As a Semi-truck driver for over 20 years, when I first heard about this incident a couple things came to mind. 1. I was surprised the pilots actually saw the individual prior to impact let alone where able to try and avoid (thinking blind spots, and the speed the plane is going at touch down). 2. How did that individual get onto the runway area. Hats off to the pilots for not over reacting and putting all the people on the plane at risk of serious injury or death.
What I don’t understand is how a human doesn’t see a gigantic plane coming right at them. I mean, planes aren’t quiet…it makes me think it was a suicide attempt (and subsequent success) 😞
@@KDu400 Out on the tarmac, it would be so loud from all of the planes coming and going, I could see someone not hearing one more plane until it was literally right on top of them, especially if they were staff wearing required hearing protection. What they were doing out there in the first place, on a runway designated by ATC for an incoming flight, and not looking around their surroundings is the better question.
@@KDu400 Yep. There is a university library, that has a life size picture of an approaching 747 like plane, on one of the huge walls. The idea is, a threatening picture keeps brains alert. Run for your life!
@@Trainwreck_Art No airport staff would be in that location EVER. It had to be a trespasser. I worked at an airport. Staff would would be in a vehicle and in direct radio communication with ATC and ground controllers. You can't drive or be anywhere without permission.
In my naivety, I would have expected the Aviation Herald to attract fairly intelligent comments...obviously not. So stupid, it’s painful. TCAS for humans on the runway! Wince.
I think that's why you have to look at every comment on social media as a comment from any actual 10 yr old. It helps me deal with some of the weird responses and not reply with some knee-jerk response.
Former truck driver here. We were told don't try to avoid deer on the road. That goes for cars, too. Michigan DOT had a safety campaign where they said, "don't veer for deer". There was no way to avoid that guy. Whoever he was put a lot of effort into getting past airport security to get where he was. It was either suicide or trying the stunt in the movie Pushing Tin where Billy Bob Thornton would stand on a runway to feel the wake turbulence. That's a stupid thing to try.
If you want to experience wake turbulence, you need to do it at a safe altitude, while skydiving. I have personally never had difficulty in recovering stability,& actually found it great fun doing a deliberately unstable exit from Beechcraft. Nothing remotely like a jet, but you will tumble like a leaf for a couple thousand feet due to prop blast. Obviously, NOT recommended unless you're experienced,& at a good altitude( above 10,000 feet)! Rule of thumb: if you're not sure what altitude you are at, deploy main canopy! Improper attitude positioning may cause a malfunction if you are not flat and stable,& you need time to cut away/ deploy reserve if required. Gosh, it was fun, though!😁
In the late sixties as 16 year old kid under the influence of alcohol, my friend and I hopped over twenty feet of coiled barbed wire to access the touch down zone of an international airport. At night we would lie on our backs and wait for large passenger planes to land over our heads. We would gage where to lie by the black ties marks on the tarmac. On each successive landing we would move further down the runway trying to get as close as possible to the belly of the plane. Each time we did this airport security would scramble a vehicle with a yellow blinking light and we would run like hell. It’s amazing we didn’t get killed during those thrill seeking years. Of course now there is a huge fence that you would need to cut in order to breech and it’s likely you would be caught within minutes.
I can not fathom how any rational person could hold pilots responsible for this. The person should not have been there and every possible precaution has been taken to assure that. No system is perfect. Keep up the great work!
It's really a pretty simple calculation: The pilots can not risk the lives of all the passengers on the plane in an effort to save the life one person who has no business being on that runway.
Wow, this brings back some memories. I was a Tower controller in Darwin, Australia late 1970's. Early morning arrival, a DC9 if I recall, had been cleared to land. Final scan of the runway with binoculars when the DC9 was about 1 mile final. Uh Oh, there's a person wandering across the runway about 1000' from the landing threshold. Appeared to be drunk the way he was stumbling along. I advised the aircraft to "go round" and told him of the problem and the location. The cool response I got was "that's OK tower, I think we can miss him"! I could see the aircraft change attitude and apply power (black exhaust in the early morning light) and I assumed he would continue with the go round. As I was coordinating with the approach controller for a clearance, to my astonishment, the aircraft climbed to about 50 to 60 feet and then proceeded to settle back down on the runway for a landing. Fortunately Darwin's runway was 11,000ft long so there was plenty of room and the aircraft landed about 500ft. past the touchdown bracket markers. So cool, never forget that or the words. The airfield police chased this guy all over the place before finally stopping him. Comment from them was "eyes as big as dinner plates"!
*Final year law student here. For those wondering about the legality of the situation and who's to blame:* The victim's families in no way can blame the Airline, pilots or the airport security for this incident or file a suit. In law, there is a doctrine called "Voluntary assumption of risk". It basically means that if a person voluntarily puts themselves in a situation _(person walking on the runway I would assume voluntarily)_ where they know injury can be a result _(you have to know its a fuckin runway and those tend to be dangerous if you walk on them)_ , they are not able to bring a claim against the other party _(the airlines, pilots or airport security)_ ... There is no suit here... This is a defence for the tort of Negligence which would be the most probable claim against the airport security claiming security negligence... But here the defence of Voluntary Assumption of risk comes into play (for airport security) as the victim (deceased person) would be fully aware that he put himself in a situation that was dangerous...
Well, anyone can file a suit for anything. But any suit about this would surely be insta-dismissed. One question, though -- presumably voluntary assumption of risk requires that the person understands that they are in a risky situation? If a child or person with learning difficulties got onto an airfield, they might not understand that they were in danger, so would that still apply? I can imagine liability if, for example, a child or person with learning difficulties walked through a gaping hole in the fence, right? (Just as a hypothetical; not suggesting that this happened here.)
@@axa897 It makes perfect sense to ask and it, or something like it, has surely happened hundreds of times. Children and adults with learning difficulties get themselves into dangerous situations that they don't understand, all the time.
@@beeble2003 In that case the blame would lie with whomever has legal guardianship or custody of the victim for allowing them to put themselves into a potentially fatal situation. Unless it is shown that there is actual negligence, such as the airport or airline knowing in advance that there was an incompetent individual who could wander onto the runway and failing to take appropriate precautions, there is still no liability to them.
@@fighteer1 I can't believe that's true. Parents are not required to maintain 24/7 watch over their children. Children are allowed to leave the home unsupervised.
@@MentourPilot Was not this go-around filmed in a Flight Simulator? If so, I'm sure a company lending a right seat copilot would not have spent hundreds of dollars for a high paid company pilot to spend the day there filming.......(use student pilot in the right seat, evidenced by shaking hand on Flap lever, reaching for the ALT knob in error).
wycombe wanderer - I suspect the people who thought they could do a go around, were thinking they would be able to BEFORE the man was hit. Not after the plane hit someone or something.
@@lottiestanley7696 Yep, but you see, you aren't gonna avoid somebody. Especially in an comertial airliner in a dusk landing. And even if you have spiderman like senses and would've predicted that, the person still would've died because of the jetwash of TOGA thrust. So I don't see the fault with the pilots and hope that they feel alright.
I've worked both in the fire department and in medicine and sometimes you have to make these hard choices, knowing that it's a life or death situation. In this situation, you have to think of how many people you are flying behind you on the plane versus this one guy on the runway who has the full benefit of 1) knowing he is on an active runway, 2) being able to see the many lights on plane coming in to land, and 3) being able to hear the roar of the engines approaching. It's not necessarily a psychologically easy choice but it is an easy moral choice to hit the single person on the runway rather than risk the many passengers and crew on your flight. Looking at the damage, it looks like these pilots were almost able to miss the person since he seems to have hit the side of the engine. In my opinion, they should all feel like they did everything they could to save this guy and they protected all the people on the plane with them. Sometimes you can do every single thing right and someone still dies so the struggle becomes a philosophical one of realizing that everyone will die at one point and you just so happened to have been there when someone died and you did everything you could humanly do to prevent them from dying. In this particular case, it sounds like a suicide to me. This person wanted to die and they did. A pilot shouldn't hold themselves accountable for the irrational actions of other people. Most of the time, there isn't a person on the runway because most people don't make such a choice and no one in any field can possible account for such unexpected human behavior. I personally think that these pilots did an amazing job of trying to avoid the guy because, when you said he hit the engine, I imagined he had hit it in the center and been cut in two at whatever point the edge of the engine hit him but they must have put in as much rudder as was safe to have him hit the side of the engine. In any case, we should all rest assured that at least this guy died quickly and that's all any of us can ask for when we have to face death anyway.
I suspect that he died at about 200 kph. Imagine the acceleration. Yes, I have a very dark sense of humor. If the deceased doesn't like it he can complain to St. Peter.
You can have the best security in the world but if someone is determined enough they'll always find a way to break through any security and sadly in this case a human life was lost because of it, this wasn't the fault of the pilot because it's all on the individual on the ground
@@DeluxHippopatumus The thing with Area 51 is they've almost certainly got many layers of security. Probably more than anyone who doesn't have clearance to be on that base knows about - any security you can see, you can plan for, so the best security is to make enough layers that there are a couple of layers that nobody on the outside knows they have to plan for them. That kind of security works for highly controlled and secretive air bases or whatever Area 51 actually is. It works for private residences of VIPs like the White House and, especially, country retreats. It doesn't work for major commercial hubs - at some point it just gets in the way. Take a look at the Berlin wall. From the Soviet side. Getting into the NATO side of Berlin was a harrowing ordeal of inspections and suspicious, armed guards ready to gun you down if you looked at them funny. And yet, NATO intelligence services got people through that on a semi-regular basis. Why? Largely because it had to have limits on just how difficult it was to get through because there needed to be *some* degree of permeability to the public.
Actually, the fault lies entirely with airport security (not necessarily the individuals, but the security apparatus as a whole). Airport security (or, more accurately, the failure of it) is what allowed that individual to get onto the runway. The people who designed the airport security probably felt that someone walking onto the runway was an unlikely scenario, thus not worth the cost it would take to prevent it from happening, but that doesn't change anything. What if this individual had malicious intent and had set explosives on the runway instead of walking onto the runway? This was a massive and grave failure of airport security.
I used to fly. I left the airlines for the Railroad, with the understanding I'll average 3 pedestrian strikes in my career. If the crew happens upon this comment: Take the counseling if its offered. Don't rush back to the seat.
The difference is that on the railway it's almost inevitable that people will put themselves in the part of a train and the support services to deal with the consequences are usually readily available. On the other hand aerodromes in general and airports in particular are far better secured than most rail tracks so this sort of tragedy is relatively very rare. I only hope that the pilots involved will have the support they are likely to need.
I love your videos so much. I usually spend my time on RU-vid watching car content (builds, restorations, etc) but I find the most time spent on here is watching your videos. You have a way of delivering information that grabs hold of me and does not let go until the video is over. They're so thorough and well put together. Just wanted to let you. -Anthony from Pennsylvania
@@MentourPilot I was thinking while watching that video of the refused landing, it would be interesting to see a similar one, if the pilot observing was disabled. Is that something you've drilled in training?
@@MentourPilot no,its serious,in all videos that guy always struggle to move that lever. please take no offense,but either the lever is bad or he needs some exercise at the gym.seems like one day he will brake his wrist.
I feel really bad for the pilots. Especially the pilot flying, having to live with the knowledge that they struck and killed a person, even though it was unavoidable by them.
Absolutely nothing the pilots could do. I hope they are philosophical about it. The only person who could have changed anything was the person that was hit. It’s a bloody plane for heavens sake it’s not like crossing a street...
Yes, it is probably very similar to what train driver people (don't know the correct english word) feel, when they hit a person on the rails. They see it coming, they want to stop, but they also know there's nothing they can do.
Another thoughtful video. Thanks for emphasizing what can and cannot be done. You do good work explaining aviation to those unfamiliar with how it works. My thoughts are with the crew and airport workers who had to deal with this.
You make excellent videos mate, very well explained and thorough. I've seen other vids on some of the same incidents but yours always have that little extra bit of info and insight. Thanks.
Good video. I'm not in the aviation business, but I watch your channel often. You are very good at explaining the technical complexities of flying to the general public, as well as the economic and controversial aspects of the business. This would fall under breaking news, but you quickly answered a lot of questions on how such a tragedy could not be easily avoided. Good job.
I remember several years ago my flight was just about to and at a provincial airport in the Philippines when the pilot put on full trust and we made a go around and landed safely 10 minutes later. Turned out a water Buffalo had strayed on to the runway . Certainly would have made quite a mess of our 737
Thank you Petter for always explaining how things happen whether good or bad. I find your videos very informational. I am not a pilot but i wish i would have been a long time ago. I'm 55 now and too old for it now. Your videos are awesome and it gives me happiness, believe it or not, just to learn what i missed out on. Keep up the good work and thank you so much for being an excellent pilot.
I’ve been on one commercial airliner that had to perform a “go around”, flying into a Texas airport. It was initiated at about 300 feet AGL and handled quite professionally. We were later told just kind of a nebulous explanation of there being an obstruction on the runway. I never knew if it was another plane or wildlife - I had heard, deer where a problem from time-to-time for that airport.
I live here in Austin and am fairly close to the airport and use it regularly. By now many of you have seen the fence the guy climbed to get onto the airport property and yes, it is easy to climb. This happened in 2018 when someone climbed it to try and avoid the police. But the threat is mainly from animals, primarily deer, and humans are not much of a concern. At the moment, Austin is experiencing an incredible amount of people walking in traffic and other transportation infrastructure and most of them are what would be classified as emotionally disturbed people and often suicidal and under the influence of drugs of some kind. The police are working very hard, and quite successfully, to keep them from getting killed or injured but there are still incidents every day of people being struck. But someone making the effort to walk on the runway was not something that could have been anticipated as most of these incidents are more in Austin proper, and not on the edge of the city where the airport is located. And, just my opinion, the person who was killed had no interest in avoiding the aircraft and there was nothing the pilots could have done to avoid him.
I work at Austin and never heardthid nonsense. Security is pretty tight at the airport. Although I will admit I have not seen the fence on that side of the airport.
@@johnfitzpatrick2469 I had this sudden thought about the stories of a guy who was sucked through a jet engine and survived. Is it possible that this guy was crazy, high, or drunk enough to want to try it out for himself. Getting himself in line with the engine was quite an achievement.
I can imagine the crew never expects something like this to happen. I also like to follow trains and railroads, and they tell new engineers that they _will_ hit someone during their career, and if that is a problem, don't become an engineer.
Very difficult to "like" this in the traditional sense, but I must warmly commend the way in which you handled this awful situation, providing information, reasons and explanations. Once you are back in the air, which I hope will be soon, I would wish that you, your crew and your passengers never have to experience this yourselves. If you do then I would have confidence in the authority of the cockpit crew to make the best decision available at that time. Stay safe.
I'd say it's very likely to be suicide, suicides are up right now for obvious reasons it's been particularly bad in cities with New York city had people stuck by trains in the subway nearly every day last week it was two one day plus several jumpers from bridges. It's not unreasonable to think some one in Austin would use an aircraft instead
Sad to say, but very probable. The only participant who had any real opportunity to avoid the collision would have been the pedestrian. It will be interesting to find out if he was also wearing dark clothing...
Hi Mentour Pilot. A keen follower of your videos here from India. I love the way you explain even the smallest things in detail. You are doing an excellent work Sir - spreading your knowledge. Thank you.
My thoughts exactly! So if the simulator is teaching that guy to be apprehensive on the flaps or if he's just unfamiliar with the correct operation hopefully that will be addressed. Shame on them if the simulator is malfunctioning as it is making for bad habits. He was completely distracted with a simple control mechanism when it should not claimed that much of his attention.
When a pilots coming in to land they have a limited amount of view and has trust in the airport that runway is clear after being given permission to land. At a certain altitude a 737 or any aircraft would have difficulty climbing back up asap. And once they flare the aircraft the view is evan more limited. I feel for family members for the deceased. But the pilots cannot be blamed at any cost for this incident.
@@thrustasymcomp9145 but does your ge90 have a weight of over 45 tons coming in to land at around 130knots. It is not easy at a very low altitude just about to land to get a 737 any series to climb up asap
If any blame could be assigned to anyone besides the poor sod himself, it would have to be someone in the tower detailed with observing runways making sure they are actually clear....but I don't know if such a duty exists in the tower...
John the Greek Whenever they show these simulator clips I notice the pilot monitoring fumble with the flaps handle. In my youth I was a flight attendant and have made many landings in the cockpit on the jump seat, the flap handle always worked smooth and without interferance. Anything wrong with the simulator?
The spoilers are no problem, they will instantly retract if thrust is reapplied for the go-around. If the reversers are unlocked, there is no more go-around availible
Mentour Pilot was that not implemented after American Airlines in Columbia? And It’s likely procedure, but if you had a long enough runway and enough remaining speed, you could conceivably wait for the reversers to stow. Not a great plan, but it’s a plan.
Thomas Mortimore absolutely not. Side note, recalling an interview with “Kennedy Steve”, he asked an Air India aircraft to expedite crossing runway, traffic on final, after the third prompt, Air India came back with “tower, this is a jumbo jet, not a motor car, we are moving as fast as we can”.
My friend was a train driver. He had to give it up after he hit someone on the track. Even though it was a suicide, he was deeply traumatised. The impact of killing someone can't be underestimated.
I assume suicide, but we might never know. The damage clearly shows how much energy there is at this speed. And yes, it must be a horror for the pilots, not being able to do anything. Just like people who jump in front of a train to kill themselves, train drivers usually get psychological treatment after that, because of the shock. Hope the pilots will get some help, too.
Airport officials confirmed a man was hit and killed by a Southwest Airlines plane from Dallas, and he was not a badged employee for either the airport or city, meaning he was not authorized to be on the runway. Detectives are investigating this as a security breach. Austin Police identified the man as 22-year-old Junin Ko.
In Australia Kangaroos are a real problem. We are trained when confronting a Roo or other animal on the road, NEVER NEVER try to avoid the animal, stop if POSSIBLE do not try to avoid. In fact if you try to avoid and loose control or roll the vehicle your insurance company (especially if a hire vehicle) may deny your insurance claim.
If the pilot has to choose to save the life of one person on the runway or 260 souls on the plane, then he made the right decision to save the people on the plane. I feel bad for the guy who lost his life but it's pretty difficult not to hear a plane coming in to land. How did he not hear it? Perhaps ambient noise from the airport kept him from hearing the plane but it's really tragic that he lost his life and just awful for his family to have to endure. It's terrible losing a loved one. I can testify to that.
I think that we can understand your feelings. I know what I am feeling and I feel the need, like you, to express myself. What happened was a bad thing and there's no good side to it. Stuff happens. We just gotta do our best...
I hit a coyote on a runway with my C150 in similar lighting conditions, just past sundown and too light for runway lights; I was on rollout, aerobraking, and was suddenly aware that 'patches of runway seemed to be moving', which turned into 8 adult coyotes running like hell away from me down the runway...and one crossed and went under the airborne nosewheel. This was all of 4 seconds. So I feel for these guys, I'm sure they got 1 or 2 seconds warning, the realization coming after that there was a person there. And I didn't get any fatheads second guessing me. Good video!
Thank you. I'm a ramp agent at Austin Bergstrum Airport. It's ridiculous if anyone is suggesting the crew could've done anything to avoid this tragedy. It goes to show how vocal some people can be on subjects they have a complete lack of knowledge on.
Railroad drivers have to go through this 3 times throughout their career on average, only with no option of go around but 500+ meters before they come to a halt. Also they have a more direct sensual input about what is happening with bodyparts hitting the drivers cabin and the smell of tissue hitting red hot brakes. I lived next to one of europes most densely frequented railroad lines as a child and we had these incidents about once per month. Once, our neighbours daughter found a boot with the separated foot still in it. Right the thing you want to happen to 12 year olds... People who want to get themselves killed and decide to do it that way really should consider what they are doing to other people.
I'm not a pilot, but I was a passenger in a jet that executed a "go around" at the last second before landing. There was, as the pilot explained, "traffic on the runway". I assume it was another plane. In any case, it is quite scary for the passengers!
My insurance agent gave me valuable advice years ago. If you have an animal dart in front of you in your car, hit it. Don't risk putting your car in the ditch to avoid hitting any animal, reason being, insurance will pay out if you hit the animal, but stuff it in the ditch and that's 100% driver error. Not that this applies to aircraft but I can't imagine trying to swerve a 60+ tonne aircraft at 260kph and risk stuffing it. Horrible incident, but unavoidable sadly.
I worked for a regional carrier at a regional airport in a rural part of Texas. One evening just about dark, a C-172 had just touched down and a deer (doe) ran onto the runway. The airplane hit the deer with the propeller which flipped the deer around to the right and wiped out the main landing gear strut and right side horizontal stabilizer. The only casualty was the deer but the two people in the airplane had to change their underwear. I would loved to have been a fly on the wall when the owner was explaining this to his insurance agent.
About eight years ago, I was flying from Helsinki to Heathrow and we were coming into land. Really normal landing, then suddenly, the engines roared up and we went around. The ground looked super near. We went around and the captain came on the PA and said that he had aborted the landed because 'he had seen a vehicle on the runway'. What the hell was a vehicle doing on the runway during a landing at London Heathrow??? I got home and expected it to be on the news, but absolutely nothing. I thought that this would be major news, but but was like it never happened.
I actually find it harder to see things at dusk than I do at night while driving. Something about the half lighting glow. Almost makes things blend together.
Petter, I am not a pilot, but I do drive a car, and I happen to live in an area when it is quite possible to have various wildlife on the highway when highway driving. Instruction in Driver's Ed is quite clear: if there is a small animal in your path, you cannot avoid it at highway speed, and you should not attempt to, as you are most likely to wreck the car and still hit the animal. At scale, that is the same problem here, though with a human being at risk. As tragic as it is, it would be more dangerous, put more lives at risk, to attempt to avoid the collision. I am so sorry for the folks involved here, it must have been horrific for the pilots, airport staff, and friends and family and friends of the deceased, but absolutely unavoidable once the person who died stepped onto the runway.
Addition to your comment on the fences a lot of airports espically your larger ones have trip wires installed so if you try climbing or cutting the fence an alarm sounds to what part of the fence has the activity.
The flaps seems way harder to set than I imagined. Is it because the assisting pilot has to ensure the flaps movement has finished until he can move on to the next task?
There is a wooded area just west of 17R (now 18R) inside the security fence. As a result a person can be hiding in the trees and likely entered through a small hole in the chain link fence.
Questions: 1) why was this person on a runway? Was he working? Trespassing? Lost and confused? What? 2) WHY, WHY, WHY don't ac have horns? This is not the first video I've seen where there were people on a runway. ( The other vid had 2 kids on bikes riding down a runway OF A DECOMMISSIONED AIRPORT that 2 pilots needed to land at in an emergency! No engines! So the plane was pretty silent as it glided in and no one was expecting a jet to be coming at them at speed since the airport had been closed years earlier and was now used as a racetrack for autos. The point being, there are enough times when a horn would be helpful that they should be installed! At $250,000,000 a plane, a working horn should not affect the purchase price in any discernable way! -------- In the 'old' days my buddy in hs would pick me up and we would go over to ORD and go in the back gate and drive across working runways. His pop was a United captain and had a sticker on the car which allowed us to enter these back gates. We would sit at the end of runways and watch planes lift off! It was fun!!! The car was a '66 or '67 Thunderbird, with the 2 fuel tanks and round taillights and the curved back seat. So heady stuff (if you were 16!) and very dumb stuff to do! But this was the mid- later '60's, ---'66 or '67, maybe '68? You know, , what could possibly go wrong????!!!! Right???!!!! Sitting at the end of a runway! In a car! But no one ever came out to shag us away or anything else. As I said, the 'good old' days! (Which weren't so good really!) Or around '66, '67! And no, I'm not sure if the car was left running or not. But I think the engine was switched off as we were there for long periods watching, talking, goofing around, as 16, 17 year old guys are known to do. On occasion! It is a wonder some of us ever got to adulthood and old age! Only by the grace of God have I!
I've seen people use trains as an example; we all know not to be on train tracks and that a train can't stop for a human seen at the last minute. But most of us don't have experience conducting trains or getting stuck on tracks. Consider the case of a person driving a van or other large vehicle on a freeway or highway, traveling at high speeds in the dark. Most of us may have that experience, and we've probably seen a deer, rabbit, skunk, raccoon, dog, cat, or some other animal scurry across the road in front of us at the last minute. In my case, I've even seen a bear jump onto the road in front of me in the dark (I live near Yellowstone). Depending on the visibility, the weather and road conditions, the vehicle you're driving, the speed you're traveling, and how early you see the animal, in many instances you're putting your own life and the lives of your passengers in increased danger if you swerve to try to miss the animal. In those cases, because swerving at high speeds could create a larger disaster, it's often best to just hit the animal. The same would be true if (heaven forbid) a jaywalking human suddenly appeared on the high-speed freeway in the dark. And of course the same is true if a human suddenly appears in the dark in front of a massive plane landing at high speeds on the runway. The question of "could anything have been done?" is valid, but when you consider the limited options a car driver has for an animal that suddenly appears on the freeway, you have to realize that an airplane pilot's options are MUCH more limited, with virtually nothing they can do to miss a human (or animal) suddenly appearing on the runway.
I love to watch Mentor break down events like this in which I hope more people can watch and then understand the truth behind what happened. I hope it can be educating those who are happy to speculate and share any theories or lies spread by medias who have no idea nor post content which they know is no fair take on the events, likely due to knowing a sensationalist headline gets more clicks, thus more money and thus they fill quotas or look good in their own company/to their work demands or simply to garner more attention online at the expense of the people involved here. I doubt no single pilot would willingly opt to hit any persons on the runway if they could have any ability to have not done, and if they could not have done so then I pray they know that there is no guilt or blame put on them by those who try to understand events such as these, and be educated on the facts, recognising that they likely already feel themselves all guilt for what they couldn't have known, done with any intent and should not have to carry such with them due to the circumstances, however, if it were I in their position, no matter how much it is easier to say such I know I would carry the burden of guilt for the live sadly lost here, despite having no option or intent let alone knowledge that this was to be my working day that day. To deal with such, then have swarms of media online hitting you without giving you the ability of knowing anything to do with facts and evidence but instead assume this was some intentional act is mind boggling to be put through as part of this after the initial burden I know I would carry despite being in no way at fault or to blame. Often when tragedies occur in life, we look for answers and that involves always, someone to blame and hold responsible for it, and many times there are a set of circumstances in which, as uncomfortable as it is for us all, there simply is no one to blame or it was no one at fault. Often we cannot have a blameless tragedy or think to the actions of the victim, or deceased here, could have potentially been at greater risk to others, in their responsibility of actions they took, if not for the actions of the pilots here managing to minimise the ripple effect of harm caused to not only them but others too. I am not in any way blaming the deceased here, as respectfully they have passed away and the justice we may seek in life bears no more given to them no longer being alive, and thus matters no more as they deserve peace in their resting place. I simply wish that instead of medias and online, more people watch people like mentor and others who can be the ones to give factual information upon events such as these before many go on to think they can blame or know truthfully what opinions or thoughts are shared but falsely done, especially when the facts include blaming or holding responsible those pilots thinking they did some act to harm another instead of wondering why or how they could not have done so due to having no option but have been a pilot unaware of a person in their straight trajectory but unseen by all eyes and ears in their and the instrumentations and measures taken to know somebody was there. Als, if it meant having to choose between the case of which we all may not recognise could easily be the choice to knowingly harm one to save risk of harming more, in the event that I having been asked this as a dilemma by my own Dad once past, could not decide to do anything, frozen and thus inevitably would have not been able to choose to opt to harm the lesser amount of people if it was me to have to choose. "the greater good" dilemma is not one a morally good person would ever wish to be placed in as it shows us just how likely we are to opt to not act and harm more people, than take on the responsibility we all should have to interact and choose to have less harmed persons overall. We simply would rather not be a part of a tragedy than choose to ultimately make it less one if it means we can not be a part of it. If in the case, a situation occurred instead of me being asked a hypothetical one, I hate to think I would have been frozen and not act to save more, however now I feel having the opportunity to be asked, understand my answer and prepare to do what is the best option, I would opt to act to save more people. If this meant unintentionally harming less innocent persons, that is simply again, what must be what we all do, or at least not share faceless or blameful accounts of what we are not educated enough within to think we have a right to blame others for nothing they could have foreseen or done wrong. And as a result of hearing how the pilots here be likely blamed by many after enduring what no pilot would wish to encounter, knowing they either could not have known a person was on runway and end up deceased by being there undetected. I hope more people will share this to let people know first an educated insight before casting blame or speculation out into the world, as harm to those involved here in another blameless tragic event, which is uncomfortable to have happened, but the discomfort is in the lack of fault we can pin on someone to it alone. Thankyou Mentour for educating us all on this event.
I saw a video on RU-vid of a deer being hit by a plane, the landing gear I believe, and it was so quick. One moment you see a brown blur and then it's just vanished in red mist. I was both a little scared and incredibly impressed. Physics doesn't really do second chances.
One thing you didn't address was, why on earth was the person on the runway in the first place! Really an incredible story. Makes me feel like anything that can happen will happen ... Eventually.
I think this video shows where we are at - as a society, that people (clearly in volume) blame the pilots or even question them. Yet more evidence that common sense is NOT the first reaction, but who to blame is.
Not much difference between stepping in front of a jetliner and stepping in front of a train except the steel train will have less damage than the aluminum plane.
Is it true that some 737’s have halogen lights which have 4 switches and some have LED’s which only have 2 switches on the overhead (then also got turnoff and taxi)
This is really unfortunate, but it's also pretty interesting because it's basically a real-life example of the trolley problem. The pilots basically have to choose to hit one person instead of risking the lives of however many passengers are on board. I would hate to be in that position.
It's not a real-life example of the trolley problem, there was no option to avoid the person. The plane was going too fast and would have seen him too late, so there was no choice to be made.
MP, layman query. When go round is done, whatever reason be, how does ATC cope with wedging a sudden factor in the traffic? Will not the aircraft be at risk of turbulence of another aircraft that took off? What if unfortunately, distant possibility as may be, the very next aircraft about to land also goes round!? pl do reply. rgrds VishG
Since no one else seems to care, I will - if YOU are suicidal, PLEASE GET HELP! There ARE people out there that care about you, unlike most on this comment thread who ONLY seem to care about the pilots, crews, and families... I scrolled through 100s and saw not one mention of the pain and suffering the VICTIM must've been going through to take their own life. Again, as someone who's walked the line, PLEASE GET HELP! Heck, message me if you don't know who else to reach out to. Some of us DO care a lot! Love to you all.
Short version: (after respecting loss of life) The huge plane has to be a "flying thing" until the moment the gear touches the ground and it becomes a "rolling thing".
