Gregory Feith
Appearances
The Megyn Kelly Show
CBS vs. Free Speech, Elon Baby Drama, and Shocking Plane Crash, with Michael Knowles, Matt Taibbi, and Walter Kirn | Ep. 1009
No, these winds, as Wizz will tell you, are winds that pilots are trained to handle. There are certain limitations, not only with the aircraft, but the airline sets a policy about wind conditions as well. But when you look at this landing in the video, that aircraft was coming down at a high rate of descent. You typically will go into a flare.
The Megyn Kelly Show
CBS vs. Free Speech, Elon Baby Drama, and Shocking Plane Crash, with Michael Knowles, Matt Taibbi, and Walter Kirn | Ep. 1009
and arrest that descent so that when you touch down, your rate of descent is maybe 100 to 200 feet a minute rather than 1,100. The nominal is about 500 to 700 feet per minute. Wait, so just put that in layman's terms.
The Megyn Kelly Show
CBS vs. Free Speech, Elon Baby Drama, and Shocking Plane Crash, with Michael Knowles, Matt Taibbi, and Walter Kirn | Ep. 1009
Absolutely, almost double, almost twice as fast as it should have been. And again, that's the problem is you saw the right wing drop just before the airplane touched down on the runway. That's what took all that high energy impact was that right main landing gear, the wing, that's what snapped it off.
The Megyn Kelly Show
CBS vs. Free Speech, Elon Baby Drama, and Shocking Plane Crash, with Michael Knowles, Matt Taibbi, and Walter Kirn | Ep. 1009
And as we said, the left wing was still producing lift, which rolled that airplane and got it sliding sideways. I'm going to be interested...
The Megyn Kelly Show
CBS vs. Free Speech, Elon Baby Drama, and Shocking Plane Crash, with Michael Knowles, Matt Taibbi, and Walter Kirn | Ep. 1009
to know from the flight data recorder not only what the G trace, that's the G impact, because it's a recorded parameter, how many G forces were experienced on that landing, but to determine whether or not the actual nose of the airplane was cocked off center. A lot of times in these crosswinds, and there were crosswinds, they were gusty crosswinds, and as Wiz knows, when you're flying,
The Megyn Kelly Show
CBS vs. Free Speech, Elon Baby Drama, and Shocking Plane Crash, with Michael Knowles, Matt Taibbi, and Walter Kirn | Ep. 1009
You'll typically add a gust factor. You'll actually increase your speed by half the gust factor to give you more controllability. All of these things are going to have to be dissected by the investigators to see what kind of flying and who was flying at the time of the accident.
The Megyn Kelly Show
CBS vs. Free Speech, Elon Baby Drama, and Shocking Plane Crash, with Michael Knowles, Matt Taibbi, and Walter Kirn | Ep. 1009
Megan, I'll tell you, I call it the electronic witness. Years past, when I first went to work for the board a long time ago, you'd spend a lot of time hunting down witnesses, and then you'd have to ferret out fact from fiction. They'd tell you a thousand different stories. And you tried to pick the factoids. Now we have an electronic witness. It doesn't lie.
The Megyn Kelly Show
CBS vs. Free Speech, Elon Baby Drama, and Shocking Plane Crash, with Michael Knowles, Matt Taibbi, and Walter Kirn | Ep. 1009
It just basically records the artifacts of the accident. This is great for investigators because this information, in combination with flight data recorder information, and then, of course, CBR and the crew interviews, is going to put a very complete story together in a very short period of time.
The Megyn Kelly Show
CBS vs. Free Speech, Elon Baby Drama, and Shocking Plane Crash, with Michael Knowles, Matt Taibbi, and Walter Kirn | Ep. 1009
Well, we got to unpack a lot of that, Megan. One, as Wiz was talking about quote experience, let me just tell you that in aviation, we don't mark years as our years of experience or the base of experience. We judge that or at least use hours of flight time as the marker for experience. That'll be one aspect of
The Megyn Kelly Show
CBS vs. Free Speech, Elon Baby Drama, and Shocking Plane Crash, with Michael Knowles, Matt Taibbi, and Walter Kirn | Ep. 1009
this particular investigation that the NTSB, in assisting the TSB up in Canada, will try to determine what was the crew's experience, how often were they trained, what was their background, and things like that. Now, as far as the autopilot is used, yes, the autopilot flies the airplane, especially in the larger aircraft. basically 90% of the time.
The Megyn Kelly Show
CBS vs. Free Speech, Elon Baby Drama, and Shocking Plane Crash, with Michael Knowles, Matt Taibbi, and Walter Kirn | Ep. 1009
It is encouraged by the airlines for pilots to hand fly so that they don't lose those tactile flying skills. You don't want automation flying all the time. But typically in this type of airplane, takeoffs and landings are done by one of the two pilots manually. You're not using an autopilot. You'll use some navigation guidance. on some of the airplanes.
The Megyn Kelly Show
CBS vs. Free Speech, Elon Baby Drama, and Shocking Plane Crash, with Michael Knowles, Matt Taibbi, and Walter Kirn | Ep. 1009
But typically, unless it's almost zero-zero, which airplanes can land in zero-zero conditions, there are some airplanes that are certified to do that. You'll typically have one of the pilots landing the airplane manually. And there's nothing wrong with that, even under these conditions.
The Megyn Kelly Show
CBS vs. Free Speech, Elon Baby Drama, and Shocking Plane Crash, with Michael Knowles, Matt Taibbi, and Walter Kirn | Ep. 1009
Yeah.
The Megyn Kelly Show
CBS vs. Free Speech, Elon Baby Drama, and Shocking Plane Crash, with Michael Knowles, Matt Taibbi, and Walter Kirn | Ep. 1009
Well, the good thing is, is that, as we've said, when this aircraft came down, it hit flat. If it had cartwheeled, and if you think about United 232 in Sioux City, Iowa, where the crew didn't really have controllability of the airplane, they did get the airplane at least to a piece of pavement.
The Megyn Kelly Show
CBS vs. Free Speech, Elon Baby Drama, and Shocking Plane Crash, with Michael Knowles, Matt Taibbi, and Walter Kirn | Ep. 1009
The wingtip drug and, of course, that airplane cartwheel broke the fuselage apart, and that's where the fatalities and serious injuries came from. In this particular instance, while that wing did catch and break, The fuselage stayed intact and that's what protected these passengers, not only from a lot of the impact forces and of course debris in sliding, but then the post accident fire.
The Megyn Kelly Show
CBS vs. Free Speech, Elon Baby Drama, and Shocking Plane Crash, with Michael Knowles, Matt Taibbi, and Walter Kirn | Ep. 1009
The other thing is, these airplanes are now equipped with 16 G seats, so they are really energy absorbing seats they are meant to collapse. When the, when the G forces are exceeded. That absorbs a lot of that high energy force that the body can't absorb. And then, of course, wearing your seatbelt, not loose. It has to be snug and it has to be across your lap.
The Megyn Kelly Show
CBS vs. Free Speech, Elon Baby Drama, and Shocking Plane Crash, with Michael Knowles, Matt Taibbi, and Walter Kirn | Ep. 1009
We get a lot of abdominal injuries by people wearing a seatbelt up around their stomach or across their belly button. The lap belt is meant to be on your lap. That is across the top of your thighs, cinched down. That's what kept these people in the seat. If they had come out, either submarine underneath it or over the top of it, we would have had not only serious injuries, but possibly fatalities.
The Megyn Kelly Show
CBS vs. Free Speech, Elon Baby Drama, and Shocking Plane Crash, with Michael Knowles, Matt Taibbi, and Walter Kirn | Ep. 1009
So the structure, and we've learned this, Megan, from years of accident investigation and improvements in crash survivability and the way we design and build aircraft today.
The Megyn Kelly Show
CBS vs. Free Speech, Elon Baby Drama, and Shocking Plane Crash, with Michael Knowles, Matt Taibbi, and Walter Kirn | Ep. 1009
No, you're the very top of your thigh across that pelvic area. But some people will some people slouch in their seat and they'll pull it across their belly button and things like that. I guarantee. Yeah, because when you move forward in that impact, you're going to that belt will act as a knife. And that's where you get a lot of internal injuries and things like that.
The Megyn Kelly Show
CBS vs. Free Speech, Elon Baby Drama, and Shocking Plane Crash, with Michael Knowles, Matt Taibbi, and Walter Kirn | Ep. 1009
So you want to wear it low in that pelvic area because that's the most stout part of your body.
The Megyn Kelly Show
CBS vs. Free Speech, Elon Baby Drama, and Shocking Plane Crash, with Michael Knowles, Matt Taibbi, and Walter Kirn | Ep. 1009
Assuming, Megan, that the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder were operational because we have had maintenance issues in the past where we've lost data. But if all things being equal, everything was working, then yes, we have all of the electronic data. The FDR is going to tell investigators what was happening with that aircraft at any point, time, and space.
The Megyn Kelly Show
CBS vs. Free Speech, Elon Baby Drama, and Shocking Plane Crash, with Michael Knowles, Matt Taibbi, and Walter Kirn | Ep. 1009
And then, of course, the CVR will be used to corroborate anything that the flight crew had talked about and what they present to investigators. I have found discrepancies in the past where the cockpit voice recorder recorded a conversation. When we asked the flight crew about it, they, one or both, did not remember having that conversation.
The Megyn Kelly Show
CBS vs. Free Speech, Elon Baby Drama, and Shocking Plane Crash, with Michael Knowles, Matt Taibbi, and Walter Kirn | Ep. 1009
So it really is a gap filler, and it helps put a complete story together with all of this information.
The Megyn Kelly Show
CBS vs. Free Speech, Elon Baby Drama, and Shocking Plane Crash, with Michael Knowles, Matt Taibbi, and Walter Kirn | Ep. 1009
It's a choreographed dance, Megan. And again, it's dependent on the guy in front of you or the gal in front of you landing that airplane when you're on approach. They don't clear the runway. You can't occupy the same space. So a lot of times that happens. It's nothing dangerous. And in fact, as Wiz will tell you, I mean, it's a trained occurrence, if you will.
The Megyn Kelly Show
CBS vs. Free Speech, Elon Baby Drama, and Shocking Plane Crash, with Michael Knowles, Matt Taibbi, and Walter Kirn | Ep. 1009
Go around and missed approaches are trained. Correct.
The Megyn Kelly Show
CBS vs. Free Speech, Elon Baby Drama, and Shocking Plane Crash, with Michael Knowles, Matt Taibbi, and Walter Kirn | Ep. 1009
It all depends on what's in that chocolate, Megan. It all depends on what's in that chocolate.
The Megyn Kelly Show
CBS vs. Free Speech, Elon Baby Drama, and Shocking Plane Crash, with Michael Knowles, Matt Taibbi, and Walter Kirn | Ep. 1009
Thanks, Megan. Thank you very much. Thanks, Greg. Good seeing you. Good to see you.