Slashdot Mirror
Space Debris Narrowly Misses Airliner
An anonymous reader writes "An airliner jet traveling from Chile to New Zealand early today was in for an interesting ride. Flaming space debris — the remains of a Russian satellite — came hurtling back to Earth not far from a commercial jet on its way to Auckland, New Zealand. Here's further justification for the growing concern of the increasing amounts of space garbage orbiting our planet. From the article: 'The pilot of a Lan Chile Airbus A340 ... notified air traffic controllers at Auckland Oceanic Centre after seeing flaming space junk hurtling across the sky just five nautical miles in front of and behind his plane...'"
Looks like this article needs some proofreading (Russion?), in addition to a reasonableness check. I have never piloted an aircraft in which you could see to the rear. The only aircraft that I know of in which you can see to the rear are military fighters, and even then, the view is limited, and the pilot has rare occasion to look back. Well, actually, I take that back -- I've seen pictures of general aviation aircraft with 'bubble' canopies, but I've never actually seen one in person.
Concealed Handgun License Courses in Plano, Texas
Number of people killed per annum by falling space junk hitting aircraft - 0
Number of people killed per annum by motor accidents in the UK - 3221 (and that was a record low)
I'm not sure this story will keep me awake at night.
init 11 - for when you need that edge.
Slashdot "editors" do not "edit" submissions.
Seems high time to change the name to something that reflects what they actually do do.
Environmentalism is the new Victorianism. Everyone ties on a green corset and pretends we're virtuous.
He's saying that the airliner and the flaming ball of space debris occupied the same volume in space 30 seconds apart from each other.
Had the airliner been exactly 30 seconds (or whatever) ahead of schedule, we would be reading about an airliner that got shot down by what appears to be a missile.