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    Ethiopian Airlines plane crash

    This is bad. We know of one of our staff who was on that flight - she was transiting Nairobi to get back to Khartoum where she was based. Everyone in the region has at some time or other taken this flight. ET - until recently - had an excellent safety record too, and the plane - a 737 Max - was only four months old. 149 passengers and 8 crew - all reported dead. Desperately, desparately sad.
    Ethiopian Airlines fight ET 302 believed to have had 157 passengers and crew on board

    #2
    Condolences for your loss, VT and for all those on the plane and their friends and loved ones.

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      #3
      When I saw this I wondered if you'd flown with them. My condolences to you and your organisation as well as all those other people who've lost someone today.

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        #4
        I have a friend who's recently moved to Addis He travels a fair bit. I'm now very much hoping that he or his wife (who also travels a lot) were not on the plane. Condolences VT.

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          #5
          Very sorry to hear, VT, condolences.

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            #6
            Yeah, VT, I checked Facebook to see if there was a chance you were on the flight. I was relieved to find that the likelihood was very small.

            In the flurry of articles I read something that the planer was very new, and that Boeing had sent out a warning in November that the plane was having issues. If so, some serious questions will need to be asked of Boeing and of the airline.

            Coming a few days after I booked tickets for a roundtrip that will involve ten flights in the space of just under three weeks, this awful news has hit home a bit.

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              #7
              Indeed, condolences VT.

              Stuff like this frightens the life out of me. I'm not a 'bad' flyer, but I really don't enjoy the experience. Yesterday's flight was very turbulent and I was shitting it for much of the two hours. I asked the pilot, on the way out, how he'd rate that turbulence. I offered 2 out of 10. He said 'Huh...4'. I then asked about his worst ever and he got really grim and said 'Knocked out the auto-pilot'. This morning I read that 30 people were injured yesterday in turbulence coming into New York from Turkey. Lovely.

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                #8
                Awful news and sorry VT. I hope at least they can identify a cause and, as always with these apparently unexplained accidents, put future measures in place. Selfishly, as a fairly frequent flyer myself, it sounds quite likely I'll find myself on one of this make of plane at some point.

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                  #9
                  It's the new 737 MAX. A Lion Air 737 MAX had a very similar crash just after takeoff a few months ago.

                  Don't be surprised if the plane is grounded.

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                    #10
                    Yes.

                    Boeing has a serious problem on its hands.

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                      #11
                      When I saw this story this morning, I was worried about you, VT, and feared for your organisation. You've talked often enough about travelling in East Africa, and particularly through Nairobi. My condolences.

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                        #12
                        [URL]https://twitter.com/reuters/status/1104928902433177600?s=21[/URL]

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                          #13
                          Originally posted by anton pulisov View Post
                          It's the new 737 MAX. A Lion Air 737 MAX had a very similar crash just after takeoff a few months ago.

                          Don't be surprised if the plane is grounded.
                          And they are now.

                          The pilot was said to be very experienced. Which crash are you referring to AP?

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                            #14
                            This one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_Air_Flight_610

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                              #15
                              Lots of former Boeing engineers here being critical after the Lion Air crash.

                              Part of this stems from the 737 airframe essentially being a much smaller 1960s design. They keep stretching it and sticking bigger engines on it. It's possible they've gone too far with the plane.

                              The equivalent Airbus plane (A320) was designed in the 1980s with much more future-proofing in mind.

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                                #16
                                The staff member we lost was a young German - Anne-Katrin Feigl was on her way to Nairobi for training. She was no age and had her whole life in front of her. I didn't know her so well - she was involved in counter-trafficking and protection issues - but we trained together in January and she came across as lovely and caring. My colleague with whom I shared an office knew her well and is very upset by this. All she wanted to do was help people. I think everyone from the UN East Africa community knew at least one person on that flight - KQ (Kenya Airways) and ET (Ethiopian) are the equivalent of bus or train companies; we're always on one or the other. My current assistant in Tanzania is 28 and from Cote d'Ivoire - she said today that she is thinking of going home to her family. It's hit her that she just doesn't have a support network when things like this happen. I hope she stays - we need people like her and Anne-Katrin.
                                Geneva – IOM Director-General António Vitorino expressed the organization’s deep sadness upon learning that this past weekend’s tragic Ethiopian Airlines accident claimed the lives of all 157 aboard, including a young IOM staff member Anne-Katrin Feigl and 18 others working in Africa for United Nations’ related agencies. Ms Feigl, a German national, was en route to a training

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                                  #17
                                  That's bloody awful. Hopefully you will all be able to support the others who are affected.

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                                    #18
                                    [URL]https://twitter.com/cnbcnow/status/1105220891594670080?s=21[/URL]

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                                      #19
                                      This is awful. Why haven't Boeing phased out the 737 60's basic design other than cost of making a new short/medium haul unsexy plane from scratch?

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                                        #20
                                        If Pan Am went bust cos Lockerbie (and I really don't know if that's true) these fuckers deserve everything they get from this if they ignored warnings re the new model 737. Fuck shareholder profits v safety cba.

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                                          #21
                                          You appear to be unfamiliar with contemporary capitalism.

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                                            #22
                                            Not much surprises or depresses me except everything.

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                                              #23
                                              Pan Am went bust because of liberalisation of air routes. They ran a cushy little number when they had a monopoly on international routes.

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                                                #24
                                                Pan Am never had a government-protected monopoly (the US has never had an official flag carrier) and began to no longer enjoy an effective monopoly position on routes from the US to international destinations after WWII.

                                                Competition played a role in its decline, but it was the Oil Shock and regulators' unwillingness to allow them to have significant domestic operations that were the most telling blows. Lockerbie didn't help and the Gulf War did them in.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Originally posted by Lang Spoon View Post
                                                  If Pan Am went bust cos Lockerbie (and I really don't know if that's true) these fuckers deserve everything they get from this if they ignored warnings re the new model 737. Fuck shareholder profits v safety cba.
                                                  Well, Ethiopian Airliners is 100% state-owned. I hear British Airways have said they'll continue using their 737 Max8s.

                                                  As for the victims, it turns out that one of them and I have many mutual friends and acquaintances. He and my wife were actually Facebook friends.

                                                  In the course of research, I made the mistake of opening a site that had photos and a little background info on the victims. I'm still haunted by it...

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