Learning from mistakes
Apropos the timely articles, “Weathering heights” and “Into the storm” by Captain Ranganathan, as an Aviation Meteorologist, I can not but agree with the opening remark about human disinclination to learn from mistakes. The unending series of weather related air-crashes only reaffirms the obstinate habit of the Aviation fraternity not to learn from others’ experience. Had the aviation community taken any lesson from the crash of Flight 547 of Adam Air on January 1, 2007 off the Coast of Sulawesi Island over Indonesia, probably the flight AF447 would not have ended in tragedy. The Adam air flight crashed in similar circumstances while negotiating through towering Cumulonimbus clouds.
In both the cases the innocuous pitot tube was the suspected culprit. But despite having access to latest weather updates and functional Weather radar, the Air France flight AF 447 flew through active Multi-cell thunderstorm with an average speed of Mach 0.80 for almost thirty minutes before succumbing to the fury of nature. The last ACARS at 0230UTC reported cabin depressurization which in all likelihood occurred due to rupture of aircraft skin. It is not clear whether it was lack of experience or abundance of confidence which prompted the crew to keep on penetrating the progressively deteriorating weather condition, instead of opting for a more sane course of action of taking a weather diversion.
Vivek Sinha
Email
Great teachers
This has reference to the article “The precious gift of knowledge” by Mini Krishnan (Magazine, September 6). Not all teachers make an indelible impression in the minds of students. Those who show concern for their students’ overall development and provide them insatiable thirst for knowledge and wisdom do inspire them greatly. As Henry Brooks Adams put it, “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops”.
S. Ramakrishnasayee
Principal, DAV-BHEL School, Ranipet
Some are more equal?
“Reservation works” by Kalpana Sharma (Magazine, September 6) was a good read. She has objectively pointed out all the odds and hiccups women are beset with even when the government has announced 50 per cent reservation for them in panchayats and nagar palikas. Practically speaking, today it is a power relationship and women are not encouraged by the opposite sex to get empowered. The government’s plans and their application takes decades to reach the grassroots level. The main problem is, as she says, women (still) have to function in a society that will not accept that they can think independently.
Syed Adfar Rashid Shah
Srinagar
Flying high
I read with great interest “Celebration time at Seminar” by Ziya Us Salam (Literary Review, September 6). It is an onerous task to publish a thematic monthly journal containing the writings of well-known authors. After the untimely demise of the founder-editor Romesh Thapar in August 1987, his daughter Malvika Singh, son-in-law Tejbir Singh, and the distinguished social scientist Harsh Sethi have kept the flag flying. Although the Thapar couple had once been intimate with Indira Gandhi, they did not hesitate to break up with her in 1975 when she ordered the emergency, which imposed censorship and ended civil liberties. In protest they also suspended the publication of Seminar. Thus, seven issues (Nos. 203-209 ) were not published. I have been an avid reader of Seminar since its inception in September 1959. Four features carry its tradition; tastefully designed cover page, the grey colour of its cover page, Harsh Sethi’s eminently readable “Backpage”, and the list of “Further reading” on the theme of the concerned issue. I wish it a long life on the occasion of 50 glorious years of its existence.
A .K. Dasgupta
Hyderabad
Feel strongly about the stories published in the Magazine? Do write in and tell us at:
sundaypost@thehindu.co.in
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Magazine
