Hey Mifnetters, This isn't quite NNN material because it's about aviation & safety. It's a Washington Post article from 1999. I'm refreshing an old piece I wrote back then & it struck me as funny now as it did then. That piece was "Public Perceptions of Safety", I used it to show the fascination folks have for aviation disasters. The BOLD part is pretty entertaining.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *Fox Wants to Crash a 747 on Purpose? No Way, Says the FAA**[1]* <#_ftn1> August 30, 1999, By Lisa de Moraes Can't wait for Fox News Channel to bring you wall-to-wall coverage of the next national calamity? Not to worry. Fox's sister entertainment network, the Fox Broadcasting Co., is working right now on re-creating one for you. The News Corp.-owned broadcast network is developing a special in which it would crash a real 747 jumbo jet--live--somewhere in the California or Arizona desert. Of course the program would be gussied up like a news-you-can-use public service broadcast about airline safety, and called "Jumbo Jet Crash Live: The Ultimate Safety Test." But Fox's specials specialist, Mike Darnell, knows a bang-up ratings-getter when he sees one. "I mean, are you going to watch 'Friends' or a jumbo jet crash?" he is quoted as saying in this week's issue of TV Guide. Yes, the folks at Fox are so excited about this idea that news of it somehow got to the News Corp.-owned TV Guide, and an advance of that TV Guide column somehow got to the News Corp.-owned New York Post newspaper, which ran a big story on it Friday. Network suits insist there was no synergy here. In fact, they don't seem happy that this news got out at all. Why? Because the Federal Aviation Administration has gone into a tailspin over the report. *The FAA is particularly heated over Darnell telling TV Guide--which told the New York Post--that a deal is in the works to get the FAA's approval on the crash, which he says "is the kind of test the FAA does periodically" in which three trained pilots get a plane up into the air and then "bail out before the crash." And the broadcast won't literally be live, Darnell assures TV Guide, but will be delayed by a couple of seconds so that the network itself can bail out "in case anybody dies." (Emphasis Added)* *"They have never come to us for this, and we would not work with Fox or anyone else on something like this," an FAA spokeswoman said Friday--emphatically. (My BOLD)* "Absolutely not," she responded when asked if the FAA periodically tests planes by having pilots go airborne, then parachute to safety before the crash. When the FAA tests planes, she explained, it hauls a fuselage into the air and drops it. Years ago, tests were conducted in which aircraft were actually crashed, but they were remote-controlled, she added. The FAA would never put pilots in a plane in order to crash it and "we certainly wouldn't give anybody approval to do it," she said with gusto. The Fox network, meanwhile, issued a statement Friday saying that the project was "in the early stages of discussion" and that "formal sanction by either the network or the FAA has yet to be pursued." "A venture of this nature would not move forward without such approval," Fox spokesman Tom Tyrer added. And Darnell? He was in his office Friday, but would not be available for comment, a Fox network rep said. NOTE: The article continues with general news about then-current TV programs. ------------------------------ [1] <#_ftnref1> https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1999/08/30/fox-wants-to-crash-a-747-on-purpose-no-way-says-the-faa/6156109b-702b-4302-8971-70e5d9a2a569/ Mike Borfitz, DER Cell 206-714-8797 e-Mail: [email protected] Kilroy Aviation LLC Website: WWW.FAAODA.COM <http://www.faaoda.com/> Kilroy is available for aviation regulatory and safety issues - Type & Production Certification, Continued Operational Safety - International validation & safety matters - Program & system management - FAA STC ODA
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