Cortlandt Wilson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Alfredo,
>
>A interesting story in it's own right.   A part of the article
>you didn't quote reads:
>    "There was a bunch of hydraulic hoses that was just
>sticking out of the wing," says Bill Lightfoot, an aircraft
>salesman who was taking the flight on June 14, 1979, to the
>Paris Airshow. "There was a ton of fluid coming out. It turns
>out it was fuel. It was a plume of fuel just spewing out. It
>was an absolute fluke that it didn't light up."

I didn't want to scare people off :-)

That's why I wrote that the complete article is at
http://www.usatoday.com/news/ndsmon11.htm (so people could see
the whole story with their own eyes).  That's why I signed
off with "Mon dieu", using the expression of horror uttered
by the copilot AFTER he saw that the passenger was not kidding.


>Well, I'm no marketing expert but from my seat I see a bunch
>of hoses coming out of the wing spewing out the lifeblood of
>our platform.    Some may consider Mr. Lightfoot a hero, but I
>suspect that he, like we, was just trying to save his
>backside.    I just wonder how loud we have to pound on the
>door to get a member of the flight crew to come back and take
>a look at the carnage outside our window?
>
>Maybe we all need to take off a shoe and start pounding on the
>table?

Excellent questions.  The problem is twofold, though:

        1) Nobody likes to be pounded upon.

        2) Nobody likes to be pounding upon somebody else.


Pondering,

  _______________
|               |
|               |
|            r  |  Alfredo                            [log in to unmask]
|          e    |                                  http://www.adager.com
|        g      |  F. Alfredo Rego                       +1 208 726-9100
|      a        |  Manager, R & D Labs               Fax +1 208 726-2822
|    d          |  Adager Corporation
|  A            |  Sun Valley, Idaho 83353-3000                   U.S.A.
|               |
|_______________|