Commercial travel safety

[Matthew]

I was at the FBO yesterday, they have a big screen monitor showing flightaware centered on the airport. I'm pretty used to it, but my brother was surprised at the number of aircraft in the area displayed. Mostly airliners, but probably a lot of GA. We watched a jet coming in on the display, then went outside with the handheld and watched and listened as he landed. Pretty cool. We've had one fatality since Colgan, and that was the SWA passenger last week. It's been a long time since airliners going down was actually common.

I saw this in the paper today under the "On this day..." headline:

153 years ago, 27 April 1865, the riverboat Sultana had a boiler explosion and burned on the Mississippi. Built for a capacity of 376, it was loaded with 2,155 and 1,192 died (fatality numbers vary). It was carrying released Union prisoners from Confederate prison camps. One of them, Andersonville, was notorious - 45,000 Union prisoners, and 13,000 died from various diseases and mistreatment. After surviving that place, then getting killed on the way home. It's quite a story.

This is picture from the day before:

 

[Pilawt]

We forget how treacherous it was to get from one place to another, and not that long ago.

On our recent trip to Australia we researched my wife's great-great-grandfather (on her mother's side), who sailed with his wife and infant son from Bristol, England, to Melbourne, Australia, in 1841. At the library in the Immigration Museum in Melbourne we found a book entitled, An Index of Passengers Who Sailed on Vessels Which Left The Port of Bristol for Victoria 1841-1863. Listed are George Watts, 31, “Labourer”; Susan Watts, 30, ”Wife”; and Thomas Watts, 0, “Infant”; from Somerset, who arrived at Victoria on 6 December 1841, aboard the vessel Ward Chipman.

The compilation’s author described the circumstances in greater detail:

Comparatively few vessels carrying passengers to Port Phillip/Victoria sailed from the port of Bristol.

The Ward Chipman was one of these. This vessel sailed from Bristol on 21 August 1841, carrying Government-Assisted Emigrants to the Port Phillip district of New South Wales. An early settler of New South Wales, Timothy Nowlan, had made a considerable purchase of land in the Hunter River District. Under the Wakefield Scheme, the money thus raised was used by the Government to bring 600 persons of good character and suitable occupations to the colony. The Ward Chipman emigrants comprised part of this group, and were chosen by emigration agent William Williams, under instructions from the Colonial Secretary. In turn, Williams awarded a contract to a Mr. Hinton to provision the vessel. Since this was the first vessel of its kind to leave Bristol for Port Phillip, it excited considerable local interest. Many Bristol people felt some concern for the emigrants about to leave on the long voyage, expressing concern about the quality and amount of provisions. The Bristol Standard reassured them thus -

We have made enquiry and ... everything was in sufficient supply, but allowance must be made for the grumblings of those who for the first time are subjected to the restraints and inconveniences of a ship.​

The Bristol Mercury provided further reassurance, that the vessel was seaworthy and well-provisioned, and that all emigrants were leaving of their own free will. The concern of Bristol citizens was well-founded, as 21 passengers died at sea. Enquiries were made into the provisions, blame was apportioned, and Hinton was still attempting to recoup his losses ten years later. It was also ten years before another vessel carrying Government-Assisted Emigrants to Victoria sailed from the Port of Bristol.
​

The family on her father's side fared even worse. The family traveled by wagon train from Missouri to Oregon in 1853, and my wife's great-great-grandmother died along the way in Idaho.

 

[Matthew]

A buddy of mine has a saying: "Times were tough back then, but by God so were the people."

A really good read is, "Undaunted Courage".

Captain Lewis, Captain Clark, and the Corps of Discovery left St Charles, MO, and rowed, poled, and hiked all the way to the end of the Columbia River on the Oregon/Washington border. Then they turned around and came back. They lost one guy along the way, probably from a ruptured appendix. Everyone has heard of "Lewis and Clark", but this particular book really lets you know the hardships they faced along the way.

As for airlines in the US, this is what NTSB shows since 1982:
https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/data/Pages/paxfatal.aspx

The first one was the Air Florida 737 that hit the overpass taking off in snow and ice in Washington DC. It the sank in the ice covered Potomac. I was watching, and so were a lot of people, while news helicopters dipped skids in the water to rescue survivors and pull them to shore. One flight attendant was to hypothermic to hang on anymore - a lot of people were about to watch her drown, and some guy (Lenny Skutnik), took off his coat, jumped in, swam out to her, and pulled her in. Another pax was trapped, and kept handing the rope to others so they could be pulled to shore, he died when the wreckage finally sank.

Airlines ran into mountains, wx, and each other back in the day.

 

[Pilawt]

A really good read is, "Undaunted Courage".

Captain Lewis, Captain Clark, and the Corps of Discover left St Charles, MO, and rowed, poled, and hiked all the way to the end of the Columbia River on the Oregon/Washington border. Then they turned around and came back. They lost one guy along the way, probably from a ruptured appendix. Everyone has heard of "Lewis and Clark", but this particular book really lets you know the hardships they faced along the way.

Yes, that is an excellent book. Also, watch Ken Burns' Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery, available on Amazon Prime.

In November 2005, on the 200th anniversary of L&C reaching the Pacific Ocean, I flew down the Columbia from Portland to the coast. Someday I'd like to start in St. Louis and fly the whole route.

 

[Matthew]

Someday I'd like to start in St. Louis and fly the whole route.

That would be epic. I might know a guy that might want to do that, too.

 

[Lachlan]

I was at the FBO yesterday, they have a big screen monitor showing flightaware centered on the airport. I'm pretty used to it, but my brother was surprised at the number of aircraft in the area displayed. Mostly airliners, but probably a lot of GA. We watched a jet coming in on the display, then went outside with the handheld and watched and listened as he landed. Pretty cool. We've had one fatality since Colgan, and that was the SWA passenger last week. It's been a long time since airliners going down was actually common.

I saw this in the paper today under the "On this day..." headline:

153 years ago, 27 April 1865, the riverboat Sultana had a boiler explosion and burned on the Mississippi. Built for a capacity of 376, it was loaded with 2,155 and 1,192 died (fatality numbers vary). It was carrying released Union prisoners from Confederate prison camps. One of them, Andersonville, was notorious - 45,000 Union prisoners, and 13,000 died from various diseases and mistreatment. After surviving that place, then getting killed on the way home. It's quite a story.

This is picture from the day before:

What’s the old saying? “The South will burn again!”?