Pilot called hero for avoiding buildings

Calling the pilot a hero might be jumping to conclusions.
 
Well, there are a LOT of trailer parks in that part of the world - could've been a lot worse.
 
"The pilot did one hell of a job."

Anybody figure out what that comment was based on?
 
Captain said:
"The pilot did one hell of a job."

Anybody figure out what that comment was based on?
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That means "No children or pets NOT in the airplane were killed or burned alive".

Or maybe like Bush , "heck of a job Brownie"


disclaimer: I am saddend when an accident like this occurs. It gives me pause to think of the loss for this family.
 
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RIP but that remark by the fire chief is simply ignorant.
 
Yea it sounds like he stalled it and spun it in....R.I.P.

I too think of the family, I wonder if all his family was in the airplane? Sad...

Tony
 
"They" hand out the word hero to anyone these days. I'm not disrespecting on what this pilot did or didn't do, but just in general.

On the news the other day a local fireman called a little girl surviving a near drowning a "hero" for surviving. :mad2:

Last fall the local news announcerette called the people who participated in the local cancer walk " heros". :mad2:

When I was a kid "hero" was reserved for flying astronauts, decorated WWII soldiers, etc. We way over use the word "hero" these days.
 
May they rest in peace.another statement made without the facts.
 
People try and to rationalize the horror of accidents like this by coming to conclusions they can understand.

When a reporter sticks a microphone in your face your first instincts are to conger up a fictitious event and praise perceived actions as heroic? Maybe they should just say, " We are still recovering the victims" and leave it at that.
 
Geico266 said:
People try and to rationalize the horror of accidents like this by coming to conclusions they can understand.

.
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People naturally try to find something good in horrible situations. Not unlike all of us pilots who watched the video of the 747 crash in AFG. We all wanted to believe that they were trying every trick they could to get out of that....only to later find out they had absolutely no flight controls from the moment they rotated.

It may not be correct, but it is a natural human response.
 
I think we are longing for the " Hero's " of yesterday and because of the lack of said " Hero's " we call most any action heroic.

The young people of today do not know what a hero is so you get them calling anything heroic.

Tony
 
Fearless Tower said:
People naturally try to find something good in horrible situations. Not unlike all of us pilots who watched the video of the 747 crash in AFG. We all wanted to believe that they were trying every trick they could to get out of that....only to later find out they had absolutely no flight controls from the moment they rotated.

It may not be correct, but it is a natural human response.
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Agreed.

I just don't get where the "hero" part comes in. How can they come to a conclusion they were "heroes"? The term needs to be revered and used sparingly for true acts of heroism. What term are we going to use for actual heroes? :dunno:

I guess the first responders want to believe the pilot was pulling on the controls with sweat coming down his face as he flew the plane away from the building. "He did a great job!" How in the hell would they know that? :rolleyes:

This is just one of those irritating "social creep" things to me.
 
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Geico266 said:
When I was a kid "hero" was reserved for flying astronauts, decorated WWII soldiers, etc. We way over use the word "hero" these days.
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And even using the term in reference to an astronaut is an overuse.
 
We are such a bunch of pansies we can't even go with 'mistakes were made' anymore.
 
About 9 years ago a Cessna 421 crashed just after taking off of my airport (KOJC).

I remember the wx was bad, but probably no too bad IFR: [FONT=ARIAL, Helvetica, Geneva]KOJC 211524Z 10010KT 1 1/2SM BR OVC003 M01/M01 A3003 RMK AO2

He rolled it over just after takeoff and went down in a residential area. I remember hearing the plane did end up against the foundation of a house, and fuel poured into the basement and lower floor, The two women and kids got out OK and nothing caught fire.

The landscapers who were working there said it looked like the pilot tried to miss the house. I guess.

From the accident report, he didn't do much else to avoid the house, including being overloaded:

[/FONT][FONT=ARIAL, Helvetica, Geneva]http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=20050126X00106&key=1

[/FONT]
 
One of the comments after the article, by Rodney Stich, "
As a former FAA airline safety inspector and Navy and airline pilot for many years, let me try to clarify something that should be obvious. Pilots aren't heroes for not wanting to commit suicide. When engine failure forces a pilot to land, and choose between flying into a building or into a flat area or open ground, you don't need to have Einstein intelligence. In the famous airliner crash into the Hudson river, simple minds called the pilot a hero for selecting the flat surface of a river instead of flying into buildings. Please!"
=============

I'm guessing Rodney doesn't have many friends.
 
1600vw said:
I think we are longing for the " Hero's " of yesterday and because of the lack of said " Hero's " we call most any action heroic.

The young people of today do not know what a hero is so you get them calling anything heroic.

Tony
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If you want blood to shoot out of your eyes, check out the cartoon Higglytown Heroes. The first one my kids watched was about the town fireman. OK, I can live with that. The next one was about the librarian! Click.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higglytown_Heroes
 
As us pilots know lose of control is lose of control. Once this happens everyone in the airplane is along for the ride even the pilot.
So if things would have been different and God or whatever was not watching over these people on the ground and this airplane landed in one of those building, the press would have been calling this poor soul all sorts of bad names and it would have been a bad mark on aviation in a whole.
The general public is......Stupid.....Sorry but at times I am even part of the general public so I am not trying to point fingers at anyone.
I say..only by the grace of God this was or is not me....I am no better then this person or no worse, but we are the same, only difference I am still walking the earth, but when will this be me. I am sure this poor soul never thought this would be him in this spot, so how can I say this will never be me?
To me this kind of thing is...scary. I guess its what keeps us sharp, or on our toes.

Tony
 
48dodge said:
If you want blood to shoot out of your eyes, check out the cartoon Higglytown Heroes. The first one my kids watched was about the town fireman. OK, I can live with that. The next one was about the librarian! Click.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higglytown_Heroes
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On the other hand, there can be circumstances in which a librarian can display heroism. An example would be the people who smuggled ancient manuscripts to safety under the noses of armed insurgents in Africa, as was reported in a recent issue of Smithsonian magazine.

To me, heroism is doing something for the benefit of others that involves risk to oneself. The greater the risk, the greater the heroism.
 
Palmpilot said:
On the other hand, there can be circumstances in which a librarian can display heroism. An example would be the people who smuggled ancient manuscripts to safety under the noses of armed insurgents in Africa, as was reported in a recent issue of Smithsonian magazine.

To me, heroism is doing something for the benefit of others that involves risk to oneself. The greater the risk, the greater the heroism.
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Yeah, not the theme of the cartoon. Basically anyone that does a job is a hero in that wonderful town.
 
Radar tracks indicated he made the initial approach procedure turn on the wrong side, then was unstable in the approach, then was vectored back around for a second attempt. The turn was very tight at the end, indicating a possible loss of control at low altitude. Missing the building on the ground was probably more luck than anything else. We'll have to wait for the investigators to find out what went wrong, but it looks like poor instrument flying at first glance.
 
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