I can't let this drop - 155 people survived the ditching of Flight US 1549 and I'm not taking anything away from 'Sully's' heroic actions, but the chances that it was a bird strike are now looking more and more remote*. Why is the story of the engine malfunction on the same plane, two days prior to Jan 15th, not making more headlines? Is someone trying to bury this story - which could potentially affect anyone who flies on the Airbus 320 or other aircraft with this engine. Luckily CNN are 'on the case':Steve Jeffrey of Charlotte, North Carolina, told CNN he was flying in first class Tuesday when, about 20 minutes into the flight, "it sounded like the wing was just snapping off."
"The red lights started going on. A little pandemonium was going on," Jeffrey recalled.
He said the incident occurred over Newark, New Jersey, soon after the plane -- also flying as Flight 1549 -- had taken off from LaGuardia Airport in New York.
John Hodock, another passenger on the Tuesday flight, said in an e-mail to CNN:
"About 20 minutes after take-off, the plane had a series of compressor stalls on the right engine. There were several very loud bangs and fire coming out of the engine. The pilot at first told us that we were going to make an emergency landing, but after about five minutes, continued the flight to Charlotte." Read the full story here
Come on people, make a noise. We deserve to know if they have definitely already found evidence of a bird strike or not, because next time this compressor problem happens, the passengers on an Airbus 320 - and these aircraft make up a huge amount of daily flights with many airlines - may not be quite so lucky.
Remember to read back over my previous posts on US1549 for links to sites already investigating problems with these (Airbus) engines prior to the ditching.
*Update: The Captain has now been clearly heard to say that the aircraft suffered a bird strike and the official investigation will, no doubt, confirm the same. Therefore I was wrong and this previous engine problem was just a coincidence and appears not to have had any bearing on both engines losing thrust.
LULIN
A brightening comet has appeared that is going to be big news. Here's a good article about this space body, which was first sighted in 2007:
Astronomers at the Taipei Astronomical Museum said that the tail of Lulin will become most vivid during that time as it moves closest to the Earth. According to the museum, it took 28.5 million years for Comet Lulin to revolve round the Sun on its own axis.
Comet Lulin was initially described as an asteroidal object when found by Ye Quanzhi at the Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China.Three images were obtained by Lin Chi-sheng of the Graduate Institute of Astronomy, National Central University at Zhongli in Taiwan on July 11, 2007.
The comet is presently moving between the constellations Scorpio and Libra, and is expected to run towards Leo at an accelerating pace in late February, according to the museum.Comet Lulin will pass 0.41 AU (Astronomical Unit) from earth and reach the closest distance to Earth on Feb. 24 -- about 14.5 times the distance between Earth and the Moon. One AU is the distance between Earth and the Sun.
The comet's maximum magnitude in late February is expected to reach magnitude 6 and will be seen with the naked eye. Astronomers advised star gazers to make use of the upcoming long Chinese Lunar New Year holiday to appreciate the comet. It can be seen low in the sky in the east-southeast direction before dawn.Please note that, due to precession, the constellations do not align with the Zodiac any longer. For those of you who want to convert astronomical positions to zodiacal here is an ephemeris of its astronomical positions
* Update. The comet will align in the sky with Saturn in Mid Feb. Saturn is in the astrological sign of Virgo.
There are lots of rocks (SA) in the sky (UR) at the moment as we also have an alert on this:
Newly-discovered asteroid 2009 BD is passing by Earth today only 400,000 miles away. The small 10m-wide space rock poses no threat, but it merits attention anyway. The orbit of 2009 BD appears to be almost identical to the orbit of Earth. 2009 BD may be a rare co-orbital asteroid, circling the sun in near-tandem with our planet. Extrapolating the motion of 2009 BD into the future, we see that it remains in the vicinity of Earth for many months to come, never receding farther than 0.1 AU (9.3 million miles) until Nov. 2010. Future observations may reveal the nature of this strange asteroid; stay tuned! http://www.spaceweather.com/
On that same page you will see details of tomorrow's 'Ring of Fire' eclipse too - see picture at top
It's all kicking off out there!
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