Aviation In Canada

Saturday, October 01, 2005

Airbus Landing

I'm sure we've all heard of the Jet Blue A320 that landed with the nose wheel cocked to the left. I just head something this morning that had me thinking. Apparently the A320 in question had the in-flight entertainment system available to passengers, and CNN was one of the stations they could tune in. Given the fact that the A320 can't dump fuel and had to circle to burn it off, first, there was plenty of time to get news crews all over that airport to watch it, and "capture it for the public". Apparently, many of the passengers on board watched their own plane from the outside as sparks flew from the nose strut after touchdown.

So here's the question: Suppose the situation were more dire. Would you, as a passenger, want to watch your own death on TV as it happens? Maybe so. Perhaps it would kind of detach you from the situation, allowing more peace of mind at the big moment, since you now have an outsider's perspective on how things are going. I'm not sure what to think of this. Either way, with or without the TV, there's nothing you can do to cahnge the situation. But would you want to watch it all?