Two More Transportation Disasters – Questions Raised About Safety Standards Here and Abroad

I don’t know if you have any Canadians on your email or subscriber list but if you do you might like to know that Air Canada is hugely undervalued. Cormark and TD both issued reports recently. AC has been rated the number 1 international airline for 10 years running in many categories.(see AC recent release re load factor). I own it.

Has crude bottomed? Time will tell and the increase in volume with these big price swings are a sign of a bottoming process, BUT, we have not had that big flush on huge volume with a quick reversal yet. The bounce we have had is still $5 away from the 23.6% retrace since the decline from June and has already retraced back down 50% of that weak bounce. not many buyers there. Most keep talking about the over supply, well supply is not the issue, its weakening world wide demand. Has anyone paid attention to the Baltic Dry Index, at 29 yr lows. Not much demand for raw goods out there folks. (not to mention the weakening economic #’s over the past 4 months here in the USA) A pick up in demand will solve all supply issues in time but until demand starts to increase again, weak relief bounces is all we will see in crude. And don’t forget about all those millions of gallons of crude just floating on the ocean in tankers right now, when that crude starts hitting the market rises in crude price will be dampened. Not a long term buyer yet, just trading the bounces.

Hopefully, with lower fuel costs, airlines will no longer throw caution to the wind by flying the most direct route regardless of the risks involved – eg. flying over a war zone or in direct path of a severe storm…The costs involved in these disasters far outweigh the time and fuel saved.

Many times, people think their car can outrun a railroad, and go against the crossing guard. In addition, people use going in front of a railroad or subway a guaranteed way to commit suicide, with no possibility of survival, and no chance of a rescue.

Thomas is right: many people have the mistaken belief that a car can outrun a train. It is never a good idea to go through a crossing guard.

It may be a good idea to have the transit safety people see if we can design a system where you cannot lift a crossing guard if a train is nearby.

It might seem to be a race or maybe just the nature of man to always take a gamble on his or hers own mortality. the posibility of doing somrthing without thought or consiousness is or can be the only reason for such deadly results. Maybe all rail crossings should go under or over the roads ? Just imagine the cost.

As in the large companies that are commited to a safe working environment, Training and education is the answer.

There is a co that fabricates a proactive black box that would solve a lot of the kind of problems the aviation industry had to face since a few years.The name is Star Navigation Group(SNA.V) and exists since 15 years,having passed with distinction all the tests demanded by of a the aviation authorithy.It is not expensive compare to the cost of today’s planes ,would show in real time any malfunction and whereabouts of the jet,save fuel and actually make the industry much safer.But you cannot move this industry easely exept if the public would demand it and force the IOTA to force the aviation co to install this modern application and help a 50 years old instrument.Just check it out and act.

First off the Metro North accident involved a Mercedes not a SUV. Second the driver apparently got out of the car to look at the damage done by the gate and moved forward instead of backward. Also she may have gotten caught in traffic.

Contrast this is another person whose car got stuck on the tracks near Windsor, Ontario, in a rural area with no traffic. As soon as the driver was aware of a train coming, she got out and way and called 911. It was too late to stop her car from being totalled, but at least no one was hurt.

There are lessons to be learned from these accidents that apply to the market as well as life. First be aware of your surroundings. If you see danger approaching get out of the way. In the market it’s better to lose some of your investment than all of it. Second don’t panic. Panic costs, quick thinking saves.

There is technology to track flights, it just isn’t easy to get airlines to pay $80,000 – $100,000 to install it. Check FLYHT Aerospace Solutions. They have been working with the industry since the Air France disaster (more with Europe than US) but the industry is slow to adapt. The system does more than just real time data streaming. When fuel prices were high it could pay for itself in fuel savings. There are many other benefits too many to list here. It is just a fact that the industry moves slowly.

I used to do lots of driving for my company and saw (especially in Chicago and suburbs) people in such a hurry riding the bumper of vehicle in front of them thinking they are a few seconds closer to destination even if it leaves them sitting on train tracks with no out should the gate come down in back of them. NO SPACE AT ALL TO GO IN ANY DIRECTION, PERIOD! Same for rural areas as well it seems. Why not SIMPLY wait before driving on the track until traffic has cleared. Yes, cars behind you will honk for their two second delay, but you will be alive. It is sooo simple. GET OFF THE DARN TRACKS, it is for trains.

The FAA is rather proud of themselves for the low accident rate in the US commercial airline industry. I suspect the FAA has little to do with it, but rather airlines and manufacturers that get smarter and better in order to stop the losses and lawsuits. By googling ‘worldwide aircraft losses 2014’ I found a Boeing summary that shows worldwide data sliced many ways and depicted in charts and graphs. boeing.com/news/techissues/pdf/statsum.pdf If the blogbot deletes the URL google ‘boeing statsum’ As some say, the drive to the airport is far more dangerous than riding the scheduled airlines.

The Air France 447 and Air Asia QZ8501 both ended similarly, with a rapid climb followed a stall to the sea with bitching Betty yelling at them the whole way that the planes were in a stall. Apparently fear makes you deaf. Or automation makes heavy iron fly by wire pilots think it invalid. It will be interesting to read the cockpit voice recorder transcript of 8501.

Google ‘odds of dying in a plane crash’ and I get numbers from five per 5 million flight hours to 1 in 11 million seat miles. As a pilot, hours mean more to me than miles because of winds and routing, but most people don’t think like that. Of course how to compare jets to say, autos has always been a problem, so pick an analysis that you understand and like. pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/how-risky-is-flying.html

I have over 10,000 hrs of flying low and slow over the mountains at night in the weather. Airline pilots look at my log book and shake their heads, wondering why I’m still alive. I can say the same thing about her log book full of flights at high speeds to 3rd world countries in what amount to big, shiny terrorist targets. But we all do our risk analysis, mitigate risk and press on. No different than when the roads are icy.

Finally the flight crew are always the first to arrive at the scene of an accident. So unless they have a death wish that their medical examiner, check airman, supervisor and family missed, they want a successful outcome just as much as the folks in back.