SWC75
Bored Historian
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- Aug 26, 2011
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I was in the downtown library yesterday, looking through the old periodical section as I sometimes like to do. I came across an article about the 1961 crash of the plane carrying the US figure skating team to the World Championships. Here's some background:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabena_Flight_548
The TIME magazine article I was reading is available on their on-line archive but you have to subscribe to get it free, so I'll quote it here.
"Some three miles north of the airport, in the village of Berg, Mrs. Joseph Verhoeven saw the plane pitch and yaw. "It was so low", she said, "I could see people looking at me from inside the plane and gesturing. I held my hand up to them. Then the airplane stopped right in the air. It was as if it were hanging there on something. The whole thing was shaking terribly, as if it were struggling to get started moving again. But something was holding it back. Then an amazing thing happened. The plane began to rise to the sky. The whole nose began to rise upward. In a few seconds, the plane was straight up, absolutely straight- pointed right to heaven. It fell then like a stone, straight down until it hit the ground. I could see the people inside the plane waving at me and I kept waving back. "
The aerodynamics are interesting but is it really possible to see passengers in a falling air=-line waving at you and then wave back at them? If you were in such a plane, would you be waving at anybody?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabena_Flight_548
The TIME magazine article I was reading is available on their on-line archive but you have to subscribe to get it free, so I'll quote it here.
"Some three miles north of the airport, in the village of Berg, Mrs. Joseph Verhoeven saw the plane pitch and yaw. "It was so low", she said, "I could see people looking at me from inside the plane and gesturing. I held my hand up to them. Then the airplane stopped right in the air. It was as if it were hanging there on something. The whole thing was shaking terribly, as if it were struggling to get started moving again. But something was holding it back. Then an amazing thing happened. The plane began to rise to the sky. The whole nose began to rise upward. In a few seconds, the plane was straight up, absolutely straight- pointed right to heaven. It fell then like a stone, straight down until it hit the ground. I could see the people inside the plane waving at me and I kept waving back. "
The aerodynamics are interesting but is it really possible to see passengers in a falling air=-line waving at you and then wave back at them? If you were in such a plane, would you be waving at anybody?
