A PLANE CRASH REMINDS US OF DANGER
On the evening of Thursday 30 January 2025, a Canadair Jet flying into the busy corridor at the Washington D C Reagan International Airport crashed into a Blackhawk helicopter that was flying in the same corridor. The accident happened at 375 feet in the air. One report says that a wife had just texted her husband to say that they would land in 20 minutes. Sadly it was not to be as everyone onboard the plane and the helicopter died.
The plane has become such a routine machine for us all that we hardly think about it. This hits home to Bahamians who routinely have to jump on planes to get from one island to the next. Some people are terrified of flying but they force themselves to get on these machines because the statistics of success at landing safely plus the necessities and efficiencies of time cause them to overcome the fear. The fear is always there though.
So when a crash like the one in Washington happens, it frightens the bejesus out of a whole lot of people and certainly the question is why. What we learn is that notwithstanding all the training, the rules and all the talk about it being the safest form of travel, flying is still a dangerous occupation. Flying in an enclosed silver tube at 500 miles per hour is a recipe for disaster.
To add insult to injury of course was the stupid comments of the President of the United States Donald Trump who claimed without evidence that reason for the crash was the policies of his predecessors with regard to diversity. In other words, because black and brown people were hired as air traffic controllers, the system of air safety was poor. What a simpleton. Doesn’t have the commonsense of a mad cow.
What can we do about Trump? We can call out his stupidity and his racism. What can we do about the crash? We can find out the reason and like all accidents before it learn from the lessons that result from the death of scores of innocent people.
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