Newsgroups: comp.risks
X-issue: 4.49
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 87 02:46:52 pst
From: pyramid!utzoo!henry%hplabs@hplabs.HP.COM
To: pyramid!hplabs!CSL.SRI.COM!RISKS@hplabs.HP.COM
Subject: Re: TV-program on PBS: NOVA - Why Planes Crash

  > ...leaving even my elderly parents wondering:  if the microburst was
  > so severe as to be unflyable (according to NCAR's McCarthy), and if
  > its potential presence was not reported by the only people who could
  > have known about it, how could it be the pilots' fault?  ...

They flew into/under what they clearly saw to be a violent thunderstorm.
There are few worse sins in flying.  Their only excuse was the the planes
ahead of them had gotten away with it -- an attitude that has been loudly
criticized in other contexts, e.g. the Challenger disaster.

				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry