If such low level fly pasts are common, as several have mentioned, then why was permission not automatically sought beforehand to execute such a manoeuvre if the conditions were right, especially departing Paine field?
Surely the executives at Boeing, Cathay Pacific and possibly the Hong Kong CAA must have realised that such a manoeuvre would sooner or later have ended up in the public domain? There is bound to be someone with a camera, possibly a Boeing worker taking a picture of the aircraft he/she worked on; an aviation spotter located nearby with a long lens; or official press photographers from the local media or Boeing’s own public relations department.
Had all this been thought out beforehand this flypast could have been passed off as an officially approved; Cathay Pacific could have made excellent use of some spectacular pictures; and Jo Public would have been none the wiser.
As it is, being an aviation ‘incident’, it has made world headlines and, generally speaking, negative ones at that. Of course those within the industry, particularly the pilots, can argue the pros and cons of the safety aspect. However, it should never be forgotten, generally speaking, Jo Public still regards flying with some degree of apprehension and in many ways it is still, somewhat illogically, perceived as being more dangerous than other forms of transport.
I write this in the context of having been closely involved in a Fear of Flying Course for thirteen years and continuing to deal with nervous passengers. It always saddens me that, with the exception of some specialist journalists in trade magazines, most aviation incidents, major or minor, get badly written up in the daily broadsheets and tabloid papers by ill informed reporters and usually with lurid headlines which only serve to make the already nervous even more nervous than they are.
Last edited by Heliport; 25th Feb 2008 at 20:17.