Pilot died during Brussels to N.Y. flight

#juan

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he captain of a Continental Airlines flight has died while flying the plane from Brussels to New York.The plane is expected to make an emergency landing at Newark Liberty International Airport shortly.
The plane's first officer is in control of the flight, according to a Federal Aviation Authority spokesman, speaking on the Fox News channel.
It is not clear if the captain's family have been informed. More details coming.
 

#juan

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The first officer will land the plane in New York. Shouldn't be a problem.
 

#juan

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There are two other fully qualified pilots on board besides the Captain.
 

TenPenny

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Jun 9, 2004
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Location, Location
Flight landed safely, by the way.

In the book Outliers, it is pointed out that more accidents occur when the Capt is flying, because he outranks the FO, and the FO is less likely to question his judgement.

When the FO is flying, if he makes an error, it is more likely that the Capt will point out the mistake, and correct it right away.
 

karrie

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Jan 6, 2007
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Flight landed safely, by the way.

In the book Outliers, it is pointed out that more accidents occur when the Capt is flying, because he outranks the FO, and the FO is less likely to question his judgement.

When the FO is flying, if he makes an error, it is more likely that the Capt will point out the mistake, and correct it right away.

I was just curious what the statistic was based on, because if the captain logs more hours and lands more flights, then it stands to reason they will have more accidents than their first officers will.
 

EagleSmack

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Feb 16, 2005
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Thanks to amazing avionics George W can land an Avenger on an aircraft carrier. Flight crews today are the back up system.

Right...landing a plane on an aircraft carrier is so easy...especially during WWII. George could have taken a nap back in 1944 and let the Avenger land itself. :roll:
 

#juan

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Even landing on ground is not as easy and simple as some try to pretend.

Taking an aircraft off, you taxi on to the runway, add power, accelerate to take off speed, pull the stick back and maintain your climb to altitude. You would think doing that in reverse would be just as easy. It isn't. To make a decent landing you line up with the runway. try to meet the ground somewhere not long after the start of the runway, at the right speed and rate of decent so as not to bend the aircraft or yourself. What it takes mostly is practice.
 

petros

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Right...landing a plane on an aircraft carrier is so easy...especially during WWII. George could have taken a nap back in 1944 and let the Avenger land itself. :roll:
Considering he wasn't alive yeah, that would indeed have been quite the task.
 

#juan

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According to a bush pilot I spent many hours of airtime with any landing you walk away from is a good one.

Yeah, any landing you can walk away from is good, but only if your passengers can walk away as well. Actually, we have advanced a little beyond that kind of thinking. Airplanes are expensive toys and it is nice if we don't break them or ourselves.