The French equivalent of our
National Transportation Safety Board released its final report on the crash of
Air France flight 447, from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Paris France the night of
31 May to 1 June, 2009. In that report the
Bureau
d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses pour la sécurité de l’aviation
civile, found the pilots, although qualified, did not follow the correct
procedures and in their mishandling of a simple problem, caused by a design
fault, stalled the aircraft, departed controlled flight, and fell from 37,000
feet into the ocean, killing all on board.
There are days I feel like what
those pilots must have experienced. The
panic of knowing things are wrong, just not knowing what to do about it, or how to deal with the swirling vortex that is life.
In those times I remember the words of an instructor, “don’t panic - the
airplane wants to fly, so controls to neutral, assess the problem and make
gentle inputs to return the aircraft to straight and level.” Isn’t that good advice for life too?
1 comment:
Yes, staying calm enough to assess accurately, when possible, what the problem actually is is a good beginning. "Straight and level" reminds me of the admonition of old..."straight and narrow"...there is a path...oh, to keep our feet on it, or in your parlance, our nose and wings rightly lifted and directed.
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