masterwordsmith-unplugged

Seriously, I long for the good old days - when making a phone call exposed me to less radiation than current levels. I yearn for the time when it was safe to cycle to the nearby shops or even to drink a glass of soya bean milk without worrying if it was derived from GMO soya beans...and of course to fly in a plane without worrying about the range of risks.

If you still have not heard, Reuters reported that an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 with 307 people on board crashed and burst into flames as it landed at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday after a flight from Seoul, killing two people and injuring more than 180. See the following photo from Skynews.


You can read about this accident at Skynews, Reuters, BBC, New York Times and USA Today.

Ironically, I just posted something on chaotic turbulence during flights last Thursday and recalled the nightmarish experience I had during my last long haul flight from San Francisco to Singapore in 1993. Flying IS a very risky experience and even on short flights from Penang to KL, I say my prayers devotedly and pray for safety, pilots, engines etc.

Here's something on aviation disasters:

An aviation accident is defined by the Convention on International Civil Aviation Annex 13 as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft, which takes place between the time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of flight until such time as all such persons have disembarked, where a person is fatally or seriously injured, the aircraft sustains damage or structural failure or the aircraft is missing or is completely inaccessible.

The first fatal aviation accident occurred in a Wright Model A aircraft at Fort Myer, Virginia, USA, on 17 September 1908, resulting in injury to the pilot, Orville Wright and death of the passenger, Signal Corps Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge.

An aviation incident is defined as an occurrence, other than an accident, associated with the operation of an aircraft that affects or could affect the safety of operations.

An accident in which the damage to the aircraft is such that it must be written off, or in which the plane is destroyed is a hull loss accident.

Here's a list of aviation accidents and disasters by death toll. CLICK HERE.

For more information on the history of aviation disasters, CLICK HERE.

May the victims of the Asiana plane crash rest in peace and may their bodies be found.