As a European and a pilot -- and also as a professional journalist -- I have a humble suggestion for some of the people who commented Mr Goyer's article. Please look into a well know American/Canadian series called "Myday" that, despite the rather stupid title, deals quite in depth and seriously with the investigations on worldwide accidents. One episode was recently dedicated to the Tunisian ATR 72 accident that occurred in 2005 near Palermo, Sicily. It came out that the pilots, and especially the captain Chafik Al Gharbi , made two very bad mistakes. One, already mentioned by New, was not to have manually checked the fuel quantity despite some obvious discrepancies in the flight log. Nor they cross checked with some simple math the available fuel for the flight, an operation that every pilot performs before committing plane and passengers to flying. The second mistake , even more ominous, was to voluntarily ditch the plane despite the fact that they could have possibly reached Palermo airport gliding at the most efficient speed. No, Mr. Chafik Al Gharbi, preferred the otherwise noble endeavor of muttering prayers instead of -- again -- consulting the airplane manual or follow the advice of Palermo controllers who suggested him to try a glide. Mr. Goyer is right, bad things happen and too often pilots are blamed. But if a pilot who is in charge of a commercial plane is so inept that 16 people die because of his incompetence (certified first by investigators and later by the judiciary) then, by Golly, he has better stay out of the cockpit, and perhaps in jail.
Excuse my European ignorance, but does the tower closure mean that the whole airport/facility linked to the tower will be closed for good ? Or the airports affected will instead be downgraded to the rang of a non controlled facilities ?
