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Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1998 08:21:18 -0600
From: Snowbird <snbird@ibm.net>
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Subject: Re: landing on highway?
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Chris Burklund wrote:

> Do you by any chance ever fly with passengers? Why are you so 
> willing to sacrifice their lives to possibly save some unknown > motorist? 

Um, because I don't think that's the choice?  What part of "given
that you had a choice ie could glide to another spot" sounded
like "I'd rather kill all my passengers then land on a highway"
to you?  I don't get it.

The accident record says that the chances of death or serious injury
occuring when the pilot flies the plane, slowly but under control,
into almost *any* surface, are rather slight.  The big key of course
is "under control" and "slowly".

You write as though you think that a highway, with all the ditches 
and slope in the median, the highway signs, the overpasses, and for
smaller highways the utility wires, is a sure-fire bet to save
everyone's life at the possible risk to some "unknown motorist"
while landing other places is going to kill your wife and pax.

I don't happen to think that's true.  I might trash my plane
landing in a soft plowed field, but I'm not likely to decapitate
a young mother of 3.  

> An accident where a motorist inadvertently gets killed is very 
> rare, 

How many landing on highways are there, and how many of them
involve death or injury to motorists?  Do you know?

> and often happens because the motorist was not paying attention 
> in the first place. 

Well, personally, I don't think someone deserves to die just
because they weren't paying attention to the chance that a
plane might come down from above and land ahead of them.  And
what difference does it make if they're "unknown"?  All of the
people I know and love were "unknown" to me once.

> If I am flying with my wife and child you can be damn sure I will not > think twiceabout doing whatever I can to save their lives. If that 
> means landing on a crowded highway versus a wooded swamp so be it.
> Logic Theorist

OK, Logic, but I think you should recheck the logic in your theory.
The concept that your wife and child will die if you put the plane
slowly under control in a wooded swamp, but will live uninjured
if you land on a highway (even the median) clip the wing out on a
highway sign or flip over from a ditch, and spin around out of
control into other gasoline-carrying sources of ignition just
doesn't seem to match either the accident record or common sense
IMO.

Snowbird


