what is with planes these past few days?

"mr_gofast" (jake_berenshteyn)
09/05/2014 at 15:24 • Filed to: PSA

First off on Saturday a plane takes off in DC and the pilot suffocates from Hypoxia

UPDATE: The aircraft involved was reportedly a Cirrus SR22 recreational plane. It crashed into the Atlantic Ocean Saturday, 51 miles southeast of Chincoteague Island, Va. The Coast Guard reported one person was on board. Cirrus planes are built with a parachute, meant to help the plane gently return to ground level in the event of an engine malfunction, but the pilot's fate remains unknown.

UPDATE: My source in dispatch at a major U.S. airline says the pilot died of hypoxia while airborne. The fighter jets then escorted the plane until it crashed into the ocean offshore.

UPDATE: The plane, registered to a 67 year-old man had taken off from Waukesha, Wisconsin and was bound for Manassas, Virginia. The plane never landed at its destination, but kept flying eastbound. When it entered DC airspace, F-16s met the plane at 13,000 feet and reported the pilot was unconscious.

then today

http://gawker.com/norad-tracking…

Two F-15 jets were scrambled by NORAD early this afternoon after a turboprop plane flying from Rochester, New York, to Naples, Fla. over the Atlantic Ocean failed to respond to communications. NORAD officials believe the passengers onboard are all unconscious from hypoxia, or lack of oxygen.

According to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , both jets were called off of the plane as it neared Cuba and returned to base after the aircraft crossed over the country. According !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the plane's pilot was unresponsive since 10 a.m. EST. The F-15 pilots observed from the air that the aircraft's pilot was "slumped over" and the windows were frosted over, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

What gives? 2 pilots - 3 deaths all from hypoxia? all from planes that took off from the East coast?

DISCUSSION (11)

CAR_IS_MI > mr_gofast
09/05/2014 at 15:25

Too many mouth breathers sucking up all the oxygen...

mr_gofast > CAR_IS_MI
09/05/2014 at 15:28

ask Clayton!!

Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom > mr_gofast
09/05/2014 at 15:34

These kinds of accidents are very rare. The fact that two happened so close together is quite an anomaly.

Jayhawk Jake > mr_gofast
09/05/2014 at 15:34

Nothing. It's a coincidence.

Plane crashes happen, unfortunately. With the number of flights a day two accidents doesn't make a trend. I partially think after the two Malaysian instances the general media is on high alert for anything related to an airplane crash so we are seeing large news outlets reporting accidents that would otherwise go unreported.

For Sweden > Jayhawk Jake
09/05/2014 at 15:36

No. Clearly it's people overreacting to Beyonce's birthday.

mr_gofast > Jayhawk Jake
09/05/2014 at 15:36

accidents - normal

2 in 5 days - normal ish

2 in 5 days that are identical in circumstance, identical in response and identical in final result thats abit creepy

both took off from the East cost

both pilots died

both died from Hypoxia

both had fighter escorts

both crashed in the Atlantic

Nighthawkwill7, Hoon Depot Manager > mr_gofast
09/05/2014 at 15:38

I know that the Cirrus features an autopilot with a hypoxia check system which will automatically descend the aircraft if it recognizes hypoxic conditions.

Maybe that was an older SR22 without the system.

http://cirrusengineering.blogspot.com/2011/01/hypoxi…

ttyymmnn > mr_gofast
09/05/2014 at 15:41

Coincidence. Just because something happens on an average of, let's say, twice in 2000 flights, there's no reason why those two times can't be close together.

T5Killer > mr_gofast
09/05/2014 at 15:56

Why would the identical response and result be creepy? I am no airdale but I would assume the SOP for a aircraft that doesn't respond to traffic control would be fighter escort to visually see what is going on. And the end result would be the same since there is nothing to be done if the pilot is unconscious. Plus the odds of a flight having problems originating in the east cost is high since that is were a majority of flights originate at due to population density.

Jayhawk Jake > mr_gofast
09/05/2014 at 16:07

coincidence

kinsdns,-dens/

noun

1 .

a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection.

It's a coincidence.

2 in 5 days with similar circumstances, considering it's not an especially unusual cause of accident (hypoxia) is not creepy, it's just a coincidence.

East coast? Not really surprising, there's lots of people on the east coast, so more flights take off from the east coast, so the likelyhood of an accident off the east coast is higher than other places

Both pilots died of hypoxia. Two totally different airplanes, so it's not likely to be a common part failure (unless emergency oxygen bottles are from the same supplier but I doubt it). Is there some atmospheric phenomenon leading to hypoxia? Yeah, but we refer to it as altitude and air density.

Both had fighter escorts because both involved an airplane that wasn't responding to air traffic controllers. This is standard procedure. It's similar because the incident was the same type of incident, which isn't an abnormal incident (as far as incidents go), and involved pilots becoming nonresponsive due to hypoxia caused by flying too high without pressurization and/or oxygen.

Both crashed into the atlantic because both took off from the east coast and headed east, a very common flight path for airplanes.

TL;DR: You're creating something out of nothing.

Dusty Ventures > mr_gofast
09/05/2014 at 16:25

Don't forget the F-15 from Massachusetts that went down last week. Not hypoxia, of course, but it is another plane from the east coast getting national news.