Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines

[xilman]

Originally Posted by storm5510

I just read an Indonesian Boeing 737 is missing. About 50 were on board. I imagine there will be many followups. The 737 series has been Boeing's "lemon" for a long time.

-500 not -Max, or so I have heard.

[storm5510]

Originally Posted by xilman

-500 not -Max, or so I have heard.

The BBC reported this. At the time, they may not have known the exact model.

50 total on board threw me until I considered the time difference. The exact function of The International Date Line baffles me so I do not consider it. I live in the Eastern Standard Time zone. In my location, The Philippines are 13 hours ahead, and Tokyo is 14 hours ahead. I worked in a Japanese factory and they had clocks in the lobby indicating the time in places near Japan.

So, I made my post shortly before noon, my time. If Indonesia is in the same zone as Japan, it would have been 2 AM Sunday morning there. This would explain the small load.

I have not seen anything posted since.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by storm5510

The BBC reported this. At the time, they may not have known the exact model.

50 total on board threw me until I considered the time difference. The exact function of The International Date Line baffles me so I do not consider it. I live in the Eastern Standard Time zone. In my location, The Philippines are 13 hours ahead, and Tokyo is 14 hours ahead. I worked in a Japanese factory and they had clocks in the lobby indicating the time in places near Japan.

So, I made my post shortly before noon, my time. If Indonesia is in the same zone as Japan, it would have been 2 AM Sunday morning there. This would explain the small load.

I have not seen anything posted since.

From different stories, a number of details.

The plane was 26 years old.

There were 50 passengers and 12 crew on board.

Last contact was a request for permission to climb to 29,000 feet. No distress call. 2:40 AM local, 2:40 PM EST

Plane was at 11,000 feet, then suddenly dropped until radar contact was lost at 250 feet. Some reports say plane dropped "more than 10,000 feet in less than a minute" according to radar24

Witnesses in boats heard a loud boom, saw a large splash and wave nearby after hearing the boom. One said something like plywood nearly hit his boat. Aviation fuel was seen on the water.

Debris has been found.

The water is only around 25 meters deep in the area.

[storm5510]

Indonesian divers find parts of plane wreckage in Java Sea.

It is a rather lengthy Associated Press article. At least, this did not become another MH370.

[storm5510]

A little more:

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Authorities said they determined the location of the crash site and black boxes of a Boeing 737-500 on Sunday, a day after the aircraft crashed into the Java Sea with 62 people on board shortly after taking off from Indonesia’s capital.

The head of Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency, Bagus Puruhito, said officials believe they identified the location of the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder — the so-called black boxes — because emergency signals transmitted by the devices were detected by a navy ship’s sonar system.

“Hopefully we can lift the black boxes in short time to determine the cause of the crash,” military chief Hadi Tjahjanto said.

Earlier Sunday, search and rescue operations resulted in parts of the plane being found in the sea at a depth of 23 meters (75 feet), leading rescuers to continue searching the area.

“We received reports from the diver team that the visibility in the water is good and clear, allowing the discovery of some parts of the plane,” Tjahjanto said in a statement. “We are sure that is the point where the plane crashed.”

He said the objects found included broken pieces of fuselage with aircraft registration parts.

Earlier, rescuers pulled out body parts, pieces of children’s clothing and scraps of metal from the surface.

[kruoli]

Originally Posted by storm5510

The 737 series has been Boeing's "lemon" for a long time.

Since I am not a native speaker and could not find information about "lemon" in this context (on a small search sample), I guess you mean something like "black sheep"?

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by kruoli

Since I am not a native speaker and could not find information about "lemon" in this context (on a small search sample), I guess you mean something like "black sheep"?

Here in the good ol' USA, "lemon" has long been used idiomatically as a pejorative term for a car which has had a seemingly unending succession of defects or mechanical problems. I am not sure of the etymology, but there is an obvious analogy to a lemon being something that leaves a sour taste in your mouth.

EDIT: I believe I remember hearing about this on the national news. If memory serves, the report said the disgruntled owner also had a sign with his name substituted for the car company's name, in its ad slogan that it "has a better idea."

[storm5510]

Yesterday near Denver, CO. Pieces of the cowling fell into a residential area.

https://youtu.be/sBxe4cQzUIY

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by storm5510

Yesterday near Denver, CO. Pieces of the cowling fell into a residential area.

https://youtu.be/sBxe4cQzUIY

One of the two engines on a 777 went blooey just after takeoff. The flight crew landed the plane safely on the remaining engine.

Nobody on the plane was injured.

Well done!

I have not seen any reports of injuries on the ground, either. One of the pieces of debris just missed hitting a house.

[storm5510]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

One of the two engines on a 777 went blooey just after takeoff. The flight crew landed the plane safely on the remaining engine.

Nobody on the plane was injured.

Well done!

I have not seen any reports of injuries on the ground, either. One of the pieces of debris just missed hitting a house.

The owner of this house was very fortunate.

[storm5510]

Boeing 747 cargo plane drops engine parts in Netherlands.