I haven’t posted about the tragedy of EgyptAir flight MS804 — an Airbus A320 with 66 people onboard from Paris to Cairo last week — that disappeared shortly before scheduled arrival.
That’s largely because I have so little to add to the discussion. I’ve been contacted by media about it, with the huge news coverage it’s received plenty of outlets want someone on the issue all the time. And I’m someone.
Not only is it outside my area of expertise, I haven’t flown EgyptAir so don’t even have a personal remembrance of the experience to offer on the blog. Any incident like this, though, affects me — I feel it because I live travel, and airlines, every day. So the crews, the passengers, the equipment all have some meaning for me though of course not nearly what they mean to friends, family, co-workers and what the incident means for Egypt.
Items from the wreckage are being recovered, but the fuselage and cockpit voice and data recorders haven’t yet been found. So we really do not yet know very much. There are plenty of people jumping to conclusions. Some of the speculation is reasonable extrapolation from limited data, and much of it is simply confirmation of bias.
And some of it is just… bizarre like the claim from Turkish Airlines pilots that they saw a UFO in the area an hour before the EgyptAir plane disappeared.
Two Turkish airline pilots have made an extraordinary claim they saw a UFO flying over their plane just an hour before the doomed Egyptair jet crashed.
…Now one of Turkey’s biggest news outlets has reported that two pilots said they saw an object with green lights pass by their passenger jet as they approached Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport from Bodrum at around 11.30pm on Thursday.
Copyright: fergregory / 123RF Stock Photo
The pilots of a Bodrum – Istanbul flight reported “an unidentified object with green lights” above 17,000 feet at around 11:30pm local time which disappeared suddenly. They told Istanbul air traffic control they believed it was a UFO.
The aircraft landed without incident. Turkey’s General Directorate of State Airports Authority says, however, that they “did not spot any image in its radars similar to what the pilots had described.” Ya think?
66 people died – fathers, mothers. children….and you make a joke about a UFO being responsible?
really?
This is pretty inconsiderate and déclassé of you.
Content like this is why these blogs are becoming garbage.
Does this blog have any content controls at all? Or is it written by some guy in a basement eating Cheetos?
Did you people READ the post before commenting? It is saying there’s all kinds of absurd speculation out there, which is why he’s stayed out of this issue.
It seems like some commenters just react rather than thinking let along understanding.
“Did a UFO Bring Down EgyptAir Flight MS804?”
The title is self explanatory, Tommy.
Or is he just using a click bait title using the deaths of 66 to generate clicks?
I’d say that’s even more classless.
First time commenter here. I have been enjoying this blog for several months. I think it is within bounds to report on speculation. However, the clickbait title and goofy UFO drawing take it beyond mere reporting/observation and make the impression that you’re making light of the tragedy. I urge you to please revise this post.
lopere – so you admit you didn’t even read it before you spit out a negative comment? It’s a pretty thoughtful post about not commenting on things when you don’t have value to add. Ironic, isn’t it?
Everyone is so damn sensitive. He said nothing inconsiderate or disrespectful about the plane or its passengers. He poked fun (at best) at the Turkish pilots and the Turkish authorities. Can we not be so sensitive about everything everywhere at all times? It’s really making a conversation on blogs impossible.
Point well taken Victor.
I apologize for being so damn sensitive over the terrible deaths of 66 and a blogger using a click bait title in order to make a few bucks off the tragedy.
I wish more bloggers would poke fun of plane crashes and the resulting deaths. If they did conversations on blogs would become possible once again. We can only hope :{ :{ :{ :{
“Confirmation of bias”? In which alternative reality do you dwell?
I think the content of the post is fine (Gary does write about the tragedy in a respectful way), but this reaffirms a belief I’ve had about the evolution of the click-baity titles of his posts. I’m a long-time reader and have felt for a while now that the blog post titles have degraded over the years. It’s disappointing considering Gary’s deep expertise in this industry and my strong belief that he generally writes content of real substance – just that the post titles might indicate otherwise.
You stay classy, Gary Leff.
Here is a video of the UFO that “brought down” Flight MS804. Caught this on ISS Live feed 2 days after, he was flying near the crash
Plane was cooked around 0:17 UTC with a huge Scalar EM pulse.
Could Gary Leff be any more egotistical?
1. You are a nobody.
2. Nobody from the media has contacted you.
Maybe it hit a Balloon?