A bad day at the office

https://airminded.org/2024/02/20/a-bad-day-at-the-office/

by freediver • 2 years ago

369 98 2 years ago

chris_wot• 2 years ago

350 feet up… and they climbed it, then lowered the pilot with a really long rope… wowsers!

a2tech• 2 years ago

I would imagine they'd lower him down a bit and then while someone held him, the others would descend. Managing 300 feet of rope up that high (and especially as the guy got lowered more) would be really difficult.

sandworm1013• 2 years ago

A modern rope for rock climbing is 50 to 60m, about 160 feet. Some climbers use thinner double/twin ropes that are twice that length. It can be a pain but isn't unmanageable if you take your time. I could see them doing it all at once using whatever reasonable rope they had at the time.

whoisthemachine• 2 years ago

Not only that, one climbed onto and then into the cockpit to secure the pilot.

...a seaman of the Naval Reserve named Rath climbed up the inside of the mast until he reached the machine, and then crawled out to the plane to hold the pilot until help came.

DowagerDave2• 2 years ago

I assume all that experience climbing the rigging up to the crowsnest paid off even on land, working with a different service!

devsda• 2 years ago

To make it even better, for one of them(from ground crew) it was their first time climbing 360ft on that mast.

Before that day, they never climbed beyond 73ft [1]. Because of this reason he (Rath) was awarded a gold medal while the other two received different (silver I presume) medals.

[1]. Link at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39512332#39513137

lmm• 2 years ago

Because of this reason he (Rath) was awarded a gold medal while the other two received different (silver I presume) medals.

Apparently the standard one was bronze. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Medal_for_Lifesaving

n4r9• 2 years ago

Interestingly the second time I've seen mention of Portsmouth (UK) on HN in a month. Previous time here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38988389

sandworm1013• 2 years ago

Such things happen more often than people like to think. The image from this 2019 incident is almost unbelievable.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/pilot-uninjured-after-plane-get...

And Florida 2021:

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2021/09/24/florida-p...

Ontario 1986:

https://tessa2.lapl.org/digital/collection/photos/id/32617

Power lines seem surprisingly good at catching small aircraft without shattering them.

hammock• 2 years ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arresting_gear

hypertexthero• 2 years ago

Also trees: https://abc7news.com/plane-crash-connecticut-small-plainvill...

zoogeny• 2 years ago

It reminds me of flies being caught in spiderwebs.

monitron• 2 years ago

It happened in my neck of the woods (Maryland) a few years ago: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/27/plane-cra...

iamtheworstdev• 2 years ago

it happened by a guy who had literally previously done it and i think at that same airport. i hope they took his license after that last one.

dpedu• 2 years ago

I'd be very curious to see how similar the forces experienced by power lines are in wind storms vs catching a small aircraft.

dylan604• 2 years ago

Looks like someone thinking they're a navy pilot trying to hit the #2 wire

kQq9oHeAz6wLLS• 2 years ago

Somewhat related, but I quite enjoy Growler Jams on YouTube. Cool to listen to him explain carrier operations.

duck• 2 years ago

They're also good at catching a moose: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/high-wire-act/

silasdavis• 2 years ago

How slow can a light aircraft go if pulling up heavily into a stall? Are they only going a few kmh when snagged like that?

bombcar• 2 years ago

Depends on the plane, but something like 40-50 mph isn't uncommon, even slower if there's a headwind (relative to the ground) or they have a STOL kit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr1Jl1jwLDg

rob74• 2 years ago

That probably has something to do with the elasticity of the power lines (also that there is always some amount of slack in them), which however does not apply to a radio mast as in the article. The odds of the propeller entangling itself with the mast in just the right way to keep the airplane hooked, without destroying the mast, and staying that way until the pilot was rescued, are probably much smaller...

Waterluvian• 2 years ago

So many wires that are likely less visible, more present, and less survivable. Amazing he hit and became affixed to the main tower.

gnfargbl• 2 years ago

I found a little more on the incident at https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/-/media/royal-navy-responsive/i... (page 14).

eszed• 2 years ago

Thanks! Great additions to the story. My favorite is that one of the rescuers was a groundsman who had never been higher than 75ft up the mast!

It reminds me of the Mr Rogers line about "look for the helpers" - the folks who run towards trouble. Nicholas Rath, RNR. His name deserves to be remembered.

The writer also includes a nifty contemporary simile. Good stuff.

DowagerDave2• 2 years ago

There's a similar scenario described in "How To" by Randall Munroe, where he asks astronaut Chris Hadfield if you "could land a plane by rolling it on it's side and catching the arrest hook on the cable hanging from a crane?" Chris is skeptical it would work, but answers seriously and references the frequency of small planes getting caught in powerlines & towers.

imoverclocked3• 2 years ago

This particular plane has a top-speed of 100mph. It might be flyable down to 30mph… which would make such stunts far more possible than with faster aircraft today. Of course, you can do anything once; The real question is, “can you do it multiple times?”

mattpallissard• 2 years ago

A good landing is one you walk away from. A great one is where you can fly the plane again.

TylerE3• 2 years ago

30mph is unrealistically low, more like 45-50, which is already more than doubling the impact force. On top of that, they can only fly that slow straight and level. Banking increases the amount of lift you need to generate to maintain altude, as the lift is now pointing to the side instead of straight up.

Maintaining flight in a 90 degree bank is something aerobatics aircraft can do, but it's hard, requires a specific aircraft setup, and you're not doing it at approach speed. More like 100-150mph.

Very easy spin an aircraft when attempting to maneuver at low speeds, and that will invariably result in a crash as you need several thousand feet of altitude to recover. Such crashes are 99.9% fatal.

Usually looks something like this (Warning: It's a crash, there's a fireball, but it isn't overly graphic): https://youtube.com/shorts/urTs-y7MiJE?si=ovfiC3ZvCgcFr5Nu

Rather than just rolling out the pilot pulled back sharply right around when when he got fully inverted, you see the nose quickly start to come around, and then a split second later the left wing stalls deeper at which point it enters a counterclockwise spin and impacts the ground after approximately a quarter rotation.

wlll• 2 years ago

you can do anything once

I'm not sure that's the quote. You can't after all eat your own head, even once.

kilolima• 2 years ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airborne_aircraft_carrier

AnotherGoodName• 2 years ago

Slightly related but a fun thing to learn about was the flashing lights on powerlines (i'm nerdy so love hearing about stuff like this from people in the know).

You know those balls they have on powerlines that flash? Easy right? It's just a flashing light. That's what i always thought at least. Until someone pointed out to me that they sit on one line at a time with no earth and no battery, just a capacitor to store charge between blinks. So how do they create a circuit? There's only one wire!

Well since there's current flowing through the wire there's induction and you can wrap that wire in what is essentially half an AC transformer and create a whole new circuit at much lower voltage. In fact the blinking lights on powerlines internally just have two metal plates either side of the slot that goes over the line and clips in. From induction they leach power from the power lines despite there only being one wire and no earth in the whole system.

Which i find really cool and simple. You can take any high voltage power line and a metal plate and power a blinking light just by getting close to it!

KMag• 2 years ago

You can take any high voltage power line and a metal plate and power a blinking light just by getting close to it!

Well, for high-voltage DC transmission lines (typically used for longer distances to minimize induction loss), you'd presumably need to try to power them via current leaking to the air instead of induction. I'm not sure how feasible that is.

samatman• 2 years ago

It gets weirder than that, if you bring a fluorescent bulb close enough to high-voltage transmission lines, it will just glow. https://www.farmanddairy.com/top-stories/how-to-make-a-fluor...

Induction is a fact about the physical world which I accept but have never truly understood.

Izkata3• 2 years ago

I remember reading about an experiment years ago where computer chips that could be reconfigured programmatically (FGPAs? Not sure) were put through a genetic algorithm to see if it could come up with a circuit to do a task on its own. In one of the results, the circuit wasn't actually connected end to end so it took them a while to figure out how it worked - turned out the two halves were communicating through induction.

I think that same experiment had a configuration that would only work on one chip and not others it was copied to, because it accidentally relied on impurities in one of the components.

ikiris2• 2 years ago

Its not about current flowing through the wire, its the fact its an AC line so it has a shifting magnetic field. You can easily extract power from any moving mag field.

mdavidn3• 2 years ago

If that were true, a DC transformer could not work. It is the flowing current.

mdavidn3• 2 years ago

This is not that dissimilar to how transformers work. High-voltage lines are never physically connected to low-voltage lines. There's always a gap. The circuit in everyone's home ends at the local transformer.

maerF0x03• 2 years ago

I used to bjj in the mornings before work because my mentality was "If i've already been choked out, beat up, and tapped out then there's nothing worse that the day (or my boss) can throw at me." (ie, it's all easier from 8am on)

earthwalker993• 2 years ago

It must feel nice to forget that your boss can fire you. The bliss of ignorance.

parthianshotgun• 2 years ago

We must accept everything and resolve inequity internally, within our souls no less! I fully support this mentality (and I need to, because I may someday be a boss, and I certainly wouldn't want my unders to realize material issues, it's better for me in the long run to let people 'self actualize' and ensure my totality)

Damogran62• 2 years ago

Once it's happened a few times, you'll find you get much more pragmatic.

rcbdev2• 2 years ago

It genuinely feels nice to live in a society where getting fired is not a big deal.

maerF0x03• 2 years ago

It's not that he can't fire me. It's that facing (mocked) death gives perspective to the actual threat of being fired. At least in my life and circumstances being fired is not an existential threat. Sure my comforts may be threatened, but at the very worst case I can have a bed in a shelter and food from a kitchen. It's not what I want, but it's also not as dire as others make it out to be.

The fear of being fired gives them more power over you. Remove the fear and take your power back.

jiveturkey42• 2 years ago

There needs to be a term for when a replier thinks they're doing clever one-upsmanship, but everyone else sees it as unpleasant misanthropy

happyopossum• 2 years ago

You don't have to forget about it to have peace about it. Stay out of debt, live on less than you earn, and have a 6 month emergency fund in a savings account. Takes a couple of years of sacrifice to get there, but once you do, you take back that power you've been giving your boss.

You walk around the office differently, you're more likely to take jobs that interest you, challenge you, and where you feel fulfilled vs the place that pays you the most.

nilslindemann• 2 years ago

Why would your boss fire you if you do Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu?

jazzyjackson• 2 years ago

Similarly, I've been anti-confrontational all my life, until I got in a car wreck where we were rear-ended on the highway and thanks to the airbag I really just had the wind knocked out of me, but ever since then I've figured getting punched in the face is probably not worse and can handle more stressful situations now. Still haven't been punched in the face tho.

infinite_salt• 2 years ago

A former UFC heavyweight flipped his truck recently and said that the airbag hit him harder than any of the opponents he had faced

chasd00• 2 years ago

i was mugged once, got jumped from behind by about 4 people and beat up pretty good, idk about anyone else but getting hit really hard in the back of the jaw with a fist is not something you instantly shake off and respond to like in the movies. I went down like a load of bricks and it took 30 sec for me to figure out what was even happening. That whole time I was getting kicked and hit more. By the time i was even capable of getting to my feet it was over and my pockets were empty.

neilv• 2 years ago

My martial arts training was more gentle (Aikido, which did involve a lot of tapping out, but the sensei was very conscientious about safety, and BJJ would've been too rough for me personally).

So one of my personal baselines for physical danger... I've had guns pointed at me a couple times on dark streets, including once by a crazy-overconfident young teen saying he was going to shoot me when I told him I didn't have a wallet (and I had to maneuver as he was saying this, to put a parked car between us, before I sprinted away and hopefully didn't get shot in the back once he could line me up). The other time, as soon as I realized what was happening, I went to an old script for handing over my wallet, suddenly very clear-headed and focused and calm, so much so that the mugger pointing a gun at me started getting nervous and shouting at me.

I was wired after both those times, but humans evolved for brief life-threatening stress like that.

Job stress is different, and can be worse for humans:

* It can be something you can neither fight nor flee.

* It can happen over a long period, which we aren't built for.

* It can threaten more than just you (your family, your colleagues, strong values).

I've had desk-job crisis situations in which the company might rest upon me pulling off something not necessarily possible, when I have to invoke calm, sharp, in-command Astronaut Mode, for days at a time. But IME that only works when you can take some command, which isn't all bad corporate situations.

If one has the perspective that the job can't be worse than what they've survived, I suspect that's great, in that it will help them avoid stress adverse impact on their health.

Unfortunately, I don't think everyone can have that perspective, and it's also not always an accurate perspective.

maerF0x03• 2 years ago

You make great points/caveats to what I was identifying. BJJ (rolling particularly) helped for a subset of normal work stresses as opposed to chronic stresses bordering on traumas :)

flir6• 2 years ago

Commemorative event and additional context, 2017: https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-latest-activity/news/2...

More photos of the wireless station: https://www.commsmuseum.co.uk/CoursesNonCHC/horsea.htm

Archaeological report, 2018: https://maritimearchaeologytrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2020...

Damogran62• 2 years ago

Ordinary Seaman Knoulton

My feelings for his job title are...complicated. (Webmaster Miller, Network Intrusion Specialist, Red Team...)

sophacles• 2 years ago

Tangential - from the article referenced by the article:

The pilot owes his preservation to the intrepid gallentry of these three men, who, while aline to the risks they ran, performed the rescue without hesitation for personal safety.

Aline means (according to a brief search): a cut of garment consisting basically of two A-shaped panels for the front and back, designed to give increasing fullness toward the hemline.

Is this a typo/transcription error or some out of date usage I'm unable to find a definition for?

If it's a typo of aligned, it makes sense but that's a strange (to me phrasing).

parkererway• 2 years ago

Bad OCR of “blind”, maybe?

CrazyStat• 2 years ago

I read it as a typo/mistranscription for “alive”—to be alive to the risk means they are aware of it.

shepherdjerred• 2 years ago

From the context I believe it means "to be aware of".

It's possible to do something incredibly dangerous because you aren't aware of the risks -- that isn't courage or bravery, that's just plain ignorance.

There's a comment on the article:

While aline to the risks? No.
While cognizant of the risks.

Izkata3• 2 years ago

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/Aline

Down the page: British dictionary - a rare spelling of "align".

The garment is apparently A-line, not aline.

nonethewiser• 2 years ago

I'm just amazed at how tall and skinny that structure is. Must be some strong steel. I guess the latticing provides a lot of strength as well.

pvg• 2 years ago

It's also cabled (guy-wired, I guess) to the ground. A mast like that was once the tallest human structure

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_radio_mast

extr0pian• 2 years ago

There's also probably around a dozen guyed wires holding it up.

flir6• 2 years ago

It was timber, believe it or not. Metal guy ropes.

EnigmaFlare• 2 years ago

? TFA says it was "was composed of latticed steel girders".

benatkin• 2 years ago

This made me think of literally an office, and The Crimson Permanent Assurance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crimson_Permanent_Assuranc...

It is quite a story, though. I struggled to wrap my head around them carrying him off the building. With the detail of the rope, it made more sense.

1letterunixname2• 2 years ago

It's all about improvised office weapons and the scaffolding that moves with the building. CPA should set sail for the pointless megabuildings of Austin.

a3w2• 2 years ago

Whose 350 feet? Instructions for unclear jumped out of the plane.

a3w2• 2 years ago

correction: 175 persons have 350 feet, if no handicapable person is included. But how did they fit in a small double decker plane?

DerCommodore• 2 years ago

I wonder how often this really happens

1letterunixname2• 2 years ago

I'll use this as a meme for when an unhandled edge case causes catastrophic failure.

stevage• 2 years ago

Impressivetaht they had a 100m rope close at hand to lower him down with.

fbdab103• 2 years ago

I am imagining it was a length of rope they re-used in stretches? 100m of early century rope capable of comfortably supporting a human seems way too unwieldy to have carried that high.

flir6• 2 years ago

I've thrown a bunch of links in elsewhere in the thread, but basically, there was a bosun's chair (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosun%27s_chair) running inside the mast. As far as I can figure it out one man went up in the chair to secure the pilot, waited for the other two to reach him, and the three of them managed to get the pilot into the chair and back down to the ground.

karaterobot• 2 years ago

I assume that in 1917, this plane wasn't going 300 miles an hour, but I'm surprised the plane didn't just break apart when it hit the tower. It looks like a dart stuck in a dartboard. Is the idea that it was going really slowly, or that the tower has enough sway to slow down the plane on impact, or...?

russellbeattie• 2 years ago

When a programmer has a bad day at the office, their computer crashes.

When a doctor has a bad day, their patient crashes.

When a pilot has a bad day, their plane crashes.

When a highrise window washer has a bad day, they crash.

A bad day at the office

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