Find The Boots

Rantings from a few corporate types about life, technology, travel, guns, politics, and everything good in the world.

Fasten Your Seatbelts

Monday, October 23, 2006

Airline crews routinely advise us to keep our seatbelts fastened, even when the seatbelt light is not on. BA flight 2166 out of Tampa found that out:

BA flight 2166 carrying 175 terrified passengers, three pilots and 11 crew plunged 600 feet in a bid to avoid collision with another plane above it....
The emergency collision avoidance system on the Boeing 777 plane kicked in over the Atlantic Ocean, causing lights to flash and an alarm to sound in the cockpit, with the pilot hearing the words "descend,descend,descend."
The descent was so sudden that some of the crew members left the floor, went into "freefall" and hit their heads on the ceiling of the plane as it plummeted.
Others slammed into the bulkheads. All four crew were stood down from their duties while being treated for bruises on board in the Club cabin for the remainder of the flight.

So a couple of things: First, keep your seatbelt fastened, because you never know. I saw a guy in a sleeper seat the other day with his seatbelt between his knees and ankles -- that looked like an injury waiting to happen.

And Secondly, be thankful for the collision avoidance systems. I didn't see anything in the article about the traffic that caused this, but it there really was an imminent collision, isn't it nice that all that technology works when you need it?

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Find The Boots

An executive goes on a business trip. When he arrives, it's raining cats and dogs. To avoid ruining his shoes, he purchases a pair of galoshes for $15, which he expenses under "Misc." on his expense report. A week later, the accounting department rejects his expense report, with a post-it note that says that the company does not reimburse for items of clothing. The next trip, the executive turns in an expense report without the galoshes, but with a post-it note that says "FIND THE BOOTS!".