In-A-Gadda-Levitre Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 this is weird, but very cool passengers help spot stranded yacht The search began as the Boeing 777, on its way from Vancouver, dropped from 37,000 feet to 4,000 feet. Robertson asked the passengers and crew to train their eyes on the choppy waters below. "I think everyone's heart started beating a little bit faster," said Jill Brown, a Canadian singer, who was making the trip to Sydney for a concert. "They said ... we'd really appreciate it if everyone could look out their windows, and if anyone has any binoculars that could help us identify this yacht, that would be really helpful." It didn't take too long to find Ey as passengers and crew scanned the waters below. "We're doing this big sweeping right turn and almost immediately they said, 'Oh, we see something,' " Robertson said. "We were totally ecstatic." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
\GoBillsInDallas/ Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 Was the yacht owned by Elmer J. Fudd, millionaire? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KD in CA Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 Was the yacht owned by Elmer J. Fudd, millionaire? No, apparently he was in his mansion at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mead107 Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 Lucky guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICanSleepWhenI'mDead Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 Commercial jet pilots don't have binoculars in the cockpit? Seems like it would be a handy thing to have in an emergency. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marv's Neighbor Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 Commercial jet pilots don't have binoculars in the cockpit? Seems like it would be a handy thing to have in an emergency. Their job is to fly the plane, not sightsee. That's why they asked the passengers to assist. In the event of an emergency it can be very busy inside the cockpit and binoculars likely wouldn't be very useful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICanSleepWhenI'mDead Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 Seems like it would depend on the emergency. I have no doubt that often binoculars would be useless. But I can imagine a scenario where the plane's glide path exceeds daytime visual range of the naked eye, and binoculars would help one pilot to more quickly identify the best distant emergency landing site (e.g., a road, a meadow, any relatively flat place with the fewest obstructions) while the other one actually flies the plane. If you know you're going down and still have useful control surfaces, picking the best available emergency landing site is job #1, no? OTOH, I agree with you that if the plane is so crippled or so low that it can't fly beyond daytime visual range of the naked eye, the binoculars are just excess weight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wacka Posted October 20, 2012 Share Posted October 20, 2012 The binoculars actually narrowing down the area surveyed. Much better to speep the area with the naked eye. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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