Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Late Night YouTube

Last night I got interested in watching some YouTube videos and wound up staying up past midnight. Normally I am not a fan of YouTube, but found some rather interesting submissions and couldn't help but watch. My search started with "Emergency Communications Trailers." After following several links I found a 35-minute video that I just had to watch (divided into two parts).

The video wasn't really a video. It was just audio of radio communication between air traffic control and an airplane. The pilot had passed away, leaving the sole passenger to fly the plane. This is a scenario you see in a lot of movies about commercial flying. The YouTube video is nothing like the movies, which isn't really that surprising.

The first thing I noticed was how calm the passenger was. You don't really notice he has a dead guy sitting next to him until he makes a comment about it right before landing. That would probably freak out a lot of people.

The other thing I noticed was how much radio traffic was taking place. Air traffic control would talk with the passenger and then have to redirect 4 or 5 other pilots to another channel. Then he would talk to the passenger again. That is something that never happens in the movies.

Eventually the plane gets directed to an airport with a really long runway and the passenger is able to safely land. However you can hear his voice climb in pitch the closer he gets to the ground. This is one situation where everything works out well considering the circumstances and it was riveting. Considering how much garbage is on YouTube, it was nice to find something so worthwhile.

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