Part II: Speed
Source: http://khon2.com/2014/09/05/plane-crashes-off-the-coast-of-jamaica/
Plane crash off Jamaica: What happened? Les Abend | September 6, 2014
[Time 2]
(CNN) -- I peered over the shoulder of the flight engineer and studied the pressurization gauge on his panel. The needle indicated that the cabin was climbing, and the slow popping in my ears confirmed it. Not good. The flight engineer swiveled his seat away from the panel and turned in my direction, brow furrowed, eyes wide.
"Should I tell the captain?" he asked.
The question seemed foolish, but I understood. The flight engineer was brand new, having completed his training with the airline a week earlier. I was a seasoned veteran of six months, observing from the jump seat for the purpose of monitoring co-pilot procedures. I had just upgraded from the flight engineer position to a "window seat" on the 727.
"Yes," I replied with raised eyebrows. "I would tell the captain...like right now."
The captain had already begun to swivel in his seat. He squinted at the array of switches and indications on the panel. A conference with the flight engineer ensued. All four of us in the cockpit focused momentarily on the cabin rate needle. It was still indicating a climb. For some mysterious reason, we were slowly losing cabin pressurization. The captain turned toward me in a silent gesture to obtain confirmation. I nodded.
Without hesitation, he instructed the co-pilot to request an immediate descent to 10,000 feet from our altitude of 37,000 feet. I reached for the oxygen mask and strapped it to my face. The rest of the crew followed my lead. Ten minutes later, and after the completion of the appropriate emergency checklist, we reached 10,000 feet. Our 152 passengers had to endure a lack of air conditioning because of the pressurization problem, but other than that, the experience was a non-event.
This should have been the same outcome for the single-engine Socata TBM 900 turboprop that crashed, tragically, in the waters off Jamaica on Friday.
The TBM 900 had departed Rochester, New York, bound for Naples, Florida, with two occupants on board: Larry Glazer, the pilot/owner and his wife, Jane Glazer. But the pilot became unresponsive while the airplane cruised at 25,000 feet over Georgia.
Instead of landing in Naples, the autopilot system allowed the turboprop to continue flying off the eastern U.S. coastline, crossing over Cuba before, with its fuel supply exhausted, it crashed into the sea about 12 miles north of the Jamaican coastline. Two U.S.-launched F-15s confirmed through observation that the pilot appeared unconscious.
[406 words]
[Time 3]
The French-made TBM 900 is a sophisticated piece of technology, far superior to the old Boeing 727 airliner I described above. It is a great representative of the new generation in privately-owned cabin class airplanes, competing with traditional twin-engine turboprops and even small, corporate jets.
Composite material, finely tuned aeroengineering design, a reliable and proven Pratt and Whitney engine and advanced cockpit displays and controls all combine to make the $3.7 million airplane a respected machine. More than 1,000 of these airplanes are operating today; the 900 is the most recent version.
According to an Aircraft Owners and Pilot Association (AOPA) report, this was the third TBM owned by Larry Glazer; he had logged 5,000 hours in the model. One would think that such experience would have produced a positive result and not a crash into the ocean. What happened exactly?
Hypoxia, lack of oxygen to the brain, would appear to be the most likely culprit. Depending upon the health condition of an individual, the time of useful consciousness at 25,000 feet isn't much more than about a minute. But that's if a depressurization occurs as a catastrophic event with some type of major hole in the fuselage, allowing air to escape explosively.
But in this instance, judging by 30 minutes of Air Traffic Control audio recording, it was not a catastrophic occurrence, but rather a slow event. News reports say the pilot asked to descend to 18,000 feet because "we have an indication that is not correct in the plane," according to a stream of that transmission posted on LiveATC.net.
After about one minute, the airplane was cleared initially from 28,000 feet to 25,000 feet where it eventually remained until fuel exhaustion. While descending, ATC gave further clearance to 20,000 feet but the pilot responded with an unintelligible transmission. It's possible he was already suffering from hypoxia.
[308 words]
[Time 4]
A slow loss of oxygen to the brain is insidious; most people not familiar with the symptoms don't recognize the danger.
A depressurization problem is a traumatic event that it is easily managed -- but only if the problem is recognized. Like the captain of the 727, a pilot facing such a situation would have to don an oxygen mask the minute he suspected the issue. The next objective would be to descend the airplane to a habitable altitude -- 10,000 feet is a typical procedure goal. For this to occur, a sense of urgency has to be stated or an emergency declared.
Apparently, none of this happened.
At the airline level, we train for such a depressurization event from day one. It is an emergency that is etched into our muscle memory. I am certain this emergency was part of the training for this particular TBM pilot. Whether it was part of his muscle memory, we can't know.
The airplane is equipped with an emergency oxygen bottle attached to quick-donning masks for just such circumstances. It is possible that the system may have malfunctioned. Perhaps a closed valve not noticed on the preflight inspection? An undetected leak? Or maybe the system that had been causing the malfunction released the cabin pressurization in one final event.
Regardless, if indeed a pressurization malfunction had been observed, the prudent decision would have been to descend immediately and head off a tragedy.
Sad as this outcome was, we can be thankful for small favors. The airplane's sophisticated automation system steered it away from populated areas and a tragedy of even greater proportions.
[269 words]
Source: CNN Opinion
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/06/opinion/abend-jamaica-crash/index.html?hpt=op_t1
My cancer is worse than your cancer? Geraldine Moriba | September 5, 2014
[Time 5]
(CNN) -- I remember the day I rang the bell. When you finish radiation treatment at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, there's a bell in the waiting room that you ring three times, and when you do, the entire room erupts with applause. I remember the immediate rush when it was my turn. I felt the euphoric joy of having survived.
It's an elation that comes along with being alive and knowing that you've made it past chemotherapy, radiation and surgery, with clean margins. I felt deep gratitude for my medical caregivers, my generous friends and my family, especially my family.
That was nine years ago. But still, even now, I have unanswered questions about the disease that almost cut my life short.
At age 38, I was given six months to live. I had sarcoma, a rare cancer that can occur in bone or soft tissue, with no known cause and no cure. My lingering questions about sarcoma fuels my motivation to produce "Until 20," a documentary that follows James Ragan's quest to live his few remaining days of life fully.
When I met James he was about to turn 20. We had both won the sarcoma cancer lottery. My 4-inch tumor was found growing along the radial nerve in my right arm. James' tumor was found in the femur in his right leg. The five-year survival rate for this disease is frighteningly low. According to the National Cancer Institute, the five-year survival rate is about 66%.
For me, after getting to know James the mystery of why I survived and many people do not triggered "survivor's guilt." This is the guilt that can occur when someone survives a traumatic event that others do not, such as accidents, war, natural disasters and even illnesses like cancer. Guilt is a complicated emotion. My cancer fight lasted a year and a half, and now, as far as my doctors know, there no active tumor cells in my body.
I survived. James didn't. After repeated recurrences and seven major surgeries since his diagnosis at age 13, he died in February. We were fortunate enough that James chose to share the final year of his life with us.
[366 words]
[Time 6]
James said, "It's all about perspective. I'm constantly told that's what I provide people when they hear my story. I'm told that I give them new perspective on their life."
Like James, I prefer to ask "now that I been marked by this disease, what can I do to make a difference?" I had cancer. I was lucky. Now I look ahead.
"Until 20" is James' story. He should be an inspiration, not just for patients facing incurable diseases, and be seen as someone who encouraged adults and young people to make meaningful, values-based choices with their time and their lives.
This documentary chronicles James' life after diagnosis, as he grows from a young athlete blindsided by disease into a passionate and caring young man. James shows us that you don't have to live a long life to make a difference.
Sarcoma tumors develop in healthy people with no apparent risk factors. There's little incentive for pharmaceutical companies to find a cure for sarcoma. One percent of all adult cancers in America are sarcoma, and 15% of all childhood cancers are sarcoma. With so few cases, there's little money to be made from research.
I have no patience with "my cancer is worse than your cancer" conversations. Cancer is not a competition. Cancer causes us all pain, and having a rare cancer is exponentially devastating, because there is so little research being done. The only remedy is banding together to create awareness and pushing for research funding.
According to Dr. Ara Vaporciyan at MD Anderson, "one option would be to put in place some rules or some laws that protect drug companies to allow them to invest research dollars. And in some sort of tax reform or some way to encourage them to invest here, to make it worth their while to invest here."
Why do we wait for a disease to teach us about living well and having compassion for others? James changed my life. In his deliberate quest to live a life worth living, he reminded me to live as though my days are numbered and to make every day count. You just need grit, passion and focused purpose. Humor helps, too.
I have to believe that one of the most effective ways to move beyond survivor's guilt is to find purpose in my experience. I've learned lessons I couldn't have learned any other way. What seemed to be my premature death sentence has also become my good fortune. James gave me renewed perspective.
"Am I sad about everything I am going to miss out on in life? Absolutely," said James. "But I am at peace. I've lived a pretty incredible 20 years."
[445 words]
Source: CNN Opinion
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/05/opinion/moriba-my-cancer-your-cancer/index.html?iid=article_sidebar
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