Why I am not an astronaut
September 8th, 2006 | 
Author: 
A KLM Boeing 747, flight 4805 taxied to the only runway at Los Rodeos airport and took position for takeoff. The weather was terrible, they could only see part of the runway. They also knew that there was another plane taxiing on that runway when they lined up for takeoff, but couldn’t see it. Probably due to language differences, the communication with the tower was not clear. There was some confusion between the captain and the first officer, but the captain decided the runway was clear and started the takeoff. After all, he had heard the tower order the other plane to take the nearest exit off of the runway … plus he was in a hurry. If he waited a bit longer, Dutch regulations would have required a change of crew: they would have been on duty for too long. That would mean hours, if not a day, delay. So he pushed for it.
All this happened on March 27, 1977 on the Canary Island of Tenerife. The other plane on the runway, which, coincidently, missed the exit they were supposed to take to clear the runway, was Pan Am flight 1736.
583 People died that day in the resulting collision of the two planes.
There were a few different incidents that led up to this accident, but the main one was, what is now called in the aviation world, “getthereitis” (get-there-itis .. get it? It simply means: being in such a hurry to get somewhere, that safety regulations are ignored: just GET there, no matter what.)
Guess which word went through my head when I read this today on CNN:
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) — Caught in a scheduling squeeze, NASA decided to try to launch space shuttle Atlantis on Friday without replacing a troublesome electrical component.
Friday is the last launch day available before the U.S. space agency runs into a scheduling conflict with the Russian space agency.
On Thursday, NASA decided not to change out an electricity-generating fuel cell whose coolant pump had given erratic readings, causing a scrub a day earlier. Replacing the fuel cell could have delayed any launch attempt by several weeks.
I’m glad I’m not an astronaut: I mean, can you imagine being in that thing, while NASA is going to try to launch the damned thing with known faulty parts (and we’re not talking about a broken light over its license plate here!)?
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Posted in In the news
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You are not an astronaut because you are too damn old 🙂
But this story reminds me of one of the early Apollo flights when the asked the astronaut how he was, seconds before the launch, and he replied, “Considering this thing was made by the lowest bidder, I guess I am OK”, or something like that!
“Too damn old”
Say, kiddo, ever seen the movie “Space Cowboys”?
If Clint Eastwood can do it, so can I!
So!
There!
gads, that is a crying shame. Where has the pride gone for the space program in this country?!?
Hey Paul, speaking of little annoyances, the popups from visiting your blog are troublesome. What is up with that?!?!?
voor geen goud ging ik nog in dat ding na al die vage akkefietjes…….
@Deannie (and Rob):
I think I found the cause of the popups.
When you let me know which popup it was (thanks!), I recognized it as the one I always get when I visit one of my friends’ blog.
I then realized I stole a ‘stats counter’ from that same person’s blog and added it to my own site. It takes you to some other site to register your visit. So I BET that’s where the popups are coming from.
I removed the bleepin’ ‘feature’.
Anyone know a nice simple ‘visit statistics’ widget that behaves better?