Landing Aircraft "you be the judge" : RTE

dublin | housing | other press

Wednesday September 19, 2007 19:39

by biggles

Anyone going down to RTE news today will see how they've put a little "interactive" twist on the news that a flight from Lisbon almost crashed in Santry. A thumbnail picture accompanies the story http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0919/air.html of the hotel which is reported as being a 16 storey building at Santry Cross at night with the caption "you be the judge". Then you get to see another picture of the building during the day. Cool. You be the judge. Relax now.

You are presently at the controls of a DC 9-83 passenger jet with 4 other crew members and 112 passengers slowing down on your cruise speed of (504 mph, 811 km/h) beginning a standard descent of no more than 2% declination. Feel good? Confident? Skittish? Not worrying about the 72,600 kg weight you could wallop? Now do those lights which look like an airstrip on the big hotel just in front of hte airstrip confuse you??

The news is just at the fresh load of dung stage when professionals some with degrees in journalism take facts such as an industry preliminary report using the phrase "SERIOUS INCIDENT" and decide to allay peoples' fears & be funny.

here's the interim report -
http://www.aaiu.ie/upload/general/9702-0.pdf

We almost all know how to fly a plane. It's a piece of piss. You put a few coins in the slot and shoot at everything on the screen, or if in an emergency situation someone on the ground will phone you up and talk you through landing. Indeed it's such a doddle flying commercial passenger jet that it's a wonder we haven't dropped pilots as a profession and simply turned the whole thing into a kind of problem juvenile drug user rehabilitation therapy. But it is in fact very difficult to fly a plane at two important stages - (1) leaving the ground (2) landing. OK - let's presume you've seen through the silly charade of pretending that you can land an aircraft. We'll look @ the problem another way.

Imagine you are the guest of or worker in a 16 storey hotel in north Dublin who much inspired by the latest Irish Times "express yourself" crap, look forward to a city of highrise spires and skyscrapers. http://scripts.ireland.com/polls/head2head/index.cfm?fu...=7975 Now what is that you see in the twinkling night sky? Is it a red kite hawk dipped in flourescent paint? Is it a meteorite? Is it a Qassam rocket? Nope. It's a bloody big passenger aircraft & it's coming right at you. What do you do? Simple. Run up to the roof and put out the silly lights.

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2007/0918/bre...2.htm
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/warning-after-p....html

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Comments (1 of 1)

Or you could just name the hotel..,

by smirking

Wed Sep 19, 2007 21:09

Because one thing that stands out in all this is the very clear avoidance by journalists (thus far the Irish Times, the Irish Independent & RTE) to name the 16 storey hotel in Santry Cross. They obviously all used the same source for their information - the reports and internal warnings of the Irish Aviation Authority Safety Regulation Deparment. Now those type of people wouldn't refer to the problem as a hotel, because that's not how you write reports. Indeed the two photos used in the RTE thumbnails were lifted from the pdf file I linked to above. But this story is not just "human interest". Nor could it be a proper treatment of the IAA's work when RTE ask internet users to be the judge. Nope, this building interests us because we mostly don't have to delve too far in our memories of disasters to remember what happens when passenger aircraft miss runways or collide with buildings. So why not mention the obstacle located at 1.5 nautical miles southwest of the threshhold of runway 34 of Dublin airport? .
Are there perhaps issues of consumer confidence? worker safety? is it the little worker on the windowledge with the squeezy mop or the big capitalist who invested in & expects full return on his "obstacle" who would be pissed off should the same news entities who report, thus deem the information newsworthy then omit a most important detail? I can help you out here. Though not resident in Santry nor having used either Dublin airport or any of that city's hotels, I can book hotel rooms over the internet.

This is what I found :-

..........Days Hotel Dublin Airport boasts 88 superb guest bedrooms, and excellent conference facilities. Situated just off the M50 at Ballymun, Days Hotel is located a mere 7 minute drive from Dublin Airport and just 4 miles from the City Centre. The hotel is part of a ground breaking €2.5 billion development at Ireland’s newest and most radically transformed regeneration area. Easy access by public transport ensures the hotel is ideal for a business or leisure stay. Secure underground car parking is available to all residents. Ruebens café bar is open throughout the day, serving a delicious selection of hot food and snacks. For business users, the lobby and bar have been designed with wireless internet access as standard. In the evening time, the bar is a perfect spot to relax and unwind, before retiring to the comfort of your room..........There are 3 great reasons to stay..............[ & one obviously good one not to. ]
http://www.dayshoteldublinairport.com/

Now who would give planning permission for such a hotel which is being described as an obstacle? & thus far seems to be posing a serious risk to the safety of the city's airport traffic and the residents of Santry?

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Landing Aircraft "you be the judge" : RTE

Comments (1 of 1)