Archive for the ‘Frozen in Fear’ Category
Saturday, September 4th, 2010
MQ-8B
A renegade U.S. Navy MQ-8B Fire Scout Vertical Takeoff and Landing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) invade the restricted…and sleeping…airspace of Washington, D.C. last week. Most of us were unaware of the most recent incursion into the highly restricted airspace because most of the major media failed to cover the dangerous invasion. Where was the protection assigned to this critical airspace? Why are we flying drones over densely populated civilian airspace when the FAA has supposedly not yet approved their use? Was this drone able to evade the sleeping radar protecting our capitol’s skies? Where is our Department of Homeland Security? Was the department in bed with the FAA, sound asleep, as the drone approached? Many questions regarding this invasion need to be asked of both Homeland Security and the FAA.
The Navy’s Fire Scout MQ-8B is a Schweitzer 333 helicopter developed by Northrop Grumman-Ryan Aeronautical of San Diego. It is capable of traveling up to 110 nautical miles, remain airborne (up to 20,000 ft) for more than 5 hours, and can carry a payload of up to 270kg (594 lbs). It can take off and land on its own. The MQ-8B is radar and laser equipped and can be armed with two four-packs of 2.75in laser-guided rocket launchers. The UAV is not small enough to easily evade radar systems. It is 31.7 ft long and 9.8 ft tall and weighs 3,150 lbs loaded with fuel. A Rolls-Royce 250C20W heavy fuel turboshaft engine powers the aircraft. The UAV has already undergone extensive testing onboard the USS McInerney. How was an unmanned aerial vehicle of this size able to evade Department of Defense, Homeland Security, NSA, and FAA security measures long enough to get within 40 miles of the capitol?
The invasion of the renegade drone is not expected to delay further testing, development, and integration of the MQ-8B systems into littoral combat ships for operational use. The Navy awarded a $32.9 million dollar second year contract to Northrop Grumman-Ryan to build the systems. The renegade UAV incident was described as “learning experience” by Capt. Tim Dunigan, the Fire Scout’s program manager. The “software anomaly” which allowed the UAV to drift away from the control of its ground station has already been corrected. Rob Murphy, a team leader for the Scout program, said the incident helps people to understand the safeguards that are in place. “The operators did lose communication, but they were able to regain it. The system operated like it was supposed to,” he said. Flights of the MQ-8B, grounded for a couple of weeks, were expected to resume this month.
David Vos, senior director of unmanned aerial systems for Rockwell Collins and a member of AUVSI’s UAV Advocacy Committee, was quoted in DefenseNews.com saying, “I’m pretty confident that despite these little hiccups, that this decade is when unmanned aerial systems really begin to find their way into commercial airspace.” He said the industry needs “all the cultural elements and different groups involved to stop being fearful and start moving along” on the commercial airspace issue.
Our fears are apparently as misguided as are the systems controlling Mr. Vos’ UAV and as misguided as Homeland Security, the NSA, and the FAA in their security protection systems. We should just petition the FAA to approve the use of UAVs in civilian airspace? I have no doubt that President Obama is already on the verge of doing so since he is so enamored by UAVs that he suggested (in jest, of course, at a recent Washington Formal Prom) using them on the Jonas Brothers if they came after any of his daughters. Imagine our commercial civilian skies invaded by UAVs being operated by law enforcement agencies, by weather research agencies, by energy companies tracking pipelines, by businesses spying on their competitors. Randy Babbitt (FAA Administrator), who “brilliantly” stated recently that “landing is one of the most critical phases of flight,” will certainly succumb to the pressures of a President who loves his “predator drones.” His concerns for safe landings and take offs of civilian aircraft in cluttered air space will die in a crash with this President’s arrogance of power.
Civilian safety in the air, the stated mission of the FAA, pales in comparison to the threat of UAVs in the hands of terrorists. Less than two weeks ago, Iran President Ahmadinejad unveiled their first domestically built UAV bomber, the “Karrar,” which Iranian media claims to be capable of “long-range attacks up to 1,000 kilometers carrying a 200-kilogram bomb.” He called it “a symbol of death to Iran’s enemies.” His next words then described the drone as “a messenger of salvation and dignity for humanity.”
Drones over civilian skies in America are nothing more than a threat to our liberty. Jerome Whitehead, in “Drones Over America: Tyranny at Home,” reminds us of James Madison’s words:
“A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence against foreign danger, have always been the instruments of tyranny at home.”
We still have time to launch a defense against this attack on our liberty as well as our safety. Petition our legislators to deny the use of drones in civilian airspace. Do not allow our government another “instrument of tyranny” at home. Drones are not our “messengers of salvation and dignity,” as some would have them take that “role.” Remember our liberty in November.
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved to Ronald Czarnecki.
Click HERE for a video on the MQ-8B.
See additonal postings for drones:
“Insomniac Spies in the Sky – Friendly or Enemy Eyes Lurking?”
“Sleepless Drones Flying U.S. Skies Pose Threat to Public Safety”
Comments are encouraged below.
Tags: airspace, attack, Babbitt, drone, FAA, Fire Scout, Homeland Security, invasion, liberty, MQ-8B, Navy, NSA, predator drones, radar, renegade, renegade drone, restricted airspace, safety, security, sleeping, tyranny, UAV, Washington
Posted in Appearances are Deceiving, Frozen in Fear, Sleepless and Tired, Worried and Stressed | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
Bedbug
The headlines across the U.S. today are screaming the resurgence of bedbugs:
In January of this year I posted an article entitled “Mattress Outlet Poker: ‘Buy In’ is Cheap, but Stakes are High!” In it I discussed the risks involved with buying used mattresses which are often labeled by unscrupulous dealers as “manufacturer’s seconds.” The hitchhikers and stowaways hiding in used mattresses and in used furniture have launched a monumental troop surge attacking primarily the Midwestern and the Eastern fronts of the U.S.. Their victims are being left sleepless, tired, and scratching. Their victims are being displaced to living rooms, family rooms, and porches as their bedrooms are being besieged by the pesticide resistant strains of the attackers. Not only are the victims of these tiny pests being forced from their bedrooms, they are left sleep deprived and scratching 24 hours a day as they attempt to find a strategy to counterattack the bedroom terrorists. Victims are being subjected to the life endangering side effects of sleep deprivation.
Bedbug Bites
Bedbugs are a ruthless and resilient species. Their life cycle inspires fear in anyone who has ever experienced their bite. A good video on how to identify bedbug bites can be found HERE. A UC Davis article describes the bed bug lifecycle as follows:
“Female bed bugs lay 200 to 500 tiny, white eggs in batches of 10 to 50 on rough surfaces such as wood or paper. Glue-like material covers the eggs, which hatch in about 10 days. After hatching occurs, the eggshells frequently remain stuck in place. There are five progressively larger nymphal stages, each requiring a single blood meal before molting to the next stage. The entire life cycle from egg to adult requires anywhere from 5 weeks to 4 months, depending on temperature and availability of food (blood). When temperatures are in the range of 70° to 82°F, development occurs most rapidly.
Nymphs and adults generally feed at night and hide in crevices during the day. Common hiding places include seams in mattresses and box springs, cracks in bed frames, under loose wallpaper, behind picture frames, and inside furniture and upholstery. Occasionally people pick up bed bugs in theaters or on buses and trains. They also can bring them into their home on clothing, bedding, luggage, or firewood.
Bed bugs can go without feeding for 80 to 140 days. Older stages of nymphs can survive longer without feeding than younger ones, and adults have survived without food for as long as 550 days. A bed bug can take six times its weight in blood, and feeding can take 3 to 10 minutes. Adults live about 10 months, and there can be up to 3 to 4 generations of bed bugs per year.”
Further reading reveals that the most effective technique for eliminating bed bugs is to hire a professional heating service that can heat the room to very high temperatures. Heating the room for two hours at 140°F, or three hours at 130°F “will kill most bed bugs and eggs.” Other techniques involve insecticides, boric acid, diatomaceous earth, fumed silica, etc. Most of them need to be combined with frequent monitoring, as they are not totally effective. Meticulous laundering of bedding, high temperature drying, and thorough vacuuming are all necessary.
In early February I posted “Update on Bed Bugs” in which I described a dry ice trap designed by a Rutgers University duo: Changlu Wang and Vincenzo Avarello. Their inexpensive alternative to professional pest control services is described here:
The dry ice trap is constructed with a 64 ounce double bowl cat feeder, a 1/3 gallon insulated container, and bottle of talc powder. The jug is used to hold the dry ice. As the dry ice warms to room temperature it, it releases carbon dioxide gas which attracts the bed bugs. The 1/3 gallon container is capable of releasing the gas for 10 to 12 hours. The cat feeder dish needs to be wrapped very tightly with a white cloth to allow a surface for the bed bugs to easily crawl up. The inside bottom surfaces of the inverted cat feeder are then coated with a thin layer of talc. The powder will prevent the bed bugs from escaping the trap. The filled dry ice container is then placed on top of the dressed and treated inverted cat feeder with the lid of the container left slightly open. Some warm water should be barely cover the bottom of the trap to kill the bed bugs that become trapped.
The trap should now be placed in or around the suspected bed or sofa. Late afternoon is best for set-up as bed bug activity begins at night. Use one trap per room, and check the traps in the morning. One trap can catch as many as a thousand bugs per night, “depending on infestation levels.”
I have yet to receive any comments as to the effectiveness of this inexpensive alternative to the high costs of professional services. If anyone has tried this trap and found it to be effective, your comments would be welcomed by all who are plagued by these unwelcome attackers. A complete construction plan can be found in an article by Barb Ogg at the University of Nebraska, Lancaster.
The bedbug attacks have prompted at least five states to call in the Department of Defense to request money to combat the bloodsucking terrorists. Ohio petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to allow the use of the pesticide Propoxur to defeat the enemy, but the EPA denied the request based upon concern for its effect on children. The EPA set up a meeting with representatives of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Defense to discuss the attack which is “not yet a national security issue.”
Bedbugs, nearly eradicated from the U.S. in the 40s and 50s through the use of DDT, have developed a resistance to the weaker pesticides that replaced it. Pest control companies are limited by EPA regulations and their approved substitutes. While the EPA searches for newer, more potent chemicals to kill the bloodsucking terrorists, the victims continue to scratch their arms, their faces, their backs, their breasts, their buttocks, and their legs.
Hopes for a quick solution to this war on the bedroom terrorists appear dim in light of the other wars our government is currently battling. The costs to fight this battle will, no doubt, be borne by the victims of this war. As they “scratch” around for the money to pay the exterminators, the doctors, and the retailers to salve the itching, we hope they don’t fall victim to the often fatal ravages of sleep deprivation.
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved to Ronald Czarnecki.
Click HERE for an Emmy Award winning documentary on bedbugs.
For an interesting National Geographic video on bedbugs click HERE.
Comments are welcomed below.
Tags: attack, bedbugs, bedroom terrorists, bites, bloodsucking terrorists, Department of Defense, dry ice trap, EPA, hitchhikers, mattress, mattress outlet, Proxopur, side effects, sleep deprivation, sleep deprived, sleepless and tired, stowaways, troop surge, victims
Posted in Frozen in Fear, Sleep Deprived, Sleepless and Tired, Worried and Stressed | No Comments »
Sunday, August 15th, 2010
The Brain after REM Sleep
Having spent nearly twenty years in the retail mattress world, I used to hate to hear the words, well, I think we’ll have to sleep on it.” The “ha, ha” that followed for the pun on “sleep” in a mattress store was humor wasted on a salesperson who had heard the phrase at least a couple of times a day, every day for the last twenty years. The words usually meant that the customer was too confused by the choices or too fearful of making the wrong decision. The wrong decision on a mattress purchase can definitely impact one’s “quality of life.” Sleep deprivation is a growing problem in today’s increasingly stressful world even with a good mattress set to sleep on. The fear of making a decision usually results in procrastination. Delays often stretch into years beyond the knowledge that action needs to be taken. Many critical decisions in life suffer the same thought processes, the same fears, and the same delays. It’s easy to say, “Let’s just sleep on it,” and delay the decision for another day. With each day of indecision the problem intensifies. We lose more and more sleep and the problem persists. Recent scientific experiments have found that “sleeping on it” and “dreaming about it” will actually help to solve the problem, enabling us to find the solution and to conquer the problem.
Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep is the answer. Sarah Mednick, PhD., and assistant professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego, has shown in her studies that REM “directly enhances creative processing more than any other sleep or wake state.” ScienceDaily.com reports that her findings show that REM sleep fosters the formation of associative networks in the brain.” Dr. Mednick says that “for new problems, only REM sleep enhances creativity.”
Dr. Mednick used a Remote Associates Test (RAT) to test for creativity in her participants. They were shown multiple groups of three words (such as: cookies, heart, and sixteen) and were then asked to come up with a fourth word that could be associated with all three (sweet was a good answer). Participants were tested in the morning and again in the afternoon. Some were allowed a nap with REM sleep, some without REM sleep, and some with only a quiet rest period. Memory tests were done on all three to test for prior exposure to this problem, but none were detected, eliminating memory biases. The participants with non-REM sleep and those with a quiet rest period showed no improvement in the afternoon test. The REM sleep group showed an almost 40% improvement over the others in their afternoon tests. Dr. Mednick hypothesizes that REM sleep alters the neurotransmitter systems to allow for new associative networks from previously unassociated information. The new associative networks lead to “creative problem-solving.”
Dr. Robert Stickgold, PhD., and assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, has done similar experiments proving that people who “sleep on it…feel less cluttered in the morning. Much of the excess detail is gone, and the important facts seem clearer.” William Cromie from the Harvard Gazette reported on Dr. Stickgold’s experiment with the computer game Tetris. In it players must position falling blocks and place them into filled lines. Gaps in the lines lose the game. Players going to sleep on game days were woken up every few minutes during the first hour of dozing to ask them about their dreams. Most players dreamt of images falling or rotating. Some of the dreams went from the colored experiments to black and white images, from the experiments conducted with musical background to silent ones. There were no memories of the room, the chairs, the desk, or the keyboard; only the falling, rotating pieces. Less relevant information seems to get discarded by the brain during the dream processing period. “Your memory isn’t large enough to store all the minor things you experience every day,” according to Dr. Stickgold. The participants who improved the most after their sleep were those who had slept for eight hours, time enough for ample sessions of both slow-wave and REM sleep. Those who didn’t dream at all about the game did not improve at all. More details can be found in Scientific American.
What seemed most amazing to Dr. Stickgold was the fact that the amnesiacs in his experiments also reported Tetris images in their dreams. Amnesiacs supposedly cannot remember anything due to damage to the hippocampus, the area of the brain where memories first form. He concluded that sleep-onset images don’t come through the hippocampus, as previously thought. He believes they go directly to the cortex where associations form.
Dr. Stickgold suggests that during dreams, “communications between the hippocampus and the cortex are cut off. Bits of memory float around…the brain attempts to paste them together to form some sort of coherent “story.” Sometimes that story provides a valuable insight or association.” He thinks that “these dreams involve a search for new and creative ways to put memories and ideas together. They can make associations that we wouldn’t make when we’re awake.”
Dr. Mednick, Dr. Stickgold, their associates, and other researchers continue to seek more answers as to why we should “sleep on it” before making our decisions. The “pun” expressed to a mattress salesperson will certainly not elicit many laughs, but we can now understand why “sleeping on it,” “dreaming about it,” and, subsequently,”conquering it” makes a lot of sense.
Sleep tight, dream well, and have fun with your decisions!
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved to Ronald Czarnecki.
Tags: associative networks, brain, creativity, decision, dream, fear, free association, non-REM, problem solving, REM, retail mattress, sleep, sleep deprivation, sleep on it, solution
Posted in Dreams, Frozen in Fear, Inspiration, Our Amazing Brain | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
Antidepressants/SSRIs
The FAA announced in April ( see previous post) that its pilots could be permitted to fly while under the influence of certain antidepressants and SSRIs. The reversal of its own long established (70 year) ban against their use shocked pilots, passengers, and psychiatrists across the globe. As antidepressant/SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) use has decreased due to negative publicity, the manufacturers of Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa, and Lexapro cheered the move by Randy Babbbitt (FAA Administrator). The FAA, despite an increasing flood of calls to reconsider its ruling, appears to be sleeping through the irritating clamor; tired of hearing about their fatigued, sleepless pilots.
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International / Mental Health Watchdog recently reprinted an article by Evelyn Pringle who described the FAA’s reversal as a “marketing coup” by the drug manufacturers who are “desperate to find new customers.” Her well documented article details the growing concerns of many experts that the “SSRIs Render Unfriendly Skies.”
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights called on the FAA to rethink its policy based on a recent finding by the NTSB that the February 1, 2008 plane crash in North Carolina, killing all six aboard, was caused by “a crazy acting pilot on Zoloft.” The cockpit voice recorder recorded the pilot singing: “Save my life I’m going down for the last time.” He then told his passengers, “If anybody back there believes in the good Lord, I believe now would be a good time to hit your knees.” The pilot descended below the minimum descent altitude, stalled, and crashed while circling after an aborted landing. The pilot, according to the NTSB report, had been on Zoloft for over a year and had been treated previously by other antidepressants for “anxiety and depression” and a history of “impatience” and “compulsiveness.”
The NTSB also blamed a 2003 crash killing two in Kingsport, Tennessee on a flight instructor found with Zoloft in his blood and liver.
Dr. Peter Breggin, a psychiatrist and an SSRI expert, in a Huffington Post article on April 10, 2010 said, “The FAA should reverse its ruling before it’s too late and hundreds of lives are lost when a pilot becomes impulsive, suicidal, or violent – or just loses his sharpness – under the influence of antidepressant medication.”
Bob Fiddaman, author of the website and blog “Seroxat Sufferers,” requested the FAA provide information on its change in policy just after the change in April. In 58 pages of reply the FAA made no mention of any prominent SSRI expert testimony of contrary views. The FAA supported their own views with copies of documents from a variety of sources. One of them actually showed consideration of a 2003 study of aviation accidents where “SSRIs were found in 61 pilot fatalities between 1990 and 2001.” “Psychological condition and/or the drug use was determined to be the cause, or a factor in 16 of the accidents, or 31%.”
Dennis Canfield’s study “Pilot Medical History and Medications Found in Post Mortem Specimens for Aviation Accidents” was totally ignored by the FAA. His study was conducted in 2006 and was published in the “Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine” journal. 4,143 pilots involved in fatal accidents between 1993 and 2003 were toxicologically examined for medications. One hundred of the dead pilots were found “with SSRIs in their systems including forty with Prozac, twenty-six with Zoloft, twenty-one with Paxil, and thirteen with Celexa.”
Matt Thurber, after citing many examples of accidents involving antidepressant usage, suggests that “pilots who use antidepressants without telling their medical examiners are willing to take greater risks when flying.” The FAA believes that SSRIs help “restore the balance of serotonin.” The FAA believes that their approval for use will result in truthful admissions by pilots; more vigilant tracking; and safer use, with fewer side effects than previous generations of antidepressants. The labels on the prescription bottles argue otherwise with warnings of “anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability, hostility, aggressiveness, impulsivity, and akathisia (psychomotor restlessness).
Dr. Breggin asks why pilots shouldn’t give up their airplanes since doctors are supposed to encourage their depressed patients to give away their guns. How can the FAA expect us to believe that we are safer in planes being piloted by depressed pilots on psychoactive drugs? They are dangerous enough when used alone. When combined with alcohol and benzodiazepines to counteract the insomnia side effects of the antidepressants, the elixir will inevitably cause a disaster.
Millions of innocent lives are at risk every day with sleepless and tired, or medicated and drowsy pilots at the stick. It is time for frequent drug testing of pilots. It is time once again to ground the pilots on antidepressants. A pre-flight test for alertness should also be mandatory. It is time for the FAA to turn off the “machine” and to answer the calls for repeal.
For related posts see:
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved to Ronald Czarnecki.
Tags: airplanes, antidepressants, calls, Celexa, disaster, FAA, guns, insomnia, Lexapro, medications, NTSB, panic attacks, Prozac, psychoactive drugs, Randy Babbitt, ruling, serotonin, side effects, SSRIs, Zoloft
Posted in Appearances are Deceiving, Frozen in Fear, Sleepless and Tired, Worried and Stressed | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010
Vaccine: Choice or Mandate for the Future?
Governments worldwide are anxiously awaiting further tests on a new vaccine announced yesterday by Rachel Quigley in her Mail Online article from the UK. Dr. Robert Sapolsky, a professor at Stanford University, is “on the path to a genetically engineered formula that would remove the need for relaxation therapies or prescription drugs.” His studies on glucocorticoids, the hormones chiefly responsible for our fear responses, have led him to the vaccine which works on rats. He admits that human trials are years away. Will the strong-armed governments of the world, seeking to calm the sleepless and sometimes angry public masses controlled by them, allow the tests on humans to wait that long?
Glucocorticoids are essential for life. They are present in the cells of almost all vertebrates. Cortisol is the most important human glucocorticoid. It “regulates or supports a variety of important cardiovascular, metabolic, immunologic, and homeostatic functions.” Cortisol, along with adrenalin, works to assist the brain in remembering stressful and dangerous situations. Those memories stimulate the fear and flight responses to dangerous situations that may confront us in the future. It is vital to the survival of the species.
Dr. Sapolsky thinks that the human species produces too many glucocorticoids and that man cannot turn them off after stressful situations. He claims, according to Quigley’s article, the hormone “becomes toxic both biologically, by destroying brain cells and weakening the immune system, and socially, when people continue to snap at their friends or family hours after the original cause of tension has vanished.”
The “Sapolsky shot” utilizes a herpes virus carrying genetically engineered “neuroprotective “genes to “neutralize the rogue hormones.” The shot supposedly short circuits the brain’s natural response to stress. Claims are that “It would leave you fresher and ready to deal with another threat, so you can maintain your drive, but with more focused calm.”
How will the short-circuited brain remember the stressful situation? Will a future similar threat be ignored by the chemically altered passive brain? Research in this important area must be done before human trials are initiated.
The FDA, with its quick approvals of fluoride additions to water supplies, aspartame and acesulfame potassium addition to foods, drinks, and medicines, despite studies proving their harmful effects, does not inspire confidence. Headlines across the internet already shout the “brain-eating” and “lobotomizing” effects of the “Sapolsky shot” as well as the conspiratorial applications of this vaccine as a secret additive to government required vaccinations worldwide.
Billions of dollars are being donated by the wealthy “elite” of the world in efforts to control population growth through vaccinations. Some nations refuse the donated vaccinations because of an increase in sterility among their female populations following their widespread use. It isn’t much of a stretch to suspect the ever-reaching arms of big governments everywhere to promote the “Sapolsky shot.” They are no doubt dreaming about the future populations of calm and sleepy subjects, no longer stress-filled, sleepless, and angry about the loss of their freedoms. FDA approvals for human testing will be quickly forthcoming. The “Sapolsky shot” is coming to a clinic near you. It will be provided free of charge by your friendly government sponsor. There are no harmful side effects according to the Center for Disease Control, the FDA, and the Administration. The supply will be “unlimited” according to Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius.
The stress-filled, sleep deprived masses are already lining up for their calm inducing injections. Yoga and meditation will become a relic of the past as our minds and bodies slumber into a passive stupor of paralytic responses. As our self-preserving survival responses to stress are neutralized the pandemic of sleep deprivation will probably disappear. At risk will be our doubting responses to the threats of government theft of our liberties.
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved to Ronald Czarnecki.
Tags: brain, brain eating, Cortisol, FDA, future populations, glucocorticoids, governments, hormones, liberties, lobotomizing, memory, pandemic, paralytic, passive, public, Sapolsky shot, side effects, sleep deprivation, sleep deprived, sleepless, stress reduction, strong-armed, stupor, survival, tension, theft, threat, vaccinations, vaccine
Posted in Appearances are Deceiving, Dazed and Confused, Frozen in Fear, Our Amazing Brain, Sleep Deprived | No Comments »
Monday, August 2nd, 2010
Reaper Drone art, original source unknown
Though the FAA continues to fly cover for the administration, “holding back” on approvals for expanded use of spying drones in U.S. skies, the flack from public concern for safety continues to grow. The sleepless drones have been flying our skies since 2006 despite reports of “frequent system failures, computer glitches, and human error.” David Zucchino, in his recent article in the Los Angeles Times, reports that “Air Force investigators continue to cite pilot mistakes, coordination snafus, software failures, outdated technology and inadequate flight manuals” for the increasing numbers of crashes. Accident rates are down due to the exponential increase in the use of drones both overseas and at home. The flight time of U.S. drones overseas to provide intelligence and to protect our military’s lives has grown to over 20,000 hours a month according to retired Rear Admiral Thomas J. Cassidy Jr. The Air Force expects more than 300,000 hours to be flown this year, compared to 185,000 last year.
Insitu, Inc., a small Boeing subsidiary in Bingen, WA was granted a $43.7 million dollar contract to build “the military’s next generation of remote-controlled spy craft,” according to the AP in a Seattle PI article on July 31, 2010. The drone industry worldwide has already soared beyond the multi-billion dollar mark. Drones protecting our forces and interests overseas as well as those protecting our international borders are indispensable to our national security. The sleepless drones flying our civilian skies, however, pose a serious threat to public safety. The expanded use of drones, after the FAA’s almost certain “approval,” will endanger commercial pilots, civilian pilots, their passengers, and life on the ground.
The accident reports for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are alarming. In April of 2006 a Predator B, the size of a regional jet, crashed near homes thirty miles from Nogales, Arizona. The NTSB attributed the crash to the drone’s operator who “accidentally shut down the plane’s engine while attempting to deal with a locked up computer console.” The NTSB described the crash as “a wake-up call to hopefully everyone.” In August of 2006 an unmanned QF-4E crashed on take-off from Holloman Air Force Base, N.M. The QF-4E is a modified F-4 Phantom II capable of Mach 2 speed (1600 mph) and a range of 1300 miles. It can be flown totally by computer or can be controlled manually using a mobile control station. Holloman, in 2006 was operating 30 QF-4E drones at the time. Smoke from the crash of the large drone could be seen for miles. No one was injured, thankfully. In November of 2006 a UAV crashed in Negev on the Gaza border in close proximity to the populated community of Netiv HaAsarah. A second IDF drone crashed near the town of Beit Hanoun following a technical malfunction. Several hours later a Hamas website released photos of a masked gunman with an apparent IDF drone. In May, 2009 newsherald.com reported that a 20 foot BQM-167 drone washed ashore near Okaloosa Island condominiums. It had been launched by Tyndall AFB and was shot down nearly three months prior to its discovery on the beach. The same article documented two others washed ashore the prior spring. “In February of 2004 another drone crashed onto U.S. 98 near Tyndall.” Bepj.org.uk reported in September 2009 the crash of a UAV at Parc Aberporth Airport in West Wales. The airport is increasingly being used to test civilian and military UAVs while domestic flights continue to take off and land. Military.com reported on March 15, 2010 the crash of an MQ-1 Predator while taking off in southern Afghanistan. Afghanistan.blogs.cnn.com reported on July 28, 2010 the crash of a Luna UAV into the Taliban stronghold of Kunduz province. Because the aircraft went down in an area “littered with IEDs” there were no plans to try to recover it. NATO’s International Security Assistance Force claimed the small 7 foot long craft, weighing about 80 pounds, would have “no benefit to the enemy.” The Calgary Sun, on July 16, 2010, reported the crash of a Heron UAV being used for training exercises at Canadian Forces Base Suffield. It knocked out power in the surrounding area and traffic was shut down on a section of Hwy. 884 (250km southeast of Calgary), but no injuries were reported. These reports are a sampling of the crashes that are reported. Many more have gone unreported. It is inevitable that our future will bring reports of catastrophic loss of life caused by an errant, or an accurately aimed drone.
Two disturbing thoughts confront us as we watch for the FAA’s inevitable approval to expand drone use over civilian skies. The most obvious threat is the risk of interference with normal air traffic patterns and the possibility of communication interference or, even worse, mid-air collisions. The second, and most sinister threat, is the use of drone aircraft by our enemies here at home…or from remote locations abroad. How will we distinguish the friendly drone from the enemy drone? They’ll certainly be flying below our radar.
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved to Ronald Czarnecki.
Tags: drones, FAA, public safety, sleepless, sleepless drones, spy craft, spying drones, threat, UAVs
Posted in Appearances are Deceiving, Frozen in Fear, Sleepless and Tired, Worried and Stressed | No Comments »
Thursday, July 29th, 2010
Smoking Hole in Pakistan. Courtesy of AP.
Yet another deadly “smoking hole in the ground” adds to the continuing trail of death left by sleepless and tired pilots being stretched beyond their limits by schedules designed to maximize profits for their employers.
The worst air crash in Pakistan’s history of Airblue’s flight ED-202 from Karachi to Islamabad killing all 152 aboard may be attributed to pilot fatigue according to the President of Pakistan Air Lines Pilots Association (PALPA). Captain Sohail Baloch told a private news channel “The pilot may be suffering from accumulated fatigue because they are not given adequate leaves.” He added that the pilot was not in a no-fly zone and speculated that the plane was off course due to bad weather. The pilot had to ”resort to visual queues for landing” because communication with the control tower had been lost due to the weather.
The Hindu.com reports that the pilot , Pervez Iqbal Chaudhry, “had 35 years of experience and had logged over 25,000 flying hours.” Airblue official Raheel Ahmed was quoted in the same article explaining that the Airbus A321 was ten years old, had been used by them for the past four years, and was fully serviceable with no technical faults. Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that the aircraft at 2600 feet was cleared to land when it rose up to 3000 feet for no apparent reason and then disappeared from the radar. “The (control) tower did not receive any SOS message or report of a technical problem before the crash,” Malik said.
Only nine weeks ago the world was mourning the loss of 158 people in an Air India crash in the Mangalore hills. That “smoking hole” left eight survivors. The experienced British pilot of that flight misjudged his landing so badly (2000 feet) that “senior pilots, including the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (IPCA) are already blaming pilot fatigue for being responsible for the major accident,” as reported in a China Post article. Two years before that “an Air India Express flight from Mumbai to Dubai overshot its destination by 350 miles after its pilots apparently fell asleep due to fatigue.” The ICPA in response to the Mangalore crash sent a letter to the Prime Minister complaining that “up to 78 percent of crashes were caused by fatigue-related human error.” Flight and Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) in India have not been changed since 1992 when they had no scientific basis for the regulations. Attempts were made in 2005 to change the FDTL but the rule changes were withdrawn under pressure from the “private operators.”
The flight and duty time restrictions worldwide reflect the lack of response from the FAA to the plethora of data now available regarding the effects of sleep deprivation upon mental and physical performance. Our rule changes were dropped in 1995 in response the airline industry’s complaints. Even the unions, strongly supported by then President Bill Clinton, wanted to drop the duty time hours from 16 to 14 hours. Andy Pasztor, in a Wall Street Journal article titled “Dispute Over Cost Delays Pilot Rules,” blames the delay in the rule changes on a dispute between the FAA and the White House Office of Management and Budget. Budget officials have told the FAA informally that “the proposal’s projected cost to airlines wasn’t justified by the anticipated safety benefits.” Since the FAA is controlled by former air line executives and Washington is still held in the firm grip of powerful airline lobbyists like Linda Daschle we cannot expect the “change” promised by our President in the flowered oratory of his campaign.
The European Cockpit Association, a group of pilots unions with over 38,000 members, accuses the European Union (EU) of “ “endangering air safety by failing to act on the recommendations of experts who say cuts in flying hours are needed to curb pilot fatigue.” The Air Canada Pilots Association, with over 7,000 members, has been asking for changes to Transport Canada’s regulations for years. Dave Ross, of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, representing pilot unions at six regional airlines, says, “It’s money. If you can’t fly as long as you do today, then that increases your cost.”
The world continues to scream the alarms to the FAA. The FAA’s mission statement is “to provide the safest, most efficient aerospace system in the world.” The FAA’s vision statement is “ to reach the next level of safety, efficiency, environmental responsibility and global leadership. We are accountable to the American public and our stakeholders.” The world waits, awake to the ever increasing danger of sleepless and tired pilots threatening our lives. The FAA, Congress, and the Administration continue to hit the snooze button while confined to the bedroom of the airline industry’s sleep inducing lobbyists.
The “smoking holes” of death and the smells of burning flesh are permeating the atmosphere of Obama’s flowery campaign rhetoric about cleaning up the halls of Washington. In 2007 newsmax.com reported on Mr. Obama’s lamenting the fact that “the disproportionate influence of lobbyists and special interest is a problem in Washington (and) in state capitals.” He admitted then that he was “swimming in the same muddy water” and that he knows the waters are muddy. He said “I want to clean it up.” The world is waiting for Mr. Obama, Mr. Babbitt (FAA Administrator), and Mr. LaHood (Transportation Secretary) to exit the bedroom of the airline industry’s sleep inducing lobbyists and go to work on new pilot fatigue regulations. The safety of millions flying the skies continue to see the smoke and to smell the burning flesh. The time has come for you to douse the flames.
Here’s a link to a very sad slide show of crash site photos, courtesy of AP and thehindu.com: http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article538554.ece
Another link to a related article from thehindu.com: http://www.thehindu.com/news/article540335.ece
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved to Ronald Czarnecki.
Tags: air crash, Air India, Airblue, Babbitt, FAA, fatigue, LaHood, lobbyists, Obama, paralysis, pilot fatigue, regulations, sleep deprivation, sleep deprived, sleepless and tired, smoking hole
Posted in Appearances are Deceiving, Dazed and Confused, Frozen in Fear, Sleep Deprived, Sleepless and Tired, Worried and Stressed | No Comments »
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010
The Insomniac Eye in the Sky
Our insomniac spies have been operating for years in the skies over Iraq and Afghanistan. The Army recently surpassed the one millionth hour of flight mark for its unmanned aerial systems. The highly sophisticated eyes in the sky have revolutionized the battlefield. They have saved many lives by keeping pilots out of high risk “hot” enemy territories. They have provided sensitive intelligence for enemy movements. They have increased communication capabilities in areas previously blacked out by mountainous terrain. They even engage the enemy with high tech weaponry from their clandestine high altitude cover. Their insomniac eyes are able to see 24 hours a day and they are able to stay up for days at a time. They are friends while seeking our enemies on foreign soil, but now they threaten our friendly skies, our freedom, and the privacy protected by the US Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. The Fourth Amendment guarantees “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.” The insomniac eyes of the drones in our skies may guide the “friendly fire” that mortally wounds our freedom.
These “search dogs” are being used by U.S. Border Patrol agents to watch the areas near the Mexican border. The Predator B can remain airborne for up to 20 hours without refueling. A helicopter averages only two hours of flight time. The Department of Homeland Security and other agencies, as well as state governments, are pressing the FAA to clear them for expanded use along the Canadian and U.S. borders to spot drug smuggling. The X-ray, infrared, and laser equipped eyes in the sky are being proposed to support weather research to track tornadoes and storms, to aid energy companies wanting to monitor oil and gas pipelines, and to support U.S. Coast Guard and local law enforcement agencies in search-and-rescue operations. These operations paint a friendly shadow on the suspicious eyes, but the friendly shadow is already becoming dark.
As early as 2006 a North Carolina county began using an unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with low-light and infrared cameras to spy on its citizens. The aircraft was used by law enforcement to track gatherings of motorcycle riders from just a few feet in the air. The drone was close enough to identify faces. In 2007 insect-like drones were seen hovering over political rallies in New York and Washington. The UPI.com in a January article reported that the United Kingdom is set to use drones developed by its military to spy on their citizens. Kent and Essex police plan on using them in 2012 “for routine monitoring of motorists, protesters, agricultural thieves and illegal dumping.” The drones the Brits will use are capable of up to 15 hours in the sky, but the technology by then will have been advanced exponentially.
QinetiQ's Zephyr
On July 20, 2010 Defencetalk.com reported QinetiQ’s announcement that their Zephyr solar powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) smashed a long-standing world record flight of 82 hours and 37 minutes set in 2008. The Zephyr had been flying for the past week over the Yuma, Arizona skies, has logged 168 hours, and is still flying. The goal for the Zephyr is to fly for another week and to prove that it is a “truly eternal” plane. The Zephyr is launched by hand. It weighs only 50kg. Its solar arrays covering its wings are no thicker than sheets of paper. They power the aircraft by day and transfer power to lithium-sulfur batteries that supply its power at night. It will be capable of spying for weeks or months at a time over set locations.Defencetalk.com
The RQ-11B from AeroVironment, Inc.
In April of 2009 Defencetalk.com reported that the U.S. Army and AeroVironment, Inc. (AV) conducted a 30-hour surveillance demonstration using the RQ-11B Raven, a small unmanned aircraft system (SUAS) consisting of three aircraft and two ground control stations. The system can be carried in a rucksack and is capable of flying in high winds, turbulence, and rain. The 4.2 pound aircraft is powered by lithium-ion batteries. The Raven carries a daytime color electro-optical camera as well as a nighttime infrared camera. AV has delivered thousands of unmanned aircraft internationally.
The Phantom Eye from Boeing
Boeing, according to Defencetalk.com, buoyed by its success with the piston-powered Condor in the late 80s, is currently in production of its Phantom Eye. The Phantom Eye is a liquid-hydrogen powered high altitude long endurance (HALE) aircraft. It will have a capability of more than four days at altitudes of up to 65,000 feet carrying a payload of up to 450 pounds. They are also developing a larger HALE capable of 10 days and payloads of more than 2,000 pounds. The Phantom Eye is scheduled for its first flight in December.
While the FAA provides cover for our government by citing safety concerns in the sky as a reason to slow the approval “process” for expanded UAV use in the U.S. we can safely assume that we are already being watched by an omnivorous, data collecting federal government. Their insomniac spies in the sky make no distinction between criminal and law-abiding citizens. Jerome Whitehead, in “Drones Over America: Tyranny at Home,” reminds us of a famous quote from James Madison:
“A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence against foreign danger, have always been the instruments of tyranny at home.”
It is time for us to cast our doubting eyes on the ever-expanding surveillance and control of our federal government. It may be too late to ground her insomniac spies in our skies, but we still have the time to launch the defense of our liberty. Remember come November.
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved to Ronald Czarnecki.
Tags: defense, drones, enemy, eyes, freedom, friendly fire, Hale, high altitude long endurance aircraft, infrared, insomniac, laser, liberty, Phantom Eye, Raven, RQ-11B, sky, small unmanned aircraft system, spies, SUAS, UAV, unmanned aerial system, X-ray, Zephyr
Posted in Appearances are Deceiving, Frozen in Fear, Worried and Stressed | No Comments »
Sunday, May 30th, 2010
Time to Wake Up!
Despite a promise the Obama administration made in June of 2009 proposing “new limits on how many hours airline pilots can fly” the FAA, the NTSB, and air safety regulators across the globe continue to “sleep in” while the screaming alarms continue to sound. The crash of the Air India flight last week killing 158 people sounded the most recent alarm on possible pilot fatigue and pilot error. The reason I say “possible” is because the investigation for cause of that particular disaster has not been completed. It is doubtful that pilot fatigue will be blamed for the crash. Our air safety regulators choose to continually hit the snooze button and then to throw the alarm out the window. They will no doubt find a simpler cause to the crash. They do not want to confront the airline industry or the airline unions with the stringent new regulations necessary to protect our safety in the air.
Randy Babbitt, FAA administer, and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, attended congressional hearings convened to discuss the crash of the Continental Connection Flight 3407 on February 12, 2009 near Buffalo, NY. The crash killed all 49 people on board as well as one person on the ground. The crash was caused by pilot fatigue. Babbitt told Congress and the media that he would propose a new rule addressing pilots’ fatigue related complaints dealing with multiple take-offs and landings (often described as more stressful than long flights) “in the next several months.” Mr. Babbitt, you can wake up now. It’s been well over a year now and we have not seen your new regulations. Babbitt assigned the Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) the task of drafting the new rule changes by September 1, 2009. The committee completed their task on time. An Aviation Today article detailing Mr. Babbitt’s promises described the ARC’s 18 members working together with unions, airline industry representatives, and the FAA. Mr. Babbitt said the group was examining “flight time, duty, and rest limitations; including definitions of rest, duty, fatigue, captain’s authority, and reserve. Scientists who specialize in fatigue made presentations about sleep opportunities, circadian rhythms and potential scheduling.” Wrapping up his speech Mr. Babbitt said, “I can’t say this any more directly than I am right now: We all have to take on additional responsibilities whether we’re legally required to or not. This is about safety, and safety is about saving lives.” The ARC finished up in September 2009, but Mr. Babbitt has been silent ever since.
Our administrators are not the only air safety regulators shunning their alarm clocks’ screaming cries. The European Cockpit Association, a group of pilots unions with over 38,000 members criticized the European Union’s “endangering air safety by failing to act on the recommendations of experts who say cuts in flying hours are needed to curb pilot fatigue. Here in the EU, pilot fatigue is the single biggest “hot potato” safety issue where neither the European Commission nor the European Aviation Safety Agency has shown any leadership to move decisively towards science-based EU rules.” The CBC in Canada has repeatedly reported on Transport Canada’s failures to respond to pilot fatigue issues. More than a dozen crashes linked to pilot fatigue have occurred since Regionnair’s flight 347 crash 10 years ago. Serge Gagne, the pilot of that flight had been working 30 days straight when he crashed in 1999. He was in his 18thhour of duty and was 60 hours over Transport Canada’s monthly limit. The Air Canada Pilots Association, with over 7,000 members, has been asking for changes to Transport Canada’s regulations for years. The regulations haven’t been changed since 1995, and before that, the changes last made were in the 1940s. Our own NTSB has been pressing for new regulations on pilot hours for 19 years. An FAA proposed rule change in 1995 was halted by the air industry. Pilot unions wanted to reduce the duty hours from 16 to 14, but the airline industry said no. Dave Ross, of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, representing pilot unions at six regional airlines, says, “It’s money. If you can’t fly as long as you do today, then that increases your cost.” Mr. Babbitt, Ray LaHood, the Obama administration, and the airline industries need to ask themselves “How much money is human life worth?”
The Wall Street Journal recently chimed in on this issue with an article by Andy Pasztor titled “Dispute Over Cost Delays Pilot Rules.” He attributes the delay of proposed changes to a dispute between the FAA and the White House Office of Management and Budget. He says that budget officials have told the FAA informally that “the proposal’s projected cost to airlines wasn’t justified by the anticipated safety benefits.”
Front row seats at the FAA, formerly representing the airline industry belong to:
- David Weingart: FAA Chief of Staff. Six years with Northwest Airlines.
- Hank Krakowski: Chief Operating Officer. 30 years at United Airlines.
- Ramesh Punwani: Chief Financial Officer. Past CFO and VP of Pan American World Airways
- David Grizzle: Chief Counsel. 22 years at Continental Airlines. Responsible for agency regulation, safety enforcement and compliance programs, and personal and labor law.
Joining these FAA administrators in affecting current air safety regulations and concerns are the following important lobbyists:
- Former Senators John Breaux and Trent Lott, along with at least 17 former congressional aides and staffers now with Delta Airlines.
- Sharon Pinkerton, former FAA Assistant Administrator, now with the airlines main lobbying group: Air Transport Association of America.
- Linda Daschle, wife of former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, former ATA executive and former FAA deputy administrator and acting administrator in the 90s. Now she is one of Washington’s top lobbyists, paid more than $440,000 a year to lobby for American Airlines.
Regulators, airline executives, congressional representatives, and lobbyists are constantly exchanging places in the merry-go-round for money. While they ride their ever changing horses, air safety regulations will take the back seat near the toilets where we can listen to the constant flushes of empty promises disappearing into the thin air.
In the meantime, we will continue to read frightening data, such as these, reported by Stephen Stock and the investigation team of CBS4 in Miami:
- “1011 incidents nationwide since 1978 where pilot fatigue caused a safety concern on board the aircraft or an actual crash. 689 of those incidents happened in the last five years (2005-2009).”
- “Data from the FAA, NTSB, and NASA shows the problem is growing. There were 189 incidents in 2008 which is up from 117 incidents the year before (2007). And in just the first 9 months of 2009 there were 104 incidents of serious pilot fatigue which is the same number as in entire years in the past.”
Their investigation team even found a brochure, published by the NTSB in 1990, “calling for the FAA to address fatigue immediately.”
Randy Babbitt’s latest word comes from his statementbefore the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Subcommittee on Aviation on Update: The Agency’s Call to Action on Airline Safety and Pilot Training. His complete statement can be found on faa.gov. He laments that, despite his direction for an aggressive timeline for a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) by the end of last year to update the rules from the mid-1990s, it did not happen. He says, “However, with my continued emphasis on this topic, we hope to issue an NPRM this spring. Although this is slightly later than I originally hoped, it is still an extremely expedited schedule and I can assure you the FAA team working on this is committed to meeting the target.”
FLUSH, FLUSH, FLUSH…
RING, RING, RING…
Anyone hear the alarm going off? It’s ringing! Daylight has arrived. No one hears it. Our sleep deprived pilots are on their radios airing their distress signals. The music of the flushing toilet, the carrousel, and the ride for money are drowning out the cries for passenger safety. When will our regulators awaken from their sleep paralysis?
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved to Ronald Czarnecki.
Comments and discussion encouraged. Please click on the comments below.
Tags: Air India, air safety, airline industry, airline unions, aviation, crash, distress signal, FAA, fatigue, NTSB, paralysis, pilot fatigue, Randy Babbitt, Ray LaHood
Posted in Appearances are Deceiving, Frozen in Fear, Sleep Deprived, Worried and Stressed | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010
"The Scream" painting by Edvard Munch
The following introduction is reprinted from “Extreme Fear” with the permission of the author, Jeff Wise…
On June 3, 1970, shortly before noon, a British pilot named Neil Williams strapped himself into the harness of his blue-and-white Zlin Akrobat, a rugged but nimble single-engine airplane built in Czechoslovakia. The World Aerobatic Championship was coming up, and Williams planned to prepare himself by running through the sequence of maneuvers that he’d be flying in competition.
With a lantern jaw, deep-set eyes, and shock of dark hair swept back from a high forehead, Williams looked every bit a casting director’s idea of a daredevil pilot — and in his case, looks did not deceive. Williams was a veteran flyer with a vast and varied store of experience under his belt. In the course of his career he had flown more than 150 different kinds of airplanes and accumulated more than 6,000 hours in flight time. A retired Royal Air Force test pilot, and four-time winner of the UK aerobatic championships, he was, at 36, already regarded as one of the greatest all-around pilots that Britain had ever produced. But his skills had never been tested as they were about to be.
Rafts of fair-weather clouds drifted over the Royal Air Force base at Hullavington, England, as Williams lined up on the runway, opened the throttle, and roared into the air at full power. The wind aloft was gentle, and as Williams climbed he noted with satisfaction that there was no detectable turbulence — that meant he’d be able to carve his maneuvers all the more precisely.
Williams ran his sequence twice through without incident, then brought the Zlin back to level flight and prepared to practice his routine one final time. After only a few minutes in the air, he was already near his limit for fatigue. Competitive aerobatics is a uniquely demanding undertaking. As a mental discipline, it requires exacting attention to detail, the ability to think quickly and three-dimensionally, and to maintain one’s poise while rapidly moving through maneuvers that turn the plane upside down, or cause it to fall backwards, or spin like a top. As a physical discipline, it requires grit and superb fitness as the airplane’s abrupt changes of direction slam the pilot from one side of the cockpit to the other, with centrifugal forces at times pressing on the body with nine times its actual weight and at other times leaving him hanging upside-down from his harness straps. A four-minute aerobatic routine is enough to leave a pilot drained and soaked in sweat.
Midway through the third run-through of his routine, Williams was coming over the top of a loop, a high arcing figure in which his plane carved through the air like a high fly ball. As it reached the top, Williams was upside-down in his seat, the checkered farmland of southwest England arrayed above his head, the cloud-dappled sky under his seat. The plane continued its arc downward past its apex, and the horizon sank toward the bottom of his windscreen until all he could see in front of him was ground. His descent grew steeper and steeper until he was staring straight down.
Barreling earthward through 1500 feet, Williams hauled the stick toward his chest in order to pull the Zlin back to level flight. He clenched his abdominal muscles in anticipation of the resulting g forces, as gravity combined with the centrifugal force of the plane’s curving path would press him into his seat with five times his normal weight. Only by grunting and clenching his leg and stomach muscles could he prevent the blood from rushing out of his head and causing him to black out.
The plane was just coming level with the ground, 1000 feet up, when —BANG! A jolt shook the airplane. The Zlin started rolling left — all except the left wing, which stayed oddly level with the horizon. Williams instantly intuited what had happened: the force of the pull-out had broken the internal spar that gave the wing most of its strength. If that were the case, then the whole wing was about to fall off. He pushed the stick all the way to the right, but the plane kept rolling left. The ground was just 300 feet below and rising fast.
For most pilots, that would have been the end. But in the few seconds he had left before his plane cratered, Williams had an insight. He remembered the story of a Bulgarian pilot who had suffered a malfunction in a similar model of Zlin years before. The circumstances in that case had been different –- the Bulgarian had been flying inverted when a failure of a bolt in one of the wings had caused the plane to unexpectedly flip right-side up. But a detail of the story stuck out: once the Bulgarians plane was right-side up, the wing had snapped back into place. Maybe Williams’ situation was analogous, but reversed. If he went from right-side up to upside down, his wing might snap back in place, too.
In less time than it takes to form a complete thought, Williams threw the stick hard to the left until the Zlin was fully inverted, then pushed the stick forward. His face swelled and turned red as gravity and centrifugal force drained blood from his body into head. WHUMP! With a satisfying thump the wing settled backed into place. By now Williams was almost in the treetops, and for a moment he was sure he was going to crash. Then the plane began to climb.
Hanging in his harness, Williams coaxed the stricken craft skyward, eking out precious altitude foot by foot. He didn’t have much time: his engine, he knew, would only run for eight minutes upside-down. He weighed his options. Without a parachute, his options were stark. Should he try to crash land upside-down in trees? Find a lake to ditch in?
Just then the engine sputtered and died. A new potentially fatal disaster. Williams scanned the cockpit and quickly found the problem: in the initial jolt, he had accidentally hit the knob which shuts off the fuel supply to the engine. He flipped it back to the “on” position. After a few coughs, the engine came back to life.
Williams was running short on time. He decided his best chance for survival was to crash-land at the airfield. He guided the Zlin home and set up his landing approach upside-down. As the end of the runway passed above his head, he pushed the stick hard to the right and rolled the plane rightside up. Again the left wing folded up, and the plane careened sideways as it touched down. Williams curled into a ball until the plane stopped moving, then broke open the damaged canopy and leapt free. The plane was a wreck, but he had survived without a scratch.
HOW WILLIAMS MANAGED to survive the catastrophic failure of his wing at low altitude is a mystery. In aeronautical terms, to be sure, the question of staying in the air was simply a matter of physics. But the psychology of what happened is another matter. By conventional understanding, Williams should have died that day. Under such intense pressure, with fatal impact a few seconds away, the surge of hormones should have been so intense, the neurons of his fear circuitry so overloaded, that Williams should have been barely able to function, let alone to come up with a creative solution in the blink of an eye.
Something extraordinary must have been going on in his brain. Some mechanism in his psychological tool kit must have somehow protected him from panic and perhaps even given him an extra dose of mental power to get him through the crisis. Whatever he possessed, it was a rare talent. Rare, but not unique. The annals of human achievement are peppered with stories of people who managed to survive lethal danger by thinking on their feet. How do they do it? What makes them different? And, most importantly, what can the rest of us learn from them?
How many professional pilots would have survived this test? Fear offers us the “opportunity” to choose. At times, the choice means life or death. Our choice can be panic, paralysis, and ultimately death. Our second choice is to take a couple of deep breaths, to refocus, and to energize a life-saving response. Seemingly insurmountable challenges to survival are documented in “Extreme Fear.” The read should be inspiring!
A review of “Frozen in Fear, Paralysis and Death, or Challenge to Action”, followed by a reading of “Extreme Fear,” guarantees future postings on one of my favorite topics.
Watch a Zlin 50 fly in this YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPRXd-oJcjY&NR=1&feature=fvwp
Special thanks to Jeff Wise for his reprint permission. Check out his blog at: http://jeffwise.wordpress.com/
Tags: brain, challenge, danger, death, fatigue, fear, life, panic, power, survival
Posted in Frozen in Fear, Inspiration, Our Amazing Brain | No Comments »
