Southwest Airlines is having a bad day.
Crying, screaming, vomiting, and texting? Sounds like every Southwest flight I’ve ever been on.
This, on the other hand, sounds more serious: an uncontained engine failure that sent shrapnel into the aircraft and possibly into the passenger cabin? I thought post-Sioux City the FAA had gotten a lot harder on manufacturers about that sort of thing. RoadRich, care to comment?
Edited to add: reports are now stating that at least one person is dead.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
–C.S. Lewis
Typically a retailer may return unsold merchandise to the manufacturer. But in this case, Dick’s Sporting Goods has decided to destroy them.
“We are in the process of destroying all firearms and accessories that are no longer for sale as a result of our February 28th policy change,” a spokeswoman told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “We are destroying the firearms in accordance with federal guidelines and regulations.”
A few points:
1. Why does Dick’s still have modern sporting rifles in stock, five years after they announced they were going to stop selling them?
(That actually has an answer: Dick’s apparently fudged the truth, and has been selling modern sporting rifles at their “specialty Field and Stream stores”.)
2. If I were a Dick’s stockholder, I would be seriously peeved at the management for destroying inventory of a perfectly legal product to make a political point.
3. If I were a Dick’s stockholder, I’d also be seeking a sweeping change of management right about now.
From the comments under the article on a site I may have to add to my regular visit list:
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Volante3192
4/17/18 10:43pm
“We have part of the aircraft missing so we’re going to need to slow down a bit.”
Ice water is looking at her going, “Daaaaaaaamn.
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The article is about the pilot of the flight who did what all well-trained pilots would do, but well, the article is “The Pilot Who Saved That Southwest Flight Is A Badass” because she is one of the first women to fly F18s.
Setting aside the hero worship of pilots not losing their minds because they are actually professionals, one might find a lot to be inspired by. The amazement that understandably comes from events like this by the regular fun-loving public shows that we forget to recognize the excellence that is around us always. I don’t want to diminish the good work that the pilot did but would rather shine some light on the entire flight crew as well as the cabin crew for the hard work and training they put in to ensure they are ready for the everyday and extraordinary challenges as they come.
I’d rather have found out Tammie Jo Shults was a badass a week or a year ago. And perhaps find out what other cool folks are among the teams that put the uniforms on and give us the freedom to move about the country. (Airline ad reference.) Keep doing the good work you do.
My condolences to the family of the deceased and those who had to witness the incident firsthand.