The Department of Boneheadedness.

[Annoyed]

Gotta love corporate-speak.
As if these idiots fool anyone.

An American Airlines plane made an emergency landing at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport Wednesday night after a mechanical failure caused flames to come from the engine.

The Fort Worth-based carrier said there was a problem with the engine compressor on the left side engine but that the engine itself was not on fire.

Boneheads. The Compressor is a part of a jet engine!

[Womble]

Oh, airline stupidity. I could write volumes.

Once upon a time I flew with an airline called Belavia. It was REALLY cold inside the plane, it felt like there was actual wind going through the plane at the level of my feet. I was so cold I asked the flight attendant for a glass of tea or coffee, to warm up. They couldn't offer any, because their water heater was out of order. What killed me, though, is that she brought me coke instead. WITH ICE.

[Falcon Horus]

LOL!!

[garhkal]

Oh, airline stupidity. I could write volumes.

Once upon a time I flew with an airline called Belavia. It was REALLY cold inside the plane, it felt like there was actual wind going through the plane at the level of my feet. I was so cold I asked the flight attendant for a glass of tea or coffee, to warm up. They couldn't offer any, because their water heater was out of order. What killed me, though, is that she brought me coke instead. WITH ICE.

Fut the whuk.. You ask for something to warm up and she brings you a cold drink with ICE?

[Annoyed]

Is it possible to posthumously grant a Darwin award while the winner is still alive?
Daredevil to attempt jumping out of plane at 25,000 feet without a parachute
First off, jumping out of a perfectly working aircraft for fun is a good entrance ticket.
But w/out a parachute?

I get that he's calculated terminal velocity and has a net-like contraption which he think will cushion the impact.
But how is he going to predict air currents to ensure that he lands on it?

[Gatefan1976]

Science?

[The Flyattractor]

Mad Monkey Man Science.

[Annoyed]

Well, looks like he made it. Still a boneheaded stunt, but at least he lived.

Skydiver successfully makes 25,000-foot jump without parachute

Is it possible to posthumously grant a Darwin award while the winner is still alive?
Daredevil to attempt jumping out of plane at 25,000 feet without a parachute
First off, jumping out of a perfectly working aircraft for fun is a good entrance ticket.
But w/out a parachute?

I get that he's calculated terminal velocity and has a net-like contraption which he think will cushion the impact.
But how is he going to predict air currents to ensure that he lands on it?

[Pharaoh Hamenthotep]

Is it possible to posthumously grant a Darwin award while the winner is still alive?

If they're still alive then it's not posthumous.. Darwin awards are awarded to people who removed themselves from the genepool in exceptionally stupid ways. That means no longer living, and not having kids. So if they survived and can still reproduce then they don't qualify.

Also falling 25,000 feet.. Sounds impossible to survive, but terminal velocity can be achieved in around 2,000 feet, Anything above that the extra height doesn't really matter, you're not going to fall any faster. And what you land on makes a huge difference. Landing on water would be like hitting concrete, water doesn't compress and the force of breaking the surface tension can remove limbs from only 100-200 feet so.. not good.

Landing on something soft like a hay-bail can make the fall survivable. You don't need as much cushioning as you might think. As long as you don't hit anything hard, you'll be ok.

[garhkal]

I would have laughed my butt off though if he had missed the net!

[Britta]

As the saying goes, it's not the fall that kills you, it's the landing.

[Falcon Horus]

I would have laughed my butt off though if he had missed the net!

Second that, though he was wearing an emergency shute so he would have glided down instead.

[Annoyed]

If they're still alive then it's not posthumous.. Darwin awards are awarded to people who removed themselves from the genepool in exceptionally stupid ways. That means no longer living, and not having kids. So if they survived and can still reproduce then they don't qualify.

Also falling 25,000 feet.. Sounds impossible to survive, but terminal velocity can be achieved in around 2,000 feet, Anything above that the extra height doesn't really matter, you're not going to fall any faster. And what you land on makes a huge difference. Landing on water would be like hitting concrete, water doesn't compress and the force of breaking the surface tension can remove limbs from only 100-200 feet so.. not good.

Landing on something soft like a hay-bail can make the fall survivable. You don't need as much cushioning as you might think. As long as you don't hit anything hard, you'll be ok.

I'm well aware that terminal velocity would have reached long before 25K ft, atmospheric drag imposes a limit. I'm also aware that it's the sudden deceleration when hitting the ground is what kills, if the energy is dispersed over enough distance, you can live.

My doubt was his ability to hit the target; ie, the net.
I was certain he would miss, and therefore remove himself from the gene pool. I'm very surprised he didn't.

And I don't think he was wearing any sort of 'chute. The SAG tried to force him to wear one, but apparently backed down.

[Pharaoh Hamenthotep]

My guess is that he actually put some thought into this before he did it..

And got a really big net..

[Ian-S]

It was a huge net.