Comments by "SmallSpoonBrigade" (@SmallSpoonBrigade) on "WPLG Local 10" channel.

  1. There's a significant limit to what the pilot can see, which is why there's more people on board the aircraft. From a CNN interview with a former Blackhawk pilot, there should really have been another crew member on board so they could see all the directions to scan for that. There's also a possibility that they stopped looking for a jet when the saw the one taking off and didn't know to look for one behind them.
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  2.  @TheCozyCottageKeeper  It's a routine training session, that doesn't mean they were learning to fly, just that it was training. That can mean learning to navigate the area, or it can be practice for things they already knew, but need a refresher on. We'll have to see if that factored in at all.
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  3.  @str4tegyy506  No, it doesn't, that would be an incredibly hard thing to accomplish with a helicopter. It looks like a helicopter that's just going about its business a couple hundred feet too high and running into a jet.
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  4. There will be an investigation, I'm guessing the lack of avoidance is because they didn't see the plane and didn't realize they were so high up or for some reason the information coming from the tower wasn't properly understood. But, there'll be an investigation and we'll get an answer. I'm sure it won't be a satisfying one, but we'll get one eventually.
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  5.  @Bangaboomerang  It doesn't, it looks like a helicopter flying without knowing that it was going to collide until it did.
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  6. That's the part that I'm curious about. That clearly is not garbage that was generated on the boat. Not that it would be OK, but that would just be laziness. This is more than just lazy.
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  7.  @Yggdrasil42  Yep, with the information we have, the most likely answer is just a pile of compounding mistakes that led to a tragic result. Helicopters are fairly slow and trying to hit a jet like that is going to be pretty tough. My guess is that it'll probably come out to an unclear command from ATC not specifying where the jet the tower was concerned with was in the sky, the helicopter not having a 4th crew member to help track other aircraft and the helicopter being much too high either due to a pilot ignoring/not noticing the altimeter readings or some sort of a defect in the altimeter that hadn't been picked up during maintenance or earlier in the flight.
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  8.  @HassanWilliams-xp5xn  Because it can take some time to get notice to the family of the crew that died. The identities will be shared eventually as they always are.
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  9. The challenge is that if that was an actual house cat, the right thing to do would have been to bring it to the vet to be fixed and then adopt it. At that age, it does look a bit odd for a cat, but there's all sorts of markings on cats and unless it does something strange like that weird sound, you might not realize what you've got.
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  10. Yes, and I'd add that if for some reason you do break down on the track. Immediately get everybody out and find the number of the crossing for the office handling the traffic management. Or call 911 to report it to emergency dispatch so they can try to get the trains that might be on their way stopped.
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  11. They call it paid leave, but there'll probably be a fair number of appointments for things like interviews and medical exams. The paid leave is important as it's less than ideal to let them keep working, or put them on unpaid leave where they may quit even if the investigation winds up clearing them.
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  12.  @zyrrhos  The Helicopter was supposed to be down below 200ft, which would have kept it out of the way of planes. I'm sure a major point of the investigation will be trying to figure out why the helicopter wasn't where it was supposed to be.
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  13. The visibility on these helicopters is not great. It's why they often have 4 crew members to help ensure that they can see as much as possible. I don't think it's helpful to encourage conspiracy theories when the most likely explanation is simply that it was an accident.
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  14.  @maryannbravo5650  Not necessarily, sometimes organizations are led by people that push to hard for targets that incentivize careless behavior and there was probably somebody higher up riding shotgun that could have said no as well. 4 of them are unpaid leave, but it's entirely possible that some of them will be cleared to go back to work. It's a miracle that nobody on the fire truck was seriously injured and that the train didn't derail.
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  15.  @divinecomedian2  Depending upon what led to this and the specific conditions, there are various possibilities from nothing to demotion to firing to potential criminal charges. They won't really know what the appropriate response is until the investigation is done. That being said, I'd be very much surprised if the folks in the cab managing the driving aren't severely punished. Fire trucks are extremely expensive and there could have been a large number of people hurt, especially if the train had derailed as a result of the collision.
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  16. I'm sure that as long as you're careful it's fine. They can do some damage, but from what I understand probably not any more than a midsized dog would. I'm not sure that I'd want one around a small child though.
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  17. It's the chain of command, they need to consider the possibility that there was a culture that led to the crash. In all likelihood the ultimate repercussions will be more localized to the people operating the truck, but sometimes the problem just reveals issues that are occurring higher up.
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  18.  @Green__one  Yes, and that seems to be what's happening. I'm definitely not an expert, but it does appear that the driver and somebody in charge on the truck are in the list. And a couple of higher ups that are probably just included in case there's some sort of cultural issue in the department that contributed. It remains to be seen what happens, but they'll probably be off the hook, as long as they weren't pressuring people to push the limits.
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  19.  @dancovaleski6520  Possibly, paid leave means that they are investigating and don't have enough to fire them on the spot. I think it's highly likely that somebody will be fired and there may well also be others that get demoted.
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  20.  @fulanichild3138  It can operate with 3, the issue is when you're in busy airspaces like this and relying on visual tracking of nearby aircraft having only 3 means that you've got a perpetual blind spot somewhere and it's hard to to maintain visuals on air craft without having a perpetual blind spot at the same time.
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  21.  @wilmagregg3131  Same applies to house cats though. They aren't domesticated. The big difference is that a bobcat is significantly larger and has much stronger jaws, so they can do damage above and beyond what a typical housecat could.
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  22. Right, clearly that is the ultimate last piece that led to the crash, two aircraft can't occupy the same place at the same time. The why and how that came to be is much more interesting and probably going to come down to a few factors. I doubt that it was intentional, it would be rather tough to intentionally pull something like this off.
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  23. @ It's not though. A jet lands at roughly 172mph in order to remain in the air until it's low enough to finally touch down. A helicopter of this type, according to wikipedia, isn't necessarily traveling much slower than that. Making it a really tough maneuver to do on purpose.
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  24.  @DavidEVogel  Hmm, good point, essentially felines have kittens and panthera have cubs. So basically any cat cougar and smaller would have kittens. Anything larger would have cubs. Which is kind of a weird rule, but there you go.
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  25.  @0MGitsRayRay  No, they wouldn't hunt humans, they're not large enough. Even cougars that are over a hundred pounds don't hunt humans. The only cats I know of that will hunt humans are hundreds of pounds. Unprovoked tiger attacks are a problem in some parts of the world, but bobcats just aren't big enough to be much of a threat to an adult human and they know it.
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  26.  @ViraLCyclopes  In some places, you can shoot any cat that you see more than a few hundred feet from a building. I'm not aware of a similar rule with respect to dogs anywhere. The rule exists to protect the local wildlife against one of the most effective killing machines on the planet. As cute as they are, house cats have one of the highest success rates of any animal when they go after prey.
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  27.  @metropod  Yes, and in this case the viewers can make their own judgment about what is on the tape. But, cameras can at times distort things, not that that applies here.
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  28.  @terrified057t4  That's why CNN had a former blackhawk piloton, and the visitibilty of the pilots isn't good at all, and they can at best see 180ish degrees, anything behind them is completely invisible and with the business of the airspace, it's common to need 4 people on the helicopter to keep track of the aircraft in the area so this sort of thing doesn't happen. If they had the 4th, this might not have happened. If they had been where they were supposed to be, this wouldn't have happened and if the ATC had specified where the plane they were concerned with was, this probably wouldn't have happened. But, even with that, there's a bunch of information that's going to be looked at in terms of why the helicopter was so high and what other options had been available.
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  29. It could still happen, folks are on paid leave while the investigation proceeds.
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  30.  @ronbennett7885  Yep, the way the crossing normally work is that it's the lights and the bell, then the gates start to go down. After the train passes the process is reversed. And yeah, grade separation would be great, but it's hard to do after a line is already in service. From what I understand, these are pre-existing tracks that brightline started using. It can be more realistic to build an overpass, but that has it's own set of issues and expenses.
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  31.  @Green__one  I don't believe that the flashing lights apply to railroad crossings. They do apply to most other situations, it's why they're able to drive the wrong way down streets if they have to and go through red lights, assuming the transponder hasn't got the light changed for them.
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  32. They do have special care requirements, but unlike lions and tigers they don't kill people. But, depending upon where you live they may or may not be legal and you'd need a vet that knows how to work with them as they are large cats when compared with typical house cats.
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  33. Not necessarily. Often times you're just seeing the young, the parents are somewhere in the vicinity. The worst is when you see a seemingly unaccompanied bear cub as the parent is usually nearby and can be rather upset by a human getting too close. Mind you, a bear can run faster than you'd probably expect, although somewhat slower down hill due to the front legs being shorter than the rear.
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  34. Yes, but keep in mind that it's not just the culpability that's being considered, it's also what the punishment should be.
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  35. My assumption is that they want to investigate if there's a culture that led to this. I think that they'll probably wind up disciplining the folks on the truck involved with the actual crossing, but who knows. But,we'll have to see. My guess is that the Assistant Chief will probably not be found to have any responsibility, but who knows.
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  36. It's paid leave now, that does not mean that there won't be punishment coming. Although, I would think this would be pretty cut and dry, at least as far as the driver goes.
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  37.  @modtwentyeight  Yes and from what I can tell, those are usually automated, so there was something coming, or at least the sensor thought there was. And, it turns out that, yes there was a train coming, it wasn't a malfunction. Even if it was a malfunction, the thing is to call the office of whomever it is that's coordinating the rail traffic to get the trains slowed down enough to be able to stop for the crossing.
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  38.  @Iloveyoursmile  The YT comment system sucks. The ATC probably wouldn't have known as their system can easily be off by 100ft versus the altimeter just because of the error on radar. As far as the helicopter goes, who knows, it might well be an attention issue.
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  39.  @slopsec2358  Hopefully they had vetted here, but she's probably not wrong about the benefits of an extra set of eyes in such congested airspace.
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  40. The short answer is that you can't really. Without selective breeding like they did in Russia as an experiment, the best you get is an animal with the intelligence of a toddler and the dexterity to get into basically everything. Plus, I've seen raccoons in the wild that were easily the size of midsized dogs. Granted that was in an urban area, but still. The amount of trouble an animal that size with very functional hands is a lot.
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  41.  @JohnLee-tb3nh  Florida is more or less all the con artists go when they can't make it in other states.
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  42.  @concerned_2023  In situations like this, there's also sometimes a culture where higher ups are putting pressure on subordinates to push the limits.
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  43.  @kaylapalooza66  Yes, also consider that in most areas, the crossing is automatically activated when a train is coming, so if it's still down, there's a high probability of another train coming. I'm sure these do break occasionally, but it's far more likely that another train is coming than that the crossing is broken. And, even if it is broken, the thing to do is to call the number of the crossing or back up and find an alternate place to cross the tracks.
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  44.  @heatshield  Yep, and that's why there's often a 4th crew member on board these flights so that there's more eyes that can cover a larger section of the sky, which apparently wasn't the case here, for whatever reason there were only 3 crew members which meant that some part of the sky was not being monitored at any given time.
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  45. The accountability comes later after the investigation. There'll be meetings, interviews, probably medical exams before those 4 are allowed to go back to work, assuming that they aren't fired or demoted. I think most people would rather pay folks like that for paid leave than worry about potentially dangerous firefighters showing up when they're needed.
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  46. Yep, the last time I crossed railroad tracks the bells started to chime just as I entered the crossing. I completed the crossing because the bells and lights start with time for anybody that is in the crossing to cross and for folks that aren't to stop before the arms go down. But, there really is no reason for people to wind up on the wrong side of the arms if they don't have a break down.
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  47.  @simle6010  Yes, I remember going to the zoo when I was a kid and petting the lion cubs and the tiger in the cage next to it was also OK-ish to be petted. The problem is that these are still wild animals and if they get triggered by a sudden movement or the like, they can do a tremendous amount of damage. Even if the rest of the time they're perfectly friendly and well behaved. Bobcats are kind of tough because they're not that big, but in some ways that makes it worse because they are large enough to do some damage if they do bite or scratch.
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  48.  @strange4107  Yes, and if you take a kitten and it gets out, there's a pretty decent chance that it will figure out how to feed itself. Likewise, if a kitten is born and starts living independently, it can be a challenge to get them used to a house cat lifestyle. Chances are that you'll have an outdoor cat at best.
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  49. They'd be on the hook either way. Being self-insured also means that the rates won't go up as a result of this beyond the money it cost to pay this off.
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  50.  @autumnrain7626  Most of the time such matings result in no viable offspring. It would be like if some sick perv screwed a chimp. Occasionally you'll get ones that live for a few years before dying. Then you've got ones like mules that can live an entire life, but are incapable of further reproduction.
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