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Darkprincess69 said:
Completion Bias combined with strict scheduling requirements has caused or contributed to quite a few deadly accidents over the decades, not least of which was the 1977 Tenerife disaster, which to this day, remains the very worst accident in aviation history :(
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Very true! Completion bias, or otherwise called 'target fixation'. It is a kind of attitude that kills both unexperienced (the Air Florida 90 crew had hardly experience in flying in such bad snowy and freezing weather) as highly experienced (the Dutch crew of the Tenerife crash) pilots.
During the ground operations, the Air Florida commited two actions that were strongly warned against by Boeing, especially in freezing conditions (using the thrust reversers to clear from the gate and using the warm exhaust gases of the plane before them to de-ice the wings). Target fixation has killed several WWI aces : Guynemer (ambushed while chasing a bate plane), von Richthofen (sticking to an enemy plane that lured him withing reach of ground machine fire) and Mannock (also ground fire, he had descended to watch the wreck of a plane he just had shot down). All three did something, they would have strongly warned against any rookie pilot.
 
Darkprincess69 said:
Yes I remember the Potomac accident well - coming from an aviation family I was always very aware of these kind of incidents from quite a young age and the inherent risks involved in flying in poor weather conditions. Interestingly, that one was also made into a movie (though iirc it was a straight to tv movie rather than a mainstream release)

It's worth remembering that the dangers of ice were not as well understood 40 years ago as they are now, but the main contributing factor was the ever-present bogeyman that is completion bias - the desire to get things moving rather than waiting around for another de-icing procedure. These days of course pilots don't generally have the discretion to go ahead with risks of this nature and airline rules are very clear that no amount of ice on a plane is safe and in bad weather like this, it is mandatory to be properly de-iced immediately before departure, and if delays are expected, then to have the procedure carried out just before takeoff rather than having the plane waiting around on the tarmac getting frozen up again. Completion Bias combined with strict scheduling requirements has caused or contributed to quite a few deadly accidents over the decades, not least of which was the 1977 Tenerife disaster, which to this day, remains the very worst accident in aviation history :(

I think most of us have, at one time or another, been sat on a plane waiting to take off only to be delayed by various technical issues, including de-icing and other safety-critical operations. While it's very easy to get impatient, I would urge anyone in this position to just relax and chill out - as my dad always used to say, "It's better to arrive late in this life, than early in the next one"...

Again, the Mentour Pilot Youtube channel has an in-depth video on the Flight 90 accident;

Seriously for anyone with more than just a passing interest in aviation, this is one of the very best channels on Youtube for fascinating analysis and non-sensational reporting, presented by a real life pilot / instructor.
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They also made another fatal error in the checklist pertaining to "engine de-ice", which was set to 'off', and should have been 'on'. Not only was the plane aerodynamically unsound do to wing icing, that error was compounded by not having accurate power readings in the cockpit, which caused the take-off to be under-powered. Not enough power/airspeed to overcome the loss of lift from the iced wings. They stalled as soon as they left the ground. All that plays into your scenario of completion bias, with an added factor of both pilots unaccustomed to flying in severe winter conditions common in the north
 
wulf said:
They also made another fatal error in the checklist pertaining to "engine de-ice", which was set to 'off', and should have been 'on'. Not only was the plane aerodynamically unsound do to wing icing, that error was compounded by not having accurate power readings in the cockpit, which caused the take-off to be under-powered. Not enough power/airspeed to overcome the loss of lift from the iced wings. They stalled as soon as they left the ground. All that plays into your scenario of completion bias, with an added factor of both pilots unaccustomed to flying in severe winter conditions common in the north
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Yeah this was yet another example of the old adage that no single event usually causes accidents - it's always a combination of events grouped together that leads to disaster. So many things went wrong on that day, much of it caused by an inexperienced crew running behind schedule :(
 
Darkprincess69 said:
Yeah this was yet another example of the old adage that no single event usually causes accidents - it's always a combination of events grouped together that leads to disaster. So many things went wrong on that day, much of it caused by an inexperienced crew running behind schedule :(
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The "Final Factor!"
 
16th January 1922: the British Viceroy handed over the keys of Dublin Castle to Michael Collins,
chair of the provisional government of the Irish Free State, marking the end of British rule in most of Ireland -
though not, alas, the end of conflict:

www.bbc.co.uk

NI 100: Ireland marks 100 years since British handover of power

Irish and UK dignitaries attend ceremony to commemorate handover of Dublin Castle by British forces.
www.bbc.co.uk
 
Australia Day.
('straya day mate)
It has become rather fraught with politics these days, which I won't go into. I'll just leave this here

272661080_5051123304931032_5141561686172180032_n.jpg
 
phlebas said:
Australia Day.
('straya day mate)
It has become rather fraught with politics these days, which I won't go into. I'll just leave this here

View attachment 1120593
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Strewth! - there's only two ways to properly celebrate Australia Day;

One is to have sex with Kylie Minogue, and the other is to listen to Men At Work.
Tell you what, I'll have Kylie and you can enjoy this classic :D
 
Four hundred and seventy-five years ago today, on 28 January 1547, Henry VIII -- who needs no introduction -- died in London.

Perhaps the old Duke of Norfolk was the person most pleased by the demise of the King of England -- the crafty courtier was scheduled for beheading the next day (having already lost his poetic son, the Earl of Surrey -- executed on the 19th), but the new government led by the Duke of Somerset decided not to inaugurate the reign of Edward VI with bloodshed.

It didn't really work -- the executioners were pretty busy in the years to come.
 
Marcius said:
(having already lost his poetic son, the Earl of Surrey
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Henry Howard, who is credited with inventing the 'Shakespearian' sonnet form, adapting Petrarch's to suit better the rhymes, rhythms and sentences of English:

Alas, so all things now do hold their peace!
Heaven and earth disturbèd in no thing;
The beasts, the air, the birds their song do cease,
The nightès car the stars about doth bring;
Calm is the sea; the waves work less and less:
So am not I, whom love, alas! doth wring,
Bringing before my face the great increase
Of my desires, whereat I weep and sing,
In joy and woe, as in a doubtful case.
For my sweet thoughts sometime do pleasure bring:
But by and by, the cause of my disease
Gives me a pang that inwardly doth sting,
When that I think what grief it is again
To live and lack the thing should rid my pain.
 
One hundred years ago today, on 1 February 1922, William Desmond Taylor, a motion picture director, was killed in Los Angeles. The murder -- one of the first and greatest Hollywood scandals -- remains unsolved, although -- or because? -- there were quite a few star-like suspects. It was a mortal blow to Mabel Normand's career -- she was the last person to have seen Taylor alive, except for the killer, and too many people didn't bother with the qualifier.

On the very same day Renata Tebaldi, a great soprano of her generation, was born in Pesaro, Italy. She had immense success, she was very popular...

But there could have been only one legend, and that went to la Callas.
 
Marcius said:
One hundred years ago today, on 1 February 1922, William Desmond Taylor, a motion picture director, was killed in Los Angeles. The murder -- one of the first and greatest Hollywood scandals -- remains unsolved, although -- or because? -- there were quite a few star-like suspects. It was a mortal blow to Mabel Normand's career -- she was the last person to have seen Taylor alive, except for the killer, and too many people didn't bother with the qualifier.

On the very same day Renata Tebaldi, a great soprano of her generation, was born in Pesaro, Italy. She had immense success, she was very popular...

But there could have been only one legend, and that went to la Callas.
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Bad times for stardom, then. Norman Mabel's frequent co-star, Roscoe Arbuckle, was accused of a deadly rape, around the same time. He was acquitted by court, but his movie career was over too. Both Normand and Arbuckle would die young from natural causes.
 
One hundred years ago today, on 2 February 1922, while the dead body of William Desmond Taylor lay on the floor of his Los Angeles house, an Irish expatriate in Paris was celebrating his fortieth birthday.

His name was James Joyce, and his own novel -- published on that day -- was his birthday present par excellence. The cornerstone of literary modernism, Ulysses divides opinion still.
 
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