

An analysis of the Buffalo air crash - pc
http://milesobrien.wordpress.com/2009/02/13/nothing-super-cool-about-it/

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pg
I remember reading a comment here recently to the effect that "citizen
journalism" could never really be taken seriously:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=430819>

I remember thinking at the time that this was wrong, and that I'd seen several
instances where people publishing online had clearly done their homework
better than journalists writing for print publications. This article is the
sort of thing I mean. It seems unlikely the big newsmagazines will do as good
a job when they write about this.

Incidentally, the reason I put "citizen journalism" in quotes is not because I
dislike the idea, but because I don't think this name is good enough for it.
At its best it doesn't need to have any qualifiers appended: it's simply
journalism.

~~~
whughes
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_O%27Brien_(journalist)>

"Based in New York City, he served as CNN's chief technology and environment
correspondent. He was also the network’s space and aviation correspondent and
an occasional stand-in anchor. He anchored The Situation Room on November 26,
2008, covering the terrorist attack in Mumbai on the Oberoi Trident and Taj
Mahal Hotels, as well as several other locations.

He covered Hurricane Katrina for several weeks anchoring CNN’s Peabody and
Dupont Award-winning coverage.

During his 16-year tenure at CNN, he anchored several news and talk programs,
including Science and Technology Week, Saturday Morning, Sunday Morning,
TalkBack Live, Headline News Primetime, Live From... and, most recently,
American Morning."

This guy is not really a great example, although the article is definitely
exceptional. He's pretty entrenched in the old media.

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eli
Scary.

I flew into Buffalo last night and landed perhaps 20 minutes before the crash.
It never would have occurred to me that ice could have been an issue. There
was some light snow, but otherwise it looked like a fine night. It wasn't even
cold -- the ground was too warm for any snow to stick.

~~~
diN0bot
interesting. i'm wondering now what resources to look at when flying in the
winter to see what the ice risks are.

~~~
KaiP
From the article: <http://adds.aviationweather.gov/phputils/wrap_image.php>

Not that you should use it to make travel decisions. The odds that your plane
goes down, even in icy conditions, are extremely low.

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pgebhard
Very interesting and thorough analysis. It's not just someone making wild
speculation based on a rehashing of network news, but rather, he seems to be a
seasoned small craft pilot with legitimate knowledge and understanding to add.

~~~
jwesley
Something that insightful makes me upset at how pathetic the media is.
Millions of dollars spent creating hundreds of hours of coverage, and all of
it together will not be as informative as a blog post some guy wrote in an
hour. Can't the networks get someone like him on the air?

~~~
kennyroo
The blogger is a former CNN reporter.

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delano
As an aside, the Bombardier Q-400 is a great air craft. The acceleration is
incredible and it's by far the quietest turboprop I've flown on.

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bluishgreen
"Whenever I see the slightest bit of ice on my wings, I disconnect the
autopilot so I can feel what is happening to the airplane"

Well if feeling how much correction the plane is taking at this point is so
important then shouldn't they have a prominent big red glowing light that
beeps the ___ out when a threshold is reached.

