Hey Jet Blue, when a pilot goes fucking nuts mid-air, you don't have to suspend him. You can just go ahead and fire his ass outright.More seriously: The moment I heard about the Jet Blue incident, I flashed on the strange case of Egyptair 990 in November of 2001.
Although the exact cause of that horrific tragedy has never been officially determined, it is known that the autopilot somehow became disengaged and the co-pilot began repeating the words "I rely on God, I rely on God." The co-pilot, Gameel al-Batouti, was not considered very religious; he was a "big, friendly guy with a reputation for telling jokes and enjoying life." The pilot was somewhat more religious but by no means an extremist.
It is very possible, of course, that "I rely on God" was something Batouti told himself because he suddenly found himself dealing with a horrifying mechanical failure and was trying to avert catastrophe. At the time, however, most Americans presumed that Batouti intentionally caused the catastrophe. For some reason, the right-side elevators were pointing straight down; the Captain was pulling the left side up and yelling at Batouti to do likewise on the right.
If I were a conspiracy theorist of the lower orders, I might take this opportunity to mutter darkly about MKULTRA experiments on airline pilots. Feel free to do so yourself if that's your bag.
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