The Conservative Cave
Current Events => General Discussion => Topic started by: cavegal on May 18, 2010, 12:45:35 PM
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http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31749_162-20005245-10391698.html
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) John Travolta's two family dogs were killed after being struck by an airport service vehicle at Maine's Bangor International Airport.
This event comes a little more than a year after Travolta and his wife, actress Kelly Preston, lost their son, Jett, who died after suffering from a seizure while vacationing with them in the Bahamas.
In a statement released to the Bangor Daily News, city officials said, "An airport service pickup truck was approaching the airplane to service the airplane and did not see the dogs. Unfortunately, the dogs were struck and killed. The airport is investigating the accident. Out of respect for the family's privacy the city will make no further comment."
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If he had flown commercial with his dogs, they would still be alive.
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Have you ever been to Bangor airport?
It's not like it has heavy ground traffic, because it's a small airport. And the driver managed to hit both dogs? :mental:
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No matter who you are or where you are, you're dogs should always be under your control. My dogs are always on lead in public; I trust my dogs to obey, I don't trust the public.
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No matter who you are or where you are, you're dogs should always be under your control. My dogs are always on lead in public; I trust my dogs to obey, I don't trust the public.
The article does not mention if the dogs were leashed or unleashed or even out of crates, just that they were hit and killed.
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I figured if they were on a leash, he would have seen them-but This one says they were leashed and being walked! Did the driver even see the walker?
Paul Bloch said Tuesday that the dogs were being walked from the tarmac to a grassy area when the accident happened last Thursday. The city says a service vehicle struck and killed the dogs after the airplane carrying members of Travolta's family landed.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100518/ap_on_en_mo/us_people_travolta
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I figured if they were on a leash, he would have seen them-but This one says they were leashed and being walked! Did the driver even see the walker? http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100518/ap_on_en_mo/us_people_travolta
does "being walked" mean they were leashed or was someone just keeping an eye on them?
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Well this $ucks regardless of who's dogs were killed. Sounds like ground control was out of control, maybe a little driving while impaired?
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Well this $ucks regardless of who's dogs were killed. Sounds like ground control was out of control, maybe a little driving while impaired?
...or flying and walking while chewing gum.
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Well this $ucks regardless of who's dogs were killed. Sounds like ground control was out of control, maybe a little driving while impaired?
Honestly, I would expect that the ground crews were abiding by their responsibilities - to see and avoid the aircraft on the apron. Anyone who steps outside the terminal building of an active airport should be doing so with the full understanding that the responsibility is THEIRS to keep from being squashed on the ramp. The ground handling equipment are moving around an airport WITHOUT communications with Ground Control usually, and as such have to keep their heads on a swivel in order to avoid damaging multi-million dollar pieces of equipment, running face first into a spinning prop or rotor, or being sucked into a turbine intake.
It sounds to me like Travolta - or someone in his employ - allowed himself to forget that walking around an airport ramp is just like walking through any other busy industrial area with lots of heavy machinery; and it cost him something he loved this time around.
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Honestly, I would expect that the ground crews were abiding by their responsibilities - to see and avoid the aircraft on the apron. Anyone who steps outside the terminal building of an active airport should be doing so with the full understanding that the responsibility is THEIRS to keep from being squashed on the ramp. The ground handling equipment are moving around an airport WITHOUT communications with Ground Control usually, and as such have to keep their heads on a swivel in order to avoid damaging multi-million dollar pieces of equipment, running face first into a spinning prop or rotor, or being sucked into a turbine intake.
It sounds to me like Travolta - or someone in his employ - allowed himself to forget that walking around an airport ramp is just like walking through any other busy industrial area with lots of heavy machinery; and it cost him something he loved this time around.
I did not know they were incommunicado. Any idea the amount of traffic Bangor handles? I have never looked into it.
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What kind of dogs were they? It makes a difference if I care or not. :evillaugh:
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What kind of dogs were they? It makes a difference if I care or not. :evillaugh:
Now That's Racist!! :rotf:
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I did not know they were incommunicado. Any idea the amount of traffic Bangor handles? I have never looked into it.
According to the website (http://www.flybangor.com/content/4130/Runway_Diagram/) the airport operates 24 hours a day. That tells me that it's got enough traffic to justify the staffing commitment.
When the September 11th attacks happened, my wife was a gate agent at Sky Harbor Airport. She had just pulled back the jetway on a flight when the call came down from the tower for her to call back the flight. The tower has no communications with the tugs or other ground vehicles servicing the planes and needed the gate agent to act as the go-between in that instance.
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According to the website (http://www.flybangor.com/content/4130/Runway_Diagram/) the airport operates 24 hours a day. That tells me that it's got enough traffic to justify the staffing commitment.
When the September 11th attacks happened, my wife was a gate agent at Sky Harbor Airport. She had just pulled back the jetway on a flight when the call came down from the tower for her to call back the flight. The tower has no communications with the tugs or other ground vehicles servicing the planes and needed the gate agent to act as the go-between in that instance.
I flew in/out of Bangor last summer.
Comparing it to Sky Harbor is like comparing a watermelon to a raisin! The rental car return is right in front of the entrance to the terminal. Our flight out was delayed for hours, so I spent some time there. You don't even get to go to the gate until your flight is called and you then allowed to go through security.
Private planes are usually directed to a totally separate area from commercial planes. Even here, where I live, we have a relatively small airport( one security pass through that allows the passenger to go to one of two concourses with 5 gates on each side), the private planes fly out of a totally separate terminal. Regardless of plane size, the private planes are parked at that terminal, all passengers go through that terminal - which is quite nice, and no TSA, or any other type of security checks, just a "concierge desk" with an attendent who says hello, and offices to file flight plans.
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I flew in/out of Bangor last summer.
Comparing it to Sky Harbor is like comparing a watermelon to a raisin! The rental car return is right in front of the entrance to the terminal. Our flight out was delayed for hours, so I spent some time there. You don't even get to go to the gate until your flight is called and you then allowed to go through security.
Private planes are usually directed to a totally separate area from commercial planes. Even here, where I live, we have a relatively small airport( one security pass through that allows the passenger to go to one of two concourses with 5 gates on each side), the private planes fly out of a totally separate terminal. Regardless of plane size, the private planes are parked at that terminal, all passengers go through that terminal - which is quite nice, and no TSA, or any other type of security checks, just a "concierge desk" with an attendent who says hello, and offices to file flight plans.
I wasn't trying to compare BGR to Sky Harbor when I brought it up, ma'am. My intention was to show that even at the 5th busiest airport in the country, a ground controller's job is to communicate with and coordinate the ground movements of the airplanes at the airport; not the service equipment.
I'm a private pilot myself, Deb so I am very familiar with your description of the "goings on" at the GA terminal at an airport. I went back to the BGR website and copied over the airport diagram so I could explain things a little better.
(http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa200/DefiantSix/RunwayDiagram-1.jpg)
I bounded the ramp area surrounding the commercial and service ramps at BGR in yellow. Most likely, Travolta's plane would have been parked at the service ramp at the far east end of the terminal. In that same general area though, there is the fuel concession (Red Arrow) and the catering concession (Green Arrow). In an airport so busy that it has separate domestic and international terminals, as well as the general aviation terminal, fuel bowsers and catering trucks are coming in and out of that area all the time.
With that in mind, the last rule to remember is that an airport apron isn't a street: normal rules of right of way don't apply there. The airplane with clearance to taxi has absolute right of way, not pedestrians that may be wandering the ramp. Ground vehicles take whatever route works best to get them where they need to be, with the caveat that they watch for and yield to the aircraft. Especially at so busy an airport, pedestrians on the ramp aren't a normal occurance, and someone walking a dog on the ramp is so rare as to be considered absurd there, so it's not something a ground vehicle watches for.
I'll restate; Travolta or someone in his employ got careless in a busy area full of moving heavy machinery.
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I read an article today, that Travolta and wife are expecting a baby. In this article, it referenced the dogs as small. If the leash was long, and the dogs were small, very plausible that they just weren't seen. It's unfortunate, but I imagine walking dogs on the ramp is probably against some regulation, somewhere.
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Now That's Racist!! :rotf:
Hey, I like Black Labs! :tongue:
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Hey, I like Black Labs! :tongue:
Everyone likes Black Labs, we have several in my neighborhood. There is only one the Beagle is leery of, may be only part lab, I haven't seen its papers yet (come to think of it I am not sure I've seen a tag on that one either). :thatsright:
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We use to have a Lab/Rott mix named Lucky. He was cool.
He also became senile and ran away from home.
The dog played with 5 lb weights, threw them in the air. He was a strong dog. By the end he was growling at anyone who came up to the gate, including us. I was the last person he would growl at though, I could even put my hand in his food bowl when others were scared to be in the yard with him.
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Everyone likes Black Labs, we have several in my neighborhood. There is only one the Beagle is leery of, may be only part lab, I haven't seen its papers yet (come to think of it I am not sure I've seen a tag on that one either). :thatsright:
Ultimate in bad luck happend to 20 seeing eye dogs fully trained being flown to their new owners State.
This causes a lump in my throat as the owners had spent 6 months with the dogs bonding with them and learning to work and live with them. These dogs were their eyes, their freedom, their future life.
The cost to live in a facility that trains both dog and person for 6 month is huge. Whole comunities in some cases have to get everyone involved to raise money to get a citizen a dog. Bake sales, cookie drives, Churches holding pot luck dinners.
Not just the future owners but whole comunities turned out to greet the dogs as they were flown in.
Disaster, the dogs were DOA. The pilot and crew swore no one had told them they had live animals aboard so no one pressurized the cargo hold.
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We use to have a Lab/Rott mix named Lucky. He was cool.
He also became senile and ran away from home.
The dog played with 5 lb weights, threw them in the air. He was a strong dog. By the end he was growling at anyone who came up to the gate, including us. I was the last person he would growl at though, I could even put my hand in his food bowl when others were scared to be in the yard with him.
Was he missing an eye, tail, and one leg?
:tongue:
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Was he missing an eye, tail, and one leg?
:tongue:
Don't forget the tag on his collar, said his name was 'Lucky'. :-)
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Was he missing an eye, tail, and one leg?
:tongue:
um. nope
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Ultimate in bad luck happend to 20 seeing eye dogs fully trained being flown to their new owners State.
This causes a lump in my throat as the owners had spent 6 months with the dogs bonding with them and learning to work and live with them. These dogs were their eyes, their freedom, their future life.
The cost to live in a facility that trains both dog and person for 6 month is huge. Whole comunities in some cases have to get everyone involved to raise money to get a citizen a dog. Bake sales, cookie drives, Churches holding pot luck dinners.
Not just the future owners but whole comunities turned out to greet the dogs as they were flown in.
Disaster, the dogs were DOA. The pilot and crew swore no one had told them they had live animals aboard so no one pressurized the cargo hold.
Fellow I know puppy trains Black Labs for further service dog training. He has been doing it for years.
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I did go through the Bangor airport once, on the way to Afghanistan (try the lobster rolls). It's apparently open 24 hours to service flights of outbound troops on the way to the combat zone, cuz we were the only ones there at midnight.
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I did go through the Bangor airport once, on the way to Afghanistan (try the lobster rolls). It's apparently open 24 hours to service flights of outbound troops on the way to the combat zone, cuz we were the only ones there at midnight.
When I was there last summer, there was a group headed to Iraq. There is a Vet supported center there, and several people were there to support the troops, that were leaving. When it came time for the troops to head to their gate, they formed a "corridor" that the troops walked through and either shook their hands, hugged them or wished them well.
The few of us that were not involved all stood and clapped.
I had tears running down my cheeks.....