It's increasingly apparent that we will never know for sure what happened to cause the loss of Air France Flight 447 and those 228 people who died, unless international search teams, including those from France and Brazil, somehow pull off the impossible and retrieve the black box that is presumably lying three or four miles beneath the Atlantic.
But Patrick Smith, the accomplished aviation writer for Salon, has a very good possible scenario in his weekly "Ask the Pilot" column. Smith is a pilot who flies 767s internationally, including on routes from Brazil. He's an expert, and he also can write. I highly recommend his post this week. It's here.
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By JOE SHARKEY
Wow, Joe, now _I'M_ getting hate mail
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine what you go through but these people are so rabidly full of hate that it's unlikely you'll ever get them off your back. They're so preciously misguided . . . we're "Idiot Americans" . . . "Killers" . . .they just don't have a clue how to deal with their problems except to lash out at the most convenient target.
Gol Air fucked up, ATC fucked up, but they will never understand that. In their mind, it was YOU, the ugly American who destroyed all those families! Yes, You, personally! Oh, and while I'm at it, me too! Because I'm American! I must have been responsible somehow.
Oh, Bush has to be in there somewhere! It was a conspiracy to discredit Brazil so we could get their oil!
Yes, Joe, please go to sleep every night knowing that you personally were responsible for downing a Brazilian jet so Dubya could get oil.
That's the ticket! I've now finally got it all figured out, thanks to lovely hate mail from nice Brazilian women.
Fuck you too. Get out of your South American morass and get a life.
Maybe do community service in a favela. Better than ranting at Americans.