This weekend we look at some recently released video taken inside the Washington Monument during the earthquake last August. From Indonesia we learn about “train surfers” who ride on tops of trains to avoid paying for tickets. The government is taking extreme measures to stop the practice. We finish off with audio of the air traffic controller with a Southwest flight in Chicago who almost directed the Southwest plane into a LearJet that was taking off.
Washington Monument earthquake damage
Damage caused by the August 23rd, 5.8-magnitude earthquake to the 555-foot-tall monument was extensive. The monument has been closed ever since. This video shows how violent the shaking was inside ght monument. The results of the tremor were severely cracks and chips to its stone blocks. The elevator to the top was also damaged but has been partially repaired. There is no estimate to how long the Washington Monument will be closed from the National Park Service.
David M. Rubenstein, a local-area billionaire philanthropist, announced that he will donate $7.5 million to help fix the closed, earthquake-damaged Washington Monument. It has been estimated that his gift should handle approximately half of the repair costs.
Indonesia cracks down again on train ‘surfers’
Trains that crisscross Indonesia on poorly maintained tracks left behind by Dutch colonizers six decades ago usually are packed with passengers, especially during the rush hour.
Hundreds seeking to escape the overcrowded carriages clamor to the top. Some ride high to avoid paying for a ticket. Others do so because — despite the dangers, with dozens killed or injured every year — “rail surfing” is fun.
Audio recording of near miss at Çhicago Midway in December
An air traffic controller directed a Southwest flight across an active runway and came close to causing a major crash. This recording captures the interaction between controllers and the pilots during this near miss.
On Dec. 1, an air-traffic controller at Chicago’s Midway Airport cleared a Southwest Airlines jet to cross a runway on which a Learjet was taking off. Just before the nose of the Boeing 737 entered runway 31 Right, the Southwest co-pilot saw the conflict and yelled for the captain to stop. The National Transportation Safety Board issued a preliminary report saying the two planes were 287 feet apart as the Lear passed 62 feet overhead.
Those facts give you a good picture of what happened. But listen to the audio recording from AvWeb.com (click here) of radio transmissions between the Midway control tower and Southwest Flight 844, and you get a much clearer picture of how upset the Southwest pilots were (and how the controller didn’t want to acknowledge the problem). You can hear the concern in the pilot voices, and they clearly don’t want to let the mistake go unrecorded (and thus uninvestigated).
It’s a good thing the Southwest pilots were alert!
