one of the mantras was "The only way the patient is getting in my ambulance is if they are wet and naked" (implying that they have been de-con'ed by Fire hoses...)

Ah. Pride goeth before the ambulance.

Edit: In her case, it went before the fall and then again before the ambulance. Not a good day for sure.

 

[strangerep]

Hmph.

+1.

The paramedics came - saw the radius of the splash zone - and would not touch me; [...]

I had a similar experience 20+ yrs ago: a stomach bleed which (at that time) I didn't understand, because blood in the stomach turns black by reaction with HCl. By the time I phoned emergency, I could barely crawl, yet the paramedics were highly reluctant to help me down 3 flights of stairs. I didn't think of trying to skootch down the stairs on my bum - my brain was barely working.

They did help me in the end when it became clear I couldn't do it on my own. But sheesh! I'm surprised they don't get more training/emphasis about how they're supposed to help people who are in seriously dire need. If they can't handle it, they should change professions.

If that sort of thing ever happens to me again, maybe I'll just call a taxi instead of an ambulance, and try to crawl/skootch.

 

[DaveC426913]

a stomach bleed

Dieulafoy's Lesion.
Instigated by a (possibly idiopathic) 100% block of Splenic artery.
16 units - all told - to top me up.

"Eleven hundred doctors went into the room, 316 doctors come out. Sharks took the rest."

 

[berkeman]

Well for the record, I've cleaned my fair share of patients up. We do look for the easiest way to do that obviously. Dave -- sorry you had to pass out as a part of the "rescue".

 

[DaveC426913]

Well for the record, I've cleaned my fair share of patients up. We do look for the easiest way to do that obviously. Dave -- sorry you had to pass out as a part of the "rescue".

I don't fault them for anything and I have a great story to tell.

(In truth, there is no way they could have gotten me down the stairs. They're both steeper and narrower than code and inadequate hand rails (the whole loft was done by an amateur).)

 

[Algr]

...he pressed a button 'no qualified pilot would'​

"Why do they even HAVE that button?"

According to someone on Redit:

He was flying an Embraer 190 regional jet for a British airways off shoot flying mainly from City airport called BA city flyer. He turned off a guarded switch (irreversible switch to a system used in conjunction with the QRH or aircraft ECAM to isolate a system in special circumstances like a failure) which always needs cross confirmation with your colleague. The details haven’t been released but could be any number of switches like a RAM ram air turbine or IDG which isolates a generator, I hope this helps.

---

We did 270°C turn

That is one hot turn.

 

[Klystron]

Correction: @Astronuc wrote the comment containing 'no qualified pilot would', not Klystron. Probably an editing error while multi-quoting.

"Why do they even HAVE that button?"