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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: thestockrider who wrote (10686)	11/17/2001 4:59:51 PM
From: Jill	Respond to of 281500

I'm baffled by the inconsistencies also--they ought to check every Airbus. I also lean toward mechanical sabotage because, if you check out the Homeland Security Thread, this last week we were discussing other weird airline mishaps (or near mishaps). An alternate reason for the anthrax stopping is: it was ineffective. Though it caused a lot of fear and cost the govt & p.o. a lot of $, which I suppose pleased the "perp", it did not reach the intended targets, or get anywhere near them, actually. And people took antibiotics and life went on. Four people died, which is horrible, but it certainly isn't thousands. In addition, further mail was quarantined. And even if this person is a sociopath, they may be a bit perturbed that postal workers were the ones to suffer while the nightly news and government went on. Also, the maximum effect was already achieved. And we discovered that inhalation anthrax was actually treatable if identified. I had thought at first it was Al Quaeda, or perhaps a warning shot from Iraq with the intended message, "Mess with us & we've got more where this came from." But now I'm beginning to think the FBI profile might be correct.

To: thestockrider who wrote (10686)	1/25/2002 12:15:08 PM
From: thestockrider	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Airbus pilots urge grounding of A300 jets January 25, 2002 Posted: 11:09 AM EST (1609 GMT) One of the engines from AA Flight 587 crashed into a gas station in Queens, New York. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW YORK (CNN) -- A number of veteran Airbus pilots for American Airlines have begun circulating an open letter asking the airline to ground all of its Airbus A300 jumbo jets until they can be assured the tail structure on the plane is safe. All 260 persons aboard an American Airlines Airbus taking off from Kennedy Airport in New York died November 12 when the plane crashed after a large part of the tail snapped off. The cause remains unknown. An American Airlines spokesman rejected the grounding request. An e-mail sent by about a dozen American pilots to all the other Airbus pilots at the airline asked, "Are we completely comfortable putting our friends and family on an A-300? If the answer to that question is not a resounding yes, then logic would lead a well-trained pilot to conclude that no one else should be flying on them either." RESOURCES Airbus A300 Jet specs 3D model Recent crashes Airbus crashes THE SYSTEM Airport security: A system driven by the minimum wage PREVIOUS WARNINGS Warnings over airport security preceded attacks COMPARING U.S. TO EUROPE Outside the U.S., a different approach to air security SOLUTIONS Boosting security puts focus on government's role GRAPHS & CHARTS • Top 25 Airports • Airport Security by Year • Airline Security by Year • Airport Wages It asked their fellow pilots to sign and forward a message to the airline saying: "Until a definitive cause for the crash of Flight 587 can be determined, along with ways to prevent a similar occurrence; and/or a definitive test can be developed to truly check the structural integrity of the vertical stabilizers of our remaining 34 A300s, I recommend that American Airlines' fleet of A300s be grounded." Airline spokesman Al Becker said, "Nothing in the inspections or tests suggest that there is any need to take the fleet out of service." CNN has obtained a copy of the e-mail message, and an organizer of the protest verified its contents, although he did not want his name used. He said about 50 to 60 Airbus pilots at American have signed the request to ground the planes. American has slightly more than 400 Airbus pilots. The tail fin on an Airbus is made out of what are called composites -- carbon fiber materials that are glued together to create a structure that is lighter than metal, but considered just as strong. It's the same principle as in a sheet of plywood. Airlines personnel inspect the Airbus tail visually. But the pilots' message said, "No sure-fire way exists to check the structural integrity of the vertical stabilizers." An organizer of the pilots' protest said they simply were not comfortable with a visual inspection alone. The tail of the doomed American Flight 587 was fished from Jamaica Bay where it fell seconds before that jet crashed into a residential section of Rockaway Beach, killing five more people on the ground. The tail was taken to NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., where the National Transportation Safety Board has been conducting a number of tests. The NTSB said last week it had found some delamination -- some separation of the glued materials in the tail -- but said it didn't know whether that happened upon impact or may have indicated a pre-existing weakness in the tail. "There are a lot of unknowns," said one American Airbus pilot. "The fact is the tail fell off an airplane. That's simply never happened before in modern aviation." The Allied Pilots Association, the union representing American's 11,500 pilots, did not join the call to ground the Airbus A300. "We are not advocating a grounding of the fleet," said union spokesman Gregg Overman, although he said of the pilots' protest, "Clearly we've got the same concerns." cnn.com