Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Piffer Thread on Political Rantings and Ravings -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jorj X Mckie who wrote (4185)	11/13/2001 2:50:30 PM
From: Oral Roberts	Respond to of 14610

The total destruction and the plane falling apart from front to rear while falling for several miles doesn't give me a lot of faith in the bird gig either. At the same time I agree it would be political suicide to lie about it because it would come out eventually.

To: Jorj X Mckie who wrote (4185)	11/13/2001 2:59:15 PM
From: Libbyt	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14610

from the intake of the birds I have heard that birds living near airports can be a major hazard to airplanes. Several golf courses have "hired" labs or sheep dogs to "chase" geese off of their courses. In the last few years there have been dogs who live at various airports who "work" during the day to chase away birds. From an old news article: "Carter told the conference of his experience with border collies at several North American airports, saying there are many advantages to using dogs for this type of work. "They are under the control of a dog handler at all times. He controls them by whistling, like the way farmers control sheepdogs. They have to learn where they can go and where not, and the handler is in touch with the control tower to make sure that the dog doesn't scare a flock right into the path of a plane. They are relatively inexpensive and can work in most conditions and temperatures." Another commonly employed method to scare off birds is to sound cannons or firecrackers, but according to Carter, the birds quickly get used to the noise and stop responding. "After a day or two, they stop thinking that there is a threat. With the dogs, on the other hand, there is always a threat for the birds. It's not something they can get used to. It's like having a wolf around." Border collies have been found ideal for the task, Carter said, "because they're workaholics. When other dogs would quit, the border collies just go on working. "They've been bred for it for years. Also, since they have been bred to herd animals they have also been bred not to kill." The bird-chasing dogs were first used in similar work at golf courses five or six years ago, said Carter. They have been used at airports for a year. "We have one dog at [a] Florida airport who has been so effective he has basically worked himself out of a job. Within two months, basically there were no more birds left to chase." Leshem, who is working with the IAF to find solutions to the problems of birds who live alongside airports, said: "Crashes between planes and birds are one of the biggest risks to flights around airports." jpost.com

To: Jorj X Mckie who wrote (4185)	11/13/2001 3:05:54 PM
From: jcky	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14610

Hi Jorj, It's still too early in the investigation to pin the cause of the accident on a flock of birds. We may still find out that there was a catastrophic mechanical failure, or even, that it was, indeed, an act of terrorism (nothing to support this so far). A flock of birds sucked into both jet engines could not only cause tremendous damage to the engine's turbine (resulting in engine fragments sheared off and hurled as projectiles) but it can also cause aerodynamic instability (imagine an unbalanced load of laundry in the spinning cycle as it wobbles due the uneven distribution of weight) causing a tremendous amount of vibrations on the airplane. Now, is this enough to cause the plane to disintegrate in mid-air? I really don't know. Or maybe the airplane broke apart on its near vertical decline after the engines failed. No jumbo jet was ever designed to withstand a nose dive at over 500 miles per hour.