Some things You Just Can't Explain
What caused Flight 587 to fall apart in midair? Was this another act of terrorism, or was it a mechanical problem? The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) very quickly asserted the crash was the result of mechanical problems or was caused by wake turbulence from an Air Japan flight that departed slightly more than a minute before Flight 587 left the runway. These NTSB theories raise many questions such as:
(1) If this is a case of engine failure, why did the tail section break off so cleanly before the engines left the plane? (A statement of the obvious is that even if this was a mechanical failure, engines do not simply fall from airplanes in midair.)
(2) Suppose there was some back draft of the wake turbulence. Airports such as JFK have flights departing from various runways at all times. How would the NTSB know with any certainty that the turbulence was caused by the Air Japan flight? The turbulence theory also would not explain the peculiar rattling sound detected by the flight data recorder.
(3) If turbulence or engine failure caused the crash, why did the pilot not warn the control tower of a problem? Two minutes is long enough to give such a signal; mechanical problems rarely announce themselves by a significant part of a plane simply breaking off.
Whatever the cause of the crash, AA has already begun its charm offensive to restore customer confidence. According to the Listin Diario newspaper in Santo Domingo, from now until 15 December, AA has lowered its fares between New York and Santo Domingo (including tickets for Flight 0619, the new number of Flight 587) to USD250 per round trip (Tuesday to Thursday departures) and USD315 per round trip (Friday to Monday departures). It has not announced intentions to lower fares on other routes. (For precise fares, go to http://www.aa.com/).
WTO Confers and Adopts Opposed Agenda
The other perplexing event of last week was the WTO annual conference at which the 142-member organization agreed to establish a new round of international trade negotiations based on terms the organization's most globally influential members previously declared they generally opposed. Perhaps in the absence of protesters who have made disrupting such conferences their stock in trade, the WTO leaders perceived this conference as their best opportunity to portray themselves as rather more than the "World Talk Organization" as some diplomats sarcastically describe it.
Yes, it is true: Some things you just
Latest Articles