A Brief History On December 24, 1971, a bolt of lightning took down a Lockheed 188A turboprop airliner over Peru, killing all but one of the 82 people aboard. Thunderstorms and lightning are just one of many ways Mother Nature discourages and even puts an end to manned flight by humans in airplanes. Digging Deeper Besides weather, birds have a long history of bringing down airplanes, including the famous “Miracle on the Hudson” event in 2009. Birds are so dangerous to airplanes, that many airports employ a variety of means to keep birds away from runways, from noisemakers and landscaping…
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A Brief History On December 18, 1995, a Lockheed L-188 Electra airliner driven by four large turboprop engines crashed in Angola, leaving 141 of the 144 people aboard dead. First flown in 1957 and entering service in 1959, the Electra was the first big turboprop powered airliner made in the USA. Digging Deeper While turboprop aircraft may look like the old fashioned prop planes of the past powered by internal combustion engines, the turboprop variety uses basically a jet engine or turbine engine to provide power, using a lower cost fuel and a lighter weight engine, allowing for lower take…
A Brief History On October 30, 2022, the unfortunate people of Morbi, Gujarat, India found out the hard way just how dangerous it can be to walk, when a suspension pedestrian bridge collapsed and left about 140 dead and dozens injured. Digging Deeper There are many ways a person walking on foot can meet with disaster, either by falling, getting mugged, getting attacked by dogs or wild animals (even alligators!), or sadly being hit by a motor vehicle. Less extreme problems with walking can include sore feet, blisters, sore legs, or perhaps getting dehydrated. You may even get a sunburn.…
A Brief History On October 29, 2014, the island nation of Sri Lanka experienced a fatal natural disaster known as the Badulla landslide. Monsoon rains loosened hillside soil which cascaded downhill on an incredible three kilometer path into the village of Koslanda, leaving at least 16 dead and hundreds missing, and about 150 homes destroyed. Digging Deeper Mudslides are an ever-present danger to people living on or below hills, and can be triggered by excessive rain, poorly engineered slopes, lack of adequate vegetation, heavy snow cover, earthquakes and tsunamis. Of course, mud has tormented people in many other ways, making…
A Brief History On October 11, 2018, the Russian manned space mission, Soyuz MS-10, suffered a booster failure shortly after liftoff, necessitating an emergency abort. Incredibly, both crew members survived the successful abort and reentry to safely land in Kazakhstan. Digging Deeper The Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft reached an altitude of 58 miles, not quite reaching outer space, and landed about 12 miles from the launch site. An error in assembly was blamed for the mishap, and the next flight, MS-11, went off successfully on December 3, 2018. Another example of a successful abort procedure took place on September 26, 1983,…