Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Oh fuck me

Air crash investigations: Plane Crash in Queens.

It doesn't get any better than this.

Yes, I know I'm a bit sick but we all fly and this shit is almost obscenely interesting.

P.S. Does anyone actually remember this happening?

11 comments:

Mish said...

I have absolutely no recollection of this. 265 fatalities, it would have been all over the news, particularly in the wake of Sept 11. Christ.

I can't watch shows like that because they scare the hell out of me when I do make plane trips myself.

Martin Kingsley said...

I have vague recollection of this occuring. Air Crash Investigations annoys me because it draws everything out to such a ridiculous degree you go around stabbing BBC narrators hoping eventually you'll get the one who works for them. :-P

Or maybe that's just me.

TimT said...

The media only really needs one catastrophe, and it can run with that for years if need be.

I've worked for two media monitoring companies - the current company, and the group I was with (before we got bought out.)
Apparently the effect on income and available work, post-September 11, was dramatic. People who had previously had steady jobs found themselves taking part-time jobs or even looking for new work.

Exactly the same thing happened following the Boxing Day tsunami.

I'm not quite sure why this is, but it is so.

TimT said...

Here's a post on LP about disasters and relative media coverage given, though really the discussion that followed is much more worthwhile than the post itself.

TimT said...

though really the discussion that followed is much more worthwhile than the post itself.

Or maybe I just react badly to schoolmarmish rants about the 'corporate media' and 'moral relativism'. Anyway, see what you think.

JahTeh said...

I do remember this for good reason. A friend was in New York for research and hated it so moved to Queens just as this happened. Cue spooky music, but when I heard where he was going I knew this would happen and told friends. I hate brain flashes like that and always try to reason them away. I wish I could do it with the Melbourne Cup winner.

Shelley said...

I keep thinking that too, Mish - about it being all over the news. Thinking back to what I was doing then it's actually quite possible that I didn't see either the tv or print news for a week or two at a time.
I find the claustrophobia of flying more worrisome than the idea of a crash. If you crash it's pretty much brown-trousers time and then ooops I'm dead. Probably you'd have died of fright before part one.

Martin, it has a BBC narrator? Shows how much attention I've been paying. I agree with you on the drawing out thing - if the crash only took two minutes [and that was with the hitting the ground] and if was some really simple and dumb thing that caused it then why oh why can't they condense the story to a charming half hour?

Tim, plane crashes, even the really big ones are only in the news for a few days [with the occasional flashbacks if something exciting comes out] - I suppose it's different if they're local though. It's the fact that I missed it completely that disturbs me - but then, uni, work, exams, and I'd been awfully sick for quite a while that year that I guess it isn't so surprising.

jahteh - I am so consulting you about major travel/life events in future. I don't suppose you read cards or tea leaves or anything?
The best brain flash I've ever had was knowing that my sister's sister-in-law would have her second set of twins before anyone else even thought twins. It was better in reality...

Shelley said...

Tim, I must say that I couldn't get through all of that - I got rather bored. Much as I adore blogs etc and the immediate response thing there really is quite a lot to be said about the well written essay for making a point, several points, all possible points in an interesting point stew...um... And also, at LP, the constant clash of ideology by quite a lot of people who often think they're cleverer than they are - well, it's frankly painful.
Insofar as AA Flight 567 is concerned my point was just that I missed it entirely - even the news footage was unfamiliar. Plane crashes, for obvious reasons, always get pretty big coverage [even the African ones] certainly enough to be mentioned on international news. A plane crash of this magnitude in any suburb in any city is pretty huge and would be reported as such [only took out half a dozen houses though - which puts to bed one of my pathetic fears] and it really has me wondering how I could not know about it.
It's kind of the reverse of those news stories you hear once, usually on radio, that never get repeated and that almost no-one else remembers. Those are seriously creepy.

Shelley said...

Gosh I expect people to understand a lot from four lines...

JahTeh said...

I read the Tarot cards but they didn't help me see the ex sleeping with the best friend. My sister starts dreaming the Caulfield Cup winner right about now.

I'm with you about flying, it's being locked inside an object with little windows and boring people that worries me. And tiny toilets, when I'm nervous, I pee a lot.

Shelley said...

It's so boring! Aside from the exciting am-I-about-to-die moments at take off and landing of course.

Do you read them regularly? I kind of went off the whole thing when mine kept coming out change change change tower change ffs-change. Dull after a while.