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Blogger King |
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July 2008
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Whenever the KING 5 newsroom first learns about a plane crash -- like Thursday's midair collision over Renton -- there are some tense moments. Is it a small plane? Or an airliner? In the early stages of a breaking story, we get small fragments of information. Most of the time it's just a call over the police and fire scanners. On Thursday, one of the first bits of information we learned was it involved two planes, but we couldn't immediately determine what type of planes they were. And then we heard one of them hit a school. Just days after the Air France crash in Toronto, some of us feared the worst. Not to diminish the tragedy of the two people that died in Renton, but we breathed a small sigh of relief once we learned 10 minutes later that it involved two small planes, one of them landed safely and nobody was inside the school at the time. 4 Comments |
Where was SkyKing, it was kinda sad watching the shot from WSDOT. Chopper 7 and Air 4 were on the scene in minutes.
Every so often, SkyKING goes into maintenance for a routine check-up. Unfortunately, this was one of those times.
A word about flight plans, with Dennis Bounds' comments of 8-25 in mind...
Flight plans are a tool for search-and-rescue, nothing more. If I pilot has filed a plan saying that he will take off from Bellingham at 1PM for a one-hour flight to Renton...but fails to show up on time...search efforts begin. If he arrives at Renton and calls the tower but is then involved in a collision, the existence of the flight plan is irrelevant.
The tower is unaware of the existence of a filed flight plan, by the way...that information is kept at the Flight Service Station, and when a plan has been opened it is closed with the FSS, not the tower.
Because of the search-and-rescue element, pilots flying locally for takeoff and landing practice or just flying between local fields do not file flight plans; to do so would place an undue burden on a system intended for longer trips.
I know that newspapers have a "wall" between the news and editorial departments. Does a similar wall exist between KING's news and weather departments? Jeff Renner could straighten you out in a hurry before you further imbed in the public mind the idea that failing to file a flight plan contributes to accidents.
bound!typed inheritrix luncheon flamer - Tons of interesdting stuff!!!