Staying cool when high.

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Staying cool when high.

Postby Royal » Wed Jun 01, 2011 8:56 pm

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Shame "Staying cool" can't be tought.


02 June 2011

A plane was forced to make a dramatic emergency landing escorted by fighter jets when a row between passengers over a reclined seat got out of hand.
Tensions flared on-board United Airlines Flight 990 destined for Accra, Ghana, late Sunday night after a frustrated passenger objected to another who had lowered his seat too far back.

Two F-16 fighter jets were dispatched from a Maryland Air Force Base which shadowed the aircraft all the way back to Washington Dulles International Airport. The pilot is reported to have been unsure about the scope of the problem in the air.

According to The Washington Post, the assault happened shortly after take-off when one of the 144 passengers on-board reclined his seat “intimately close” to the lap of a fellow passenger.
A flight attendant quickly intervened to break up the scuffle with the help of another passenger.
Confirming the event, a spokesman for United Airlines told Yahoo! News today: “The safety of our customers and crew is of prime importance at United. As a precautionary measure, the captain decided to return flight UA990 to Washington Dulles where the flight landed safely.”

Cockpit audio footage from the incident has also surfaced online. The pilot is heard telling the control tower: “A passenger is not secured at this moment. He has settled down though. An assault has taken place, but at this time he’s not secure.”
After the 11-hour transatlantic night flight was safely aborted, police met the pair at the gate on arrival but decided not to press any charges.

The Boeing 767 had to dump its fuel to lighten its weight for the emergency landing, according to the airline.
The flight eventually departed for Accra the next day, United Airlines said.
Image We have no effective screening methods to make sure pilots are sane.— Dr. Herbert Haynes, FAA.
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