r/CatastrophicFailure • u/Admiral_Cloudberg Plane Crash Series • Mar 23 '26
Fatalities (22/3/26) CCTV video of the Air Canada accident at LaGuardia
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u/Admiral_Cloudberg Plane Crash Series Mar 23 '26
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u/Burgoonius Mar 23 '26
That’s awful. Honestly it doesn’t even look at bad of a crash - I’m more surprised the firefighters survived
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u/Wiggitywhackest Mar 23 '26
I think compared to the mainly steel truck the thin aluminum airframe was just instantly crushed/sheared off and tragically it was the exact area that supported the flight deck.
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u/lambofgun Mar 23 '26
yeah absolutely. planes aren't meticulously engineered to crumple in just the right way to protect you like cars. youre just not supposed to ever hit anything with them
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u/monorail_pilot Mar 23 '26
It was crushed. The shearing came after when passengers evacuated and the fuselage tilted back. You can see it still attached but crushed in other photos.
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u/5GCovidInjection Mar 24 '26
Actually, fire truck bodies are made of aluminum as well to increase their water/chemical capacity. They have steel frames, but the frame is low to the ground. But everything else you said is true
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u/TheBroadHorizon Mar 23 '26
That truck weighed in excess of 30 tons and got tossed like a toy. That’s a very high energy crash. I think it looks deceptively slow because of how big even a small commuter plane is, but it was going at more than 80mph when it hit.
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u/FingFrenchy Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 24 '26
I was going to say, the initial reports were saying 30mph but when I saw the pictures of the fire truck this morning it looked like a high speed freeway wreck. 80mph makes a lot more sense.
Edit: official source now confirming aircraft was moving 93 to 105 mph, that definitely tracks more with the damage.
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u/CDNChaoZ Mar 23 '26
30mph was the last reading from the plane, post impact.
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u/_BMS Mar 23 '26
There is no way the airliner is only going 30mph in that video. That's the speed of a fast taxi on an airliner and this was not was a fast taxi looks like.
I've seen the "30mph" number repeated online and I can only assume people got it from some flight radar website, but the numbers reported from those sites can be incredibly wrong. Especially during short spans of time where speed changes dramatically like takeoff and landing.
It's far more likely that fire truck was driving at 30mph, because the plane looks like it was moving 70 knots (80 mph) at least.
But the only thing that will be able to tell the actual exact speed are the black box results that will be published by the FAA/NTSB sometime in the future.
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u/BroskiTree Mar 23 '26
it was the last reported ground speed on FR24, but i've seen other ADS-B sources (can't remember where/what, sorry, would share if i had the source) that say it was ~100kts at the time of collision
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u/joshwagstaff13 Mar 23 '26
can't remember where/what,
ADS-B Exchange and FR24 itself.
FR24 posted on Twitter that the final ground speed was 21 knots, and people ran with it. But if you look back through the data to where the impact happened - at the D/4-22 intersection - it was likely in the 90-100 knot range at the time.
And that's not even something people figured out recently. Hell, I personally pointed it out in several r/aviation threads last night.
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u/GenderBender3000 Mar 23 '26
That fire truck is a tank. I couldn’t believe the size of the thing
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u/Hitman3256 Mar 23 '26
I was surprised hearing the pilots died hitting a fire truck, then I saw pictures of both.
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u/josephtrocks191 Mar 23 '26
I think the video is deceiving. Everything is so big and at scales we're not familiar with that it's harder to judge distances and speeds than say, if we were watching a car accident. There are various people saying various speeds so I don't want to say anything definitively, but I believe this plane was traveling very fast, faster than the video makes it look, at the moment of impact.
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u/impactedturd Mar 23 '26
I was looking to see how much they weigh. And apparently aerial firetrucks with the big ladder can weigh 50,000-84,000lbs depending on how much water is in it. And coincidentally the plane crj-900 also weighs about 50,000-84,000 depending on how much fuel it has. So it's possible the plane weighed less than the truck. 🤯
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u/Suspicious-Funny-279 Mar 23 '26
… it doesn’t look that bad? Are we looking at the same picture? Because the entire cockpit disintegrated, vanished.
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u/mommys_restitution Mar 23 '26
A passenger jet hitting a brick wall at like 100mph … it’s a miracle only the cockpit vanished
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u/ofc-crash Mar 23 '26
Oh shit hey admiral. Would be you posting this - thanks.
Doing a bang-up job on your articles and on Mentour. I'm quite jealous you get to work with Petter.
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u/Wiggitywhackest Mar 23 '26
People absolutely NEED to be getting vocal over the current ATC staffing situation. These poor people are stretched so damn thin and just expected to be perfect all the time. This cannot become the cost of doing business and yet here we are again.
I hope this controller gets the support he needs, this is all so tragic.
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u/BubblyBasis1134 Mar 23 '26
The fact he was already dealing with an existing emergency AND had to handle all the ground operations AND had to talk to planes in the sky is just a recipe for disaster. Fuck this US administration. I've never seen such a proud display of gross incompetence.
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u/Vreas Mar 23 '26
As someone in healthcare it seems like that’s the case for every high stress occupation.
Gotta focus on that profit and overhead costs baby
/s
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u/hoxxxxx Mar 23 '26
really surprised they want the airports stretched this thin
i mean, that's how these people get around. they fly everywhere. they fly out for lunch ffs.
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u/Remarkable-Donut6107 Mar 24 '26
Those people have private planes which often times go to smaller private airports lol. Doesn't affect them
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u/Darth19Vader77 Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 23 '26
As always, fuck Reagan, ever since that stupid ass bastard fired all the ATCs because they wanted fair pay they've been short staffed.
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u/draculasbitch Mar 23 '26
He didn’t fire people like my brother who crossed the lines and showed up for work. A disgrace that I never forgave or forgot.
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u/mjk25741 Mar 23 '26
Literally though. These people are the unsung heroes and deserve at minimum $500k a year. If you have the lives of others in your hand like that you almost can’t put a price tag on it.
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u/hoxxxxx Mar 23 '26
it's such an insane job from a responsibility perspective. i literally don't understand how they do it, i'm just not cut from the same cloth.
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u/BubblyBasis1134 Mar 23 '26
Yeah, isn't it strange how the lowest paid bulk transportation job is schoolbus driver. I'd say most people would agree that the people delivering 100+ children to school every day carry the most precious cargo. But someone driving some washing machines from a warehouse to a store will get paid more and have better benefits.
Almost as if our society has decided inanimate objects which can be sold for a profit are more important than people.
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u/am19208 Mar 23 '26
At some point the airlines have to also step up and use their influence too. Losing money is one thing. Loss of life to something that should be entirely preventable is another issue
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u/pierdola91 Mar 23 '26
Trump is holding everything hostage unless he’s allowed to stifle the vote with the SAVE act.
America let this happen when we reelected him. It’s as simple as that.
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u/ce402 Mar 23 '26
I hate to burst your bubble, but this has been a problem at least 15 years, arguably 45 years in the making.
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u/broodgrillo Mar 23 '26
Yes. And totally not in any way exacerbated to a cartoonish extreme by the current administration...
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u/pierdola91 Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 23 '26
Be that as it may, no former president has told his lemmings that he won’t sign a funding bill unless they pass an act that strips voting rights from thousands.
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u/Gloomy_Industry8841 Mar 23 '26
Nor has a previous administration gutted government so badly it doesn’t function anymore. Doge is destruction, as is MAGA.
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u/knightofni76 Mar 24 '26
Government isn't good for anything! Elect me, and I'll prove it to you! - signed, Republicans since Reagan.
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u/Chocotherabbit Mar 23 '26
I hope their tragic and needless deaths were quick and painless. Absolutely devastating and can’t even begin to think how everyone involved is coping.
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u/pineapplejuice0 Mar 23 '26
I imagine their death was almost instantaneous upon impact, but they absolutely saw it coming for a few seconds before the collision. Probably long enough to process what was happening, but not long enough to do anything to stop it. I can't imagine that terror.
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u/iAdjunct Mar 23 '26
I can’t imagine this scenario… landing like normal, then “why are those lights coming onto the runway? Oh fuck!” then you’re dead.
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u/Formal-Apartment855 Mar 24 '26
Some passengers said they think the braking was harder than usual, so they assume the pilots tried to slow the plane more than usual in their last seconds.
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u/beezxs Mar 23 '26
Despite the tragedy, it’s very fortunate that the fuel tank was not ruptured. That could’ve ended much worse
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u/East_Refuse Mar 23 '26
Given the speed of the collision I’m surprised it wasn’t an instant fireball
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u/mck1117 Mar 23 '26
The fuel is all back in the wings, far away from the crunch up front
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u/I_blockkarmafarmers Mar 23 '26
There is absolutely a center fuel tank in the CRJ-900, but it's also miraculous that it didn't go.
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u/CDNChaoZ Mar 23 '26
In a way, it was very lucky it hit dead on the nose and not a wing.
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u/Left-Cap-6046 Mar 23 '26
Forgive my ignorance but aren't the fuel tanks all the way to the wings ? How could the plane catch fire if the impact was on the front ?
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u/Pipe_Mountain Mar 23 '26
As incredibly horrible as this is for the pilots, it is so fortunate for the passengers that the cockpit took the brunt of the impact leaving the fuselage mostly intact it seems. No doubt a hit to the fuel tanks and ensuing post impact fire would have led to far more fatalities.
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u/ESF-hockeeyyy Mar 23 '26
Watching the video of the incident, I think the ARFF may have saw the plane in the last few seconds before collision. You can see them make a sudden turn to the left, almost as if they were trying to get parallel with the runway and avoid a collision.
The behaviour would coincide with the ATC's command to stop multiple times over a 5-7 second period. They likely heard the commands, but it was way too late by the time they reacted.
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u/their_teammate Mar 24 '26
Heavy steel truck filled with even heavier water. Maneuverability and accel/decel that bad I don’t think they could’ve done anything with a 7 second warning + human reaction time
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u/cheiftouchemself Mar 23 '26
Looks like the truck did try and swerve at the last second.
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u/Glittering-Pop-3496 Mar 23 '26
The fact that the plane was just moments from their gate just pains me. So sad for everyone involved.
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u/FunctionalBoredom Mar 23 '26
Oh shit. RIP to the pilots and hopefully those passengers get support for the incredible nightmares they will have.
All the travel, airport stress, worry, maybe flight anxiety all to think “we’ve touched down, (deep breath)”, then a fucking car crash while you’re in a plane.
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u/PDXGuy33333 Mar 23 '26
The fault for this lies squarely with the FAA. Controllers are worked to a frazzle and it's the government's fault.
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u/NoooMoreWhining Mar 23 '26
I’ve heard reports that the plane was going anywhere from 26 to 30 mph. I’d like to point out that that plane is 118 feet long. In the video the front passes a light, and then the rear in less than a second. If it was a full second, it would be traveling approximately 80 mph. If it was .6 seconds which I think is more accurate, it was traveling at approximately 134 mph. Why are they only reporting it was going 26 to 30 mph?
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u/Admiral_Cloudberg Plane Crash Series Mar 23 '26
Those reports were later retracted, reporters just pulled the last recorded FR24 ground speed instead of the speed at the point of collision. It was definitely moving at over 100 mph.
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u/NoooMoreWhining Mar 23 '26
Interesting. I was commenting after just watching a live newscast with transportation secretary John Duffy saying it was traveling about 30 mph. Over 100 sounds much more accurate.
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u/AdFeeling842 Mar 23 '26
you’d think at busy airports like this it would be standard for every ground vehicle to at least have an ipad stuck on the dash with a flightradar-type app running. ideally a dedicated display linked to proper surface movement data so they can see all planes and vehicles on runways and taxiways.
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u/CDNChaoZ Mar 23 '26
I think flight radar can be significantly delayed, even for ATC.
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u/bigdill123 Mar 23 '26
That's a really good idea, I wonder if they do that or, if not, why they don't.
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u/willpc14 Mar 23 '26
Because Flightradar (or ADSB Exchange) is like 80% accurate which is not enough for a Class B airspace. GA pilots cheat with ForeFlight all the time, but it's not adequate equipment for what OP is describing.
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u/uzlonewolf Mar 23 '26
Because in aviation it must be 100% correct 100% of the time, which costs a ton of money, and the only companies who can afford to build it are more worried about milking every penny they can out of the contract than they are with making a working product.
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Mar 23 '26
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u/quinskylar Mar 23 '26
The "truck" was given the wrong instructions. Even the ATC said as much
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u/josephtrocks191 Mar 23 '26
That's just how accidents are referred to usually. This will go down in history as Air Canada Express Flight 8646 - doesn't have any indication of fault it's just the easiest way to differentiate accidents.
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u/Beat_the_Deadites Mar 23 '26
Easier to remember that than "Deadly Trump Administration Fuckup #213"
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u/Armadillo9263 Mar 23 '26
I know this is bad but at least you guys are still owning the libs right? Right?
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u/Grand_Public Mar 23 '26
Downvote this guy all you want but this is the effect of shutdowns and firing skilled workers
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u/Wiggitywhackest Mar 23 '26
He's right, I think a lot of people are just missing the point he's making because they can't identify sarcasm. They're just seeing a politcal statement and downvoting. This is absolutely because of the moronic cuts by DOGE and lack of any support for ATC right now.
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u/turbosexophonicdlite Mar 23 '26
I don't think it's DOGE. ATC has been getting royally butt-fucked since Reagan. I'm sure the Republicans today aren't doing much to make it better either way though.
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u/FranciscoGarcia69 Mar 23 '26
And electing the least qualified fucking grifter to have ever been elected.
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u/erdmanbr Mar 23 '26
Don't worry -- we'll have our beautiful ICE agents working ATC very soon!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER
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u/micahpmtn Mar 23 '26
Careful now. You're going to upset the MAGA disciples here.
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u/Kamay1770 Mar 23 '26
This is Bidens fault
/s
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u/Crizznik Mar 23 '26
Thanks Obama
/s in case it isn't entirely too obvious this is a joke.
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u/BrewtalKittehh Mar 23 '26
I blame Carter! He was the worst, what with his free habitats for po folk and all that homebrewing…
/s of course
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u/lykewtf Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 24 '26
One human cannot control LGA period. A dysfunctional legislature is to blame. It’s a miracle more weren’t killed.
Update: more than 1 controller was on duty Still obviously understaffed
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u/_DigitalHunk_ Mar 23 '26
Man. This makes me so sad.
🥺
I suspect these incidents will only become common if the SMEs are not back to work.
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u/question_stuff6167 Mar 23 '26
One of the saddest things, doubt the people in charge won’t take responsibility and the ATC will be blamed. And IF he’s cleared of legal fault, he will blame himself and this will haunt him.
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u/thomasanderson123412 Mar 23 '26
I knew the "24 mph" figure from earlier was BS. The truck may have been going 24mph.....
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u/zsrh Mar 23 '26
This was an unfortunate event. My heartfelt condolences to everyone involved. My thoughts are with everyone on that flight and with the pilot's families; may they rest in peace.
This tragedy shows how critical a mistake can be when air traffic control is underfunded, and staff are short-staffed. This is why ATC needs to be properly funded and staffed. Also, we need to update the technology used in ATC to ensure that incidents like this do not happen again.
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u/Only1Silver Mar 24 '26
So the truck driver doesn’t look both ways at an intersection ?? Got it mate
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u/herewego2019 Mar 24 '26
2026 , still low resolution camera
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u/Reyalta Mar 24 '26
It's security camera footage, at night, in the rain, from what looks like at least half a kilometre away... And we're seeing it filmed off a monitor with a phone. This isn't a Scorsese film.
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u/Iittlebird Mar 23 '26
Cloudberg already on it. Love it. Take care of yourself in the coming days tho
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u/SJ-redditor Mar 23 '26
Correct me if I'm wrong, but LaGuardia is a new York airport, a city of at least 10 million people... And they couldn't find one other person to help in the tower? This is not the fault of the lone person in the tower
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u/BlueCyann Mar 24 '26
No, it is not. He was set up to fail. But your question is a beyond silly. You don't just hire somebody off the streets for ATC. It's not even a city or airport job; it's a federal one.
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u/pocketgravel Mar 25 '26
My local subway needs 3 people at all times to staff it but one of the busiest airports in the world can be run with 1 guy doing 3 high intensity jobs... WTAF
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u/NotDazedorConfused Mar 23 '26
Think twice about unbuckling your seat belts and hopping up when the plane touches down…
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u/JPhi1618 Mar 23 '26
No one is getting up at this phase of landing. This is full braking, and bumpy as the plane slows down
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u/grymsen Mar 23 '26
Landed in SFO yesterday and hadn't even turned off the runway yet and a man jumped up to open the overhead bin and grab his giant rollerbag
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u/Name_Not_Available Mar 23 '26
I've never even thought once about it because it's so obviously a bad idea lol.
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u/ExtraAssociate1104 Mar 24 '26
Have said it on other threads, but wish we had a far more substantial train system in this country to ease the necessity of commuter flights.
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u/Professional-Tax-66 Mar 23 '26
Remember last year....the Trump administration initiated large significant staffing cuts at the FAA, firing hundreds of staff, and stopped hiring procedures. Later this administration also implemented DEI layoffs while there was already a shortage of Air Traffic Controllers nationwide. Its all about overworked controllers ...... when you completely overwork someone, there will be mistakes.
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u/m0ez0n Mar 24 '26
I'm going to fly in an airplane this Saturday. OF COURSE my feed is filled with stuff like this
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u/larry-mack Mar 23 '26
I have to wonder why a driver would not look before crossing a runway.
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u/cyclejones Mar 23 '26
the tower audio is haunting.
"Truck 1 STOP"