PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - SWA lands at wrong airport.
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Old 25th Jan 2014, 15:25
  #311 (permalink)  
WillowRun 6-3
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Within AM radio broadcast range of downtown Chicago
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Lucky odds or chances are...

You guys need a course in semantics. Or maybe a dictionary. Luck means leaving the outcome to chance, in a situation in which one relinquishes all control over the outcome and - this is the misunderstood part- the determinants of outcomes. At the moment the main landing gear touched the concrete, there either was, or was not, sufficient linear distance til they went into the drink. That distance is inherently calculable, knowing all the pertinent variables. Duh stupid name call-out call-out, as it occurred, there was enough length to stop with Max braking. Really, I am shocked that you-all are trying to say "they were very fortunate" but it comes out as if it were best understood as a game of chance. They were fortunate it turned out the way it did, but it wasn't luck. What it is!! What it is, is the set of mechanical dynamics and plain old physics, and I'm guessing, their adherence to a myriad of proper aviating tasks such that their touchdown point was located close enough to the runway threshold on the approach side.
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