We have trouble accepting how people can have such different perceptions of things that are subjective, like this controversy. Yet people have different perceptions even of things that aren't subjective. I found this report interesting.
Witnesses Disagree on Details of Plane Crash
By a Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 5, 2002; Page A11
The National Transportation Safety Board said yesterday that 349 people reported seeing American Airlines Flight 587 fall from the sky over New York on Nov. 12 but that there is wide disagreement on what they saw.
Investigators, law enforcement officers and others who interview witnesses have long known those reports are often unreliable, but a compilation of witness accounts of the crash, which killed 265 people, is striking in its contrasts.
For instance, 52 percent of the witnesses said they saw a fire while the Airbus A300-600 was in the air. But their accounts conflict on what part of the plane was on fire, with 22 percent saying it was the fuselage while others placed the fire in the left engine, the right engine, the left wing or the right wing. Twenty percent said there was no fire, and 8 percent said there was an explosion.
Also:
• 22 percent reported seeing smoke; 20 percent saw none.
• 18 percent said the plane turned right; 18 percent said the plane turned left; 13 percent said it was "wobbling" or "dipping" or in "side-to-side motion."
• 57 percent reported seeing something separate from the airplane, but disagreed what it was, and 9 percent said nothing fell off the plane.
Some of the witnesses earlier had accused the NTSB of ignoring their reports, suggesting a coverup of the real cause. Safety board Chairman Marion Blakey deflected questions about whether the statistics were released partly in response to those charges.
The statistics were released as part of an update on the crash investigation, which has been painstakingly slow because the crash is the first in which composite material failure is being probed as a possible cause. <snip> |
