Comments on: Pilot thought Venus was a plane

By: SomeGuyNamedMark

SomeGuyNamedMark — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 05:01:00 +0000

Look up at the sky instead. It is bright but not nearly that bright.

I could see someone who was half-asleep panicking if he thought a plane was coming straight at him at a closing speed of 400+ mph.

By: John Ohno

John Ohno — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 20:25:00 +0000

They’re recycling the Venus Defense? I thought that was thoroughly ridiculed after Project Blue Book claimed that all those UFOs seen by professional pilots (including the ones with burbling multicolored lights and humanoid figures) were Venus!

By: Their feldspars

Their feldspars — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:38:00 +0000

“Canada’s largest airline…has faced prolonged labor unrest.” Well, that’s your problem right there. Unrest.

By: Rosiemoto

Rosiemoto — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:20:00 +0000

I was flying a 737 when a large satellite came down near our plane one night. At first I thought it was a 747 coming towards us with its landing lights on. We were hauling cargo and didn’t need to take evasive action. The entire sky turned from night to day. It actually heated up the air temp in the cockpit. Pretty cool event.

By: dainel

dainel — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 02:54:00 +0000

Where did the 40 minutes come from? I thought deep sleep is reach in around 30 minutes (though it might vary quite a bit).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnogram

By: mat catastrophe

mat catastrophe — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 01:33:00 +0000

Story says this happened in January 2011 which I take to be a typo.

By: dculberson

dculberson — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 01:31:00 +0000

Oh, we changed the name of that planet. To Urectum.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:59:00 +0000

If it’s any consolation, I’ve sleep-punched everyone I’ve ever slept with.

By: twianto

twianto — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 23:13:00 +0000

I did the same thing, only the rest area’s parking lot wasn’t flat, I put the car in neutral and forgot about the brakes. Only noticed something was off when cars passed in front of me where there was supposed to be a wall. Not a good way to wake up.

By: Preston Sturges

Preston Sturges — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 23:05:00 +0000

I stopped in a rest area after falling asleep at the wheel. I took an nap, but snapped awake convinced I’d run off the road again, so there I was in an empty parking lot screaming and clutching the steering wheel.

By: oasisob1

oasisob1 — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 22:45:00 +0000

That’s no moon.

By: dragonfrog

dragonfrog — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 22:35:00 +0000

See, the historical origins of work-to-rule protests – used to be that every time there was a train mishap, the railroads blamed their engineers for missing a mandatory safety check. Every now and then, they added another mandatory safety check or two, without lengthening the scheduled stops to allow their engineers time to actually complete them – just to make sure that next time there was a mishap, the engineers would have missed some mandatory safety checks.

All of which gave the engineers a perfect way to protest – they just did everything they were required to – after all, safety is more important than train schedules – resulting in massive delays.

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 22:15:00 +0000

Air Canada has developed a special fatigue report form for use in its safety reporting system … this enhanced system should be in place in summer of 2012.

Oh good, a form. That ought to do it.

By: niktemadur

niktemadur — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 22:12:00 +0000

Three things pop to mind:

• Venus has been so bright for the last several months, it can be seen during daytime, if you know where to look. Also, it’s impressively high above the horizon at sunset, Venus is setting at around 9:30 pm.
• Isn’t there an app for that? If “Star Walk” is on my iPhone, why isn’t there a similar navigation tool on, you know, an airplane worth several tens of millions of dollars?
• Air Canada has developed a special fatigue report form for use in its safety reporting system … this enhanced system should be in place in summer of 2012. Why hasn’t something like this been in place for, oh I don’t know, the last fifty years? And what of all the other airliners?
Duty and productivity at all costs, supreme idiocy.

By: retepslluerb

retepslluerb — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 21:47:00 +0000

I’m pretty sure he didn’t think “holy shit, we are crashing into Venus. I better take evasive action before we do crashland and get eaten by nubiles savages riding dinosaurs.”

By: SomeGuyNamedMark

SomeGuyNamedMark — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 21:40:00 +0000

New FAA rule, all night flights will have to include an on board astronomer.

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 21:40:00 +0000

Right. “40-minute naps are OK, 75-minute naps are crazy dangerous” isn’t exactly common sense.

By: SomeGuyNamedMark

SomeGuyNamedMark — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 21:39:00 +0000

Uranus is a crappy place. Don’t go there.

By: SomeGuyNamedMark

SomeGuyNamedMark — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 21:38:00 +0000

Translation: “We are blaming the crew because unofficially we push the crews to fly when sleep deprived.”

By: SomeGuyNamedMark

SomeGuyNamedMark — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 21:36:00 +0000

He almost veered into Jupiter though

By: Jamie Adam

Jamie Adam — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 21:30:00 +0000

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120406.html Seriously. Look at that picture and tell me you can really blame the pilot…

By: GawainLavers

GawainLavers — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 21:28:00 +0000

Or the relative danger of colliding with Venus?

(too easy, I know)

By: awjt

awjt — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 21:23:00 +0000

But I *DID* crash Serena, and man oh man, am I glad I did.

By: chenille

chenille — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 21:14:00 +0000

On that note, the safety board blamed the first officer for sleeping too long. That’s maybe a little less obvious than night being dark.

By: Robert Baruch

Robert Baruch — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 21:04:00 +0000

Ladies and gentlemen, Neil deGrasse Tyson, the modern Nostradamus!

By: Peter Green

Peter Green — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 20:57:00 +0000

I blame Neil deGrasse Tyson…
https://twitter.com/#!/neiltyson/statuses/180081495707365376

By: vonbobo

vonbobo — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 20:55:00 +0000

You should have seen me trying to avoid Uranus!

By: JustinKalb

JustinKalb — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 20:54:00 +0000

“The airliner dropped about 400 feet before the captain pulled back on the control column. Fourteen passengers and two crew were hurt, and seven needed hospital treatment. None were wearing seat belts, even though the seat-belt sign was on.”
Seriously folks, when the light is on, they aren’t kidding…

By: ToddBradley

ToddBradley — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 20:50:00 +0000

I cannot help but think of Jesse Ventura at a time like this.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=youtube%20x-files%20jesse%20ventura&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CA4QtwIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DLk5TCRQOxcY&ei=LoWMT7nwLIKs2gXXrKnZCQ&usg=AFQjCNEKSTQhXYMeSKdoSelp-HzV2Ao2Wg&sig2=dH8l85P2z4bBNfHR66tc2A

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 20:05:00 +0000

Of course the safety board is going to blame the crew. The safety board are the ones fighting the Pilots’ Association, which wants to limit the number of hours pilots can be kept on duty. If the situation in Canada is anything like the U.S. then saying “I’m too tired to fly right now” is career suicide.