I know that this blog may be late, as the crash happened 3 days ago. For those of you who don’t know the details of the crash so far, I’ll fill you in..
On July 6th, an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 from Incheon International Airport (located in South Korea) crashed on the runway at the San Francisco International Airport. The crash resulted in 2 dead and more than 180 injured. Reports say that the the aircraft was travelling two low and slow when it was about to land on the runway, resulting in the crash. According to “textbook procedures”, the pilots should have initiated an “aborted landing” where the pilot would gain altitude once more, turn around, and attempt another landing. The pilots were to have been interviewed yesterday (July 8th), but I do not believe any sources have disclosed the details of the interview yet.
Of course, this is a tragic and unfortunate happening, but there are things about this whole situation that I have a problem with. First, let’s start with the insensitivity I’ve seen among some people. Recently, there has been an article going around showing “racist” tweets and comments made by American citizens, which basically correlates Asians and their inability to maneuver vehicles (in this case, airplanes). These tweets did not address concern towards the victims (as I see it), and only cause friction amongst people.
Second, the media sensationalization has got to stop. Media is blowing up this whole news coverage. I’m not trying to make light of this whole situation or in any way state that it shouldn’t be overlooked, but the way that the media is covering this story irks me. They seem to love basing their stories on speculation and accessibility, rather than facts and details. Furthermore, media sensationalization makes big disasters, like this airplane crash, seem like probable events. All it is doing is evoking fear and paranoia among citizens, when in truth, airplane crashes are very rare.
Third and lastly, the eyewitness events must be taken with caution. Any perspective can be useful in providing the full scale of the event. However, never take perspectives and opinions wholeheartedly because we don’t know the full story yet. I do feel for those who were directly involved in the crash (as mentioned before), but to be honest, their testimonials are a bit irritating. After the crash, everyone suddenly becomes an expert at airplanes and blows things out of proportions. This only creates more speculations and skews the truth and the facts to the public.
Well, those are the main things I had to say about this topic. It may have been a rant, though I didn’t envision it as one. But feel free to interpret it as you may and excuse me for any biases I may have had.
But to put this in the most neutral perspective possible, I just want to say: Be wary of other’s speculations and even of your own. As of now we don’t know what has fully happened and we shouldn’t twist the story. My input may have been amateur, and I understand that, so I’ll provide another perspective of the story here (I found this article to be very neutral and helpful in understanding the incident). It’s a long read, but informative…I highly recommend.
I wish those and the families involved in the crash to be safe and well. God bless.
airlines, airport, asiana, boeing, crash, news, san francisco