I blame Apple
It would have never happened with a tablet based on an open source operating system
Hot on the heels of news that Australian wasps can ground a plane comes another cautionary tale from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), this time concerning the perils of flying laptop computers and iPads. The two devices fell from an overhead bin during turbulence last November. The ATSB's report on the incident …
Apple should have patented turbulence then nobody else would experience it!
- or -
Maybe it's because flight mode isn't working properly....
These agencies are pretty stupid. Anything to get in the news.... Briefcase/duty free bottles fall out of compartment is not news, but iPads are...
So now we would have a laptop from a privileged lineage, no understanding of what an average user needs and absolutely no experience for its job function?
Having neglected to clarify what Osborne I was talking about (it was this one, just so you be sure), I was afraid someone would conjure the image of a large-boned Heavy Metal singer falling on top of people, but this is even worse.
Oh Internet, you never cease to surprise and terrify me.
"When Baby's cries got hard to bear,
I popped him in the Frigidare.
I never would have done so, if
I'd known that he'd get frozen stiff.
My wife cried, "Dear, I'm so unhappy,
my darling's now completely frappé..."
Although I think it's fairly unlikely anyone would put a baby into an overhead locker.
@AndrueC
It's been known!!!!
My sister was a flight attendant for a moderately well known airline flying the Pacific, and she used to tell the tale of one of the crew finding a baby in a flax (or similar woven material) basket in an over head locker.
I won't say from which island nation they had departed, but it did happen.
Ah, another case of mis-use of the English language to sensationalise a story of questionable news-worthiness... the ATSB should be ashamed! I'm pretty sure the word 'projectile' refers to an object having been launched in some way, and that an object dropping from an overhead locker doesn't really fall (pardon the pun) into that category.
"Babies may also become projectiles"
Anything can become a projectile, if you have a big enough catapult...
"Fetchez la vache!"
That books, purses, suitcases, magazines, pencils, etc. can all be made into projectiles during severe turbulence. In fact, I'm willing to bet that in the history of commercial air travel some poor guy got poked in the eye by a turbulence-propelled peanut!
Seems to me they are well aware that almost anything can become a dangerous projectile and hence the suggestion for securely storing such things; putting them in softer carrying cases or bags and keeping that closed, rather than having them loose and free to become projectiles.
Of course the whole kit and caboodle can come crashing down but that's less likely to happen unless turbulence is particularly bad.
"The report does not say if the third person sustained an injury."
I love the way the author seems to have cut and pasted text from the report without actually reading it. Erm, try reading the line above that you had cut and pasted.
"Another received a rib injury and a third was injured by an iPad.”
So yes it states as clearly as can be that the third person sustained an injury.
Writing is an important skill in journalism, but then so is reading.
Overhead bins should be redesigned for the amount of stuff (and size) people force there because they're afraid of how checked baggage is handled (including stolen items) and because they do not want to wait for baggage delivey. Most bins are overloaded, and barely close. Also they are designed so the average luser traveller can open them easily - a better, just a little more complex latch will surely be impossible to open to the average drunken passenger.
I usually put there just a small bag maybe with my camera and tablet, and usually I have to stop someone trying to squeeze into it an enormous rigid trolley with all his or her belongings, which barely fits there, and they do not care if they're destroying everything else already there.
Airlines should start to enforce their rules about cabin baggage, even if some stupid passenger will complain.
"I thought you weren't allowed to take apples into Australia."
You can, but you need to dispose of it in one of many thoughtfully supplied fruity bins directly after landing.
Though, if you risk it by going through customs undeclared, where they check it for bugs. Though that never happens, because apples never, ever, catch any sort of bugs, they're immune you know...
http://avherald.com/h?article=46b376ea/0000&opt=0
The ATSB also had the following to say to passengers in this very same report:"Turbulence is a weather phenomenon responsible for the abrupt sideways and vertical jolts that passengers often experience during flights, and is the leading cause of in-flight injuries to passengers and cabin crew."
I feel SO much more knowledgable now.