Cause And Effect

Fifty people injured after 'technical problem' on LATAM Airlines flight from Sydney to Auckland reads the headline in the ABC news this morning.

I am a technical sort of person so of course I want to know what the technical problem was.

Reading the article I see that:-

A "technical fault" on a LATAM Airlines flight from Sydney to Auckland has caused passengers and crew to be thrown into the roof of the plane, with 50 people needing emergency treatment at the airport. 

The double quotes are from the ABC, not me.

One woman on board the flight told local media she experienced "a quick drop" during the flight. Another told the New Zealand Herald "a number of passengers and crew were thrown into the roof of the plane".

At this point I would throw my hands up into the air did I not need them for typing.

Fifty people? I had a friend in Toronto who would have said, “Well, perhaps they were on the way to the toilet”, but in all my flying around the world, the only time I’ve ever seen fifty people standing is when the plane pulls up at the arrivals gate, and everyone but me stands in the aisle for fifteen minutes while cables are hooked up, electro-static charges discharged, and whatever else they do before we embark.

Those fifty people were not belted in. Some of them were stewards, and maybe three waiting outside the lavatory. That suggests four or eight INSIDE the lavatory (why are there not seat belts in the lavatory?).

I know that you are one of the people who, when the seat belt sign bings OFF, heave a great sigh of relief, unclips the seat belt, and enjoys the freedom of sitting in your own seat for the next seven hours. You dinner, fer heaven’s sake, is brought to you while you remain seated.

And your drinks.

Where is the technical fault? Regardless of whether the plane hit a brick wall at 30,000 feet, causing an abrupt loss in forward velocity which resulted in a sharp drop in altitude (Pilot, in astonishment to co-pilot: I’ve never hit a brick wall at thirty-thousand feet before!), or whether there was an isolated pocket of air the size of a jet plane travelling at 600 knots in the opposite direction, the only real fault I see here is in the heads of the people who undo their seatbelts in cars or aeroplanes at any time.

Even when your car or the corporate jet is stationary on the ground, your seat belt ties you to the protective shell of the plane or car in the event that some other clown rams into you from behind, the side, or the front.

Excepting for those folks waiting to pee, and the unfortunate cabin crew who are on their feet for most of the flight, the injured have only themselves to blame.

Not that I wish injury on anyone.

I just wish people would look after themselves every once in a while, and keep their seat-belts fastened.

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