Food for Thought: Collateral Damage
From days of happiness to a week of disasters, in this mid-week special report we analyze four recent events. They caused terror. They cost us lives. They were also avoidable.
Concert-goers in Moscow were terrorized, leaving 140+ dead and many more injured.
On Mar 22nd, a division of ISIS operating out of Afghanistan under the cover of the Taliban, ISIS-K, claimed responsibility. Later, they released a first-person video of the shooting. Four gunmen have been arrested. World leaders from east to west put their Russia differences aside to condemn the attacks, and showed solidarity towards a common enemy.
On the same day, Russia had launched the most brutal attack on Ukraine’s largest hydroelectric plant in their continued effort to cripple Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Many Ukrainians were plunged into darkness as a result.
Putin pointed his finger at Ukraine alleging involvement in the Moscow massacre, even though it was he who decided to ignore the warning from US intelligence on a possible attack.
Russia stepped up attacks on Ukraine with long-range cruise missiles and drones. One Kyiv-bound cruise missile violated Poland's airspace for 39 seconds. This put the Polish Air Force and its NATO allies on high-alert, quick to fire up their F-16 engines just in case they have to respond in kind.
Meanwhile, Ukraine denied any involvement in the Moscow attacks and continued to cripple the Russian Black Sea Fleet by taking out two Russian war ships. On Monday, Ukraine attacked more Russian oil refineries, despite US officials advising against it, to avoid a negative impact on global oil prices, US gasoline prices, and the collateral damage to Joe Biden’s reelection.
An airplane suddenly nose dives mid-flight, injuring 50 passengers and traumatizing many.
On March 11th, 200+ passengers and crew traveling from Sydney (AU) to Aukland (NZ) were thrown off their seats and bounced off the roof. The cause? A flight attendant accidentally hit a switch at the back of the pilot's seat while serving meals in the cockpit, which pushed the LATAM Airlines pilot into the controls.
“We have taken the precautionary measure of reminding 787 operators of a service bulletin issued in 2017 which included instructions for inspecting and maintaining switches on flight deck seats.”1
Incidents with Boeing-made planes are on the rise in March. Last week, a Southwest Airlines flight was grounded due to right engine failure with 184 pax just 15 mins after its departure. Two weeks ago, a United Airlines flight reached its destination on March 15th with 145 passengers and crew, and a missing side panel. Another United Airlines with 167 pax returned to its origin after a hydraulic leak after take off. Three weeks ago, one United Airlines aircraft had a tire slip off after taking off, while another was forced back to its origin 10 mins after takeoff when flames began to burst from the left engine.
With some good flying and lots of good luck, none of these incidents caused any harm to passengers or crew. Well, not yet. The FAA has launched a new investigation into United Airlines on top of the ongoing scrutiny of Boeing since January. The Boeing CEO has stepped down.
Blaming it on the company, its management, their poor quality builds, faulty components, or shoddy maintenance at the airline hangars, will not give the budget-conscious traveller any comfort. It is also not reassuring to hear that flying is still the safest means of travel, knowing that a switch or sensor is all it takes can disrupt hundreds of human lives.
Many nervous passengers want to avoid flying Boeing-powered aircraft all-together, and not become collateral damage. That’s good news for Airbus, which is Boeing’s European rival, who favors more computer-controlled automated flying, unlike Boeing, which gives more control decisions to the pilots.
Meanwhile, Boom Supersonic inaugurates its demo flight over the weekend, marking the potential return of supersonic travel. They use General Electric engines, not Boeing. Phew!
Young 90-pound mountain lion attacked two brothers in Northern California, only one survived and leaves a family in mourning.
On Saturday, two brothers went hunting for deer antler sheds in their usual spot. It was the first fatal attack since 2004. The mountain lion which was supposedly marking its territory, was later euthanized by authorities.
This was the second reported incident with mountain lions this year. In February, a 60-year-old woman cyclist was pounced on by a young 75-pound male cougar. The woman survived the attack with the help of her friends, who managed to pin down the cat under a bike until help arrived.
Large carnivore attacks on humans have been increasing steadily from 1950 to 2019 as per a 2023 study published in PLOS Biology2, of which 32% are fatal. Human population growth and loss of natural habitats due to socio-economic and environmental changes, are some of the reasons why.
An alert crew saves many when their runaway “Dali” destroys the Baltimore bridge, six workers perished.
On Tuesday, the Dali, a Singaporean freight ship chartered by Maersk, was packing much more cargo when it lost power and steering. The ship’s pilot was unable to avoid hitting the bridge, causing the presumed death of six pot-hole workers.
This has happened before. Four decades ago, a container ship hit this very bridge. The accident then was not catastrophic. The bridge did not collapse because the ship was carrying lighter loads, unlike the Dali.
The Dali has a capacity of 10,000 TEU. According to a report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the world's largest shipping vessels got 155% bigger between 2006 and 2020. Some ships, like the Ever Given, which blocked the Suez Canal in 2021, can carry up to 20,000 20-foot containers.3
Experts are also questioning the design of the age-old bridges, in dire need of upgrades to withstand the progress of time and humans.
As of Friday, the Dali is still stuck under the remains of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, and the shipping route to one of the biggest and busiest posts in the US is currently blocked. There’s about 3,000-4,000 tons of steel that needs to be removed before the port can reopen. Until then, the foreign export of cars and coal will see the biggest disruption. A bridge that took 13 years to operationalize came collapsing down in just a few mins due to a collision that could have been avoided.
In 2018, the British Colombia Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure published a “vessel collision risk assessment & mitigation” report for the Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing. This 66-year-old Canadian bridge had once collapsed during its construction in 1958, killing 19 people. The report laid out detailed mitigation strategies to protect such aging bridges from vessel collisions. Their worst fears came true this week when the Francis Scott Key Bridge came tumbling down. Hopefully, governments around the world will put infrastructure needs above political gains and take proactive measures sooner than later.
Meanwhile, the conspiracy theorists on Twitter/X were quick to target Indian nationals with racist remarks and derogatory illustrations4. What they didn't care to share was the fact that US pilots were the ones responsible to steer ships through open waters.
The US President, Maryland Governor, and the Mayor of Baltimore reacted quickly to avoid more collateral damage, by thanking the 22 Indian crew for notifying authorities in the nick of time. Their mayday calls resulted in saving the lives of many Baltimoreans who would have crossed that bridge for the last time, had they not been stopped.
Thinking minds should stop tuning into the likes of X or Truth Social or TikTok, who package random thoughts as facts and call it free speech. Disasters, natural or man-made, must be addressed with unity, not with hate.