This Voodoo doll pen holder by Dead Fred is a good representation of the Jamaican body politic post tax axe...Sincerely hoping that the following photos are not harbingers of the year to come...American Airlines crashes on arrival in Kingston and Bruce afflicts us with taxes on Christmas Eve. The joke is the new taxes are called PBYE (Pay Before You Eat) as opposed to PAYE (Pay As You Earn)...
That's on the local front and on the global front warm times are ahead now that COP15 seems to have been a COPout, see the Banksy graffiti below...what next indeed??
Photo, What Next? by Colin Hamilton
American airline photos, photographer unknown
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5 comments:
Not of things to come... of what we are leaving behind to start anew in 2010... .
I'd say it was quite fortunate that there were no fatalities in the AA crash, so that's probably not fodder for cynicism. Copenhagen? There was a snow storm during the conference, there are snow storms throughout much of the northern hemisphere as I write this...in this, the coldest year on record in recent history. The earth is resilient. Let's not count her out just yet. New taxes? Well, it's a bit harder to put a positive spin on that, but it is a sign that we're all still alive. If we live to see another day, there is sure to be a government somewhere in the world figuring out a way to seperate their citizens from more hard earned cash. In any case, each new year and each new day provides us the opportunity, as individuals, to do a little better than before. In that regard, 2010 holds the same hopes and promises as any other year.
MERRY XMAS and A HAPPY NEW YEAR, ANNIE !!
AA Jamaica crash: Although I am aware that it is irresponsible to speculate on a cause before all the facts are know, I do however feel that, at least on forums like this one, it is ok to speculate based on known facts. Here is what's known. 1) 15Kt. winds out of NNE. 2) Heavy rain at night on a non-grooved runway. 3) Pilots near the end of their 12-hour max. on-duty time. 4) Plane fully loaded with passengers and probably heavier on fuel than domestic flights. 5) Pilots had not flown much in previous weeks. 6) Plane touched down very far down runway 12. 7) Plane landed hard. Based on what’s known I think you can make the follow deductions. I believe the tail winds played a very significant role in this crash. Ground speeds would have been 20-30Kts fast than pilots are used to. This along with a nighttime wet runway would have made it easy to misjudge the point of touchdown. Glide slope would have been kept in check on approach but near the ground pilots take over and visually fly the plane. Things would look much different than they normally do especially taking night, rain and fatigue issues into consideration. A go around would have been resisted because of a desire to get the plane on the ground due to bad conditions and current preferred patterns at that airport. As a pilot who has made down wind landings I can tell you that it is very difficult to hit your spot maintaining glide slope without stalling the plane. You have to descend at a quicker rate to maintain glide slope and touch down speeds to hit your spot. This is not a comfortable normal feeling to the pilots. Things happen so much quicker down wind and pilots are not used to this type of approach. Extra weight, rain, night, and fatigue and stress of bad conditions add to the level of difficulty of this down wind landing. I would not be surprised if the black boxes show the plane did or almost did “stall” just before touch down. That would explain the heavy landing reported. Higher ground speeds and weights with reduced runway length due to mid runway touch down point along with wet non-grooved runway made this crash, at this point, inevitable. At the end of the day there will be several factors pinpointed at fault (as there always is), however the primary cause will be pilot error for the following reasons: a) not going to an alternate airport given conditions at primary b) having proceeded to primary not asking to land from the east. c) having proceeded downwind failing to abort the approach and or landing prior to touchdown d) having proceeded downwind having misjudged the point of landing and not maintaining proper glide slope, approach speeds and touchdown point. To all the pilots I ask for your comments
EAR, the same to you! Randy one cold winter doesn't cancel out global warming.
And Dave! you've taken my breath away. can't thank you enough for this detailed and informed analysis of the crash that you've chosen to offer on my blog.
One is tempted to think pilot error also because most of the other reasons offered would also have affected other pilots yet the last plane crash in Ja was some 30 years ago I'm told.
I hope other pilots WILL respond to your comments.
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