This idea for people who tend to think that flying is currently a dangerous activity although statistically it is safer than crossing the road.

The idea is that passengers can vote to turn the plane around any time before the point of no return (if one exists, give the fuel available for the flight). However each person that votes for an "about face" has to compensate the airline and dissenting passengers for the inconvience - the amount is calculated according to a standard formulea and displayed before the vote.

People too scared to land in either their plane's destination or point of origin are given a life jacket and a parachute before being thrown out of aircraft ...
-- Aristotle, Feb 13 2003

Good idea! Also, maybe patients should be kept lucid during surgeries so that they can line-item approve and disapprove each surgical procedure as the surgery proceeds.
-- bristolz, Feb 13 2003


Some brain surgery is already performed on lucid patients ...
-- Aristotle, Feb 13 2003


So we understand. Did it hurt at all, [Aristotle] ? Are you better now, or are the voices still as loud as ever ?
-- 8th of 7, Feb 13 2003


8th of 7: You like cats, you do.
-- Aristotle, Feb 13 2003


Given that one could be well past the mid-way point and still have plenty of alternative destinations, why not go the whole hog, and vote for the destination while in the air?
-- DrCurry, Feb 13 2003


That's sort of baked .... we tend to take off with a fairly specific destination in mind, and fly for a bit, then I manage to work out where we actually are and then we have a discussion about how much fuel we have left and where we can now get to without having to glide the last ten miles with empty tanks, and how the plane could possibly go quite a lot further if the pilot threw some of the useless deadweight out i.e. me.

[Aristotle] Ooooh, you're looking for trouble ....
-- 8th of 7, Feb 13 2003


I think it depends exactly which road you are crossing and when.
-- PeterSilly, Feb 13 2003


Can you change your vote like here, so that a half croissant-continue becomes a half bone-turn back?
-- FarmerJohn, Feb 13 2003


Not too long ago I saw a report on a news magazine show about a commercial airliner approaching - was it Spain? - from North America, stil well out over the ocean at about 35,000 feet when the pilots switch from the now empty fuel tank in one wing to the tank in the other wing and find it, to their horror, bone dry.

And yet they're able to quickly find a remote runway on a tiny island within gliding distance. They glide to the island, come in too high on their first pass and have to make a loop (turning with manual control of the rudder, ailerons, and flaps) and finally make a successful landing.

I wish I remembered more details about it, but it was a pretty impressive feat.
-- beauxeault, Feb 13 2003



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