The "News" thread.

[Unorthodox]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/07/travel/dreamliner-fire/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

CNN) -- A smoky fire broke out aboard an empty Japan Airlines 787 Dreamliner in Boston on Monday in the latest glitch for the much-heralded Boeing model.

The Japan Airlines plane, which had arrived at Logan Airport from Tokyo at 10 a.m., was being prepared for a noon departure at a gate when a maintenance worker noticed smoke and called emergency crews.

"Upon arrival, we observed a heavy smoke condition in the entire cabin," said Bob Donahue, chief of the Massport Fire Rescue Department. "We found a fire condition about midship in the avionics compartment underneath. We advanced an aggressive, offensive fire attack."

Batteries used to start the auxiliary power unit, which provides electricity for ground operations, are located in the small area in the belly of the plane.


Boeing unveils new 787 Dreamliner
Historic landing for Ethiopian Airlines
First S.C.-built Dreamliner lifts off "We did have a flare-up. There was a small explosion -- one of the batteries -- and we again went in with a secondary attack and were again able to knock it down," Donahue said.

Japan Airlines confirmed the cause of the fire in a news release. It said 172 passengers and 11 crew members had been on the plane. Everyone had disembarked when the fire was discovered, the airline said.

One firefighter had a skin irritation from the material used to put the fire out, but no one else was injured.

Donahue says it's not likely this could have happened during flight when the auxiliary power unit was not in use.

"This is an extremely serious situation," Kevin Hiatt, a former pilot and vice president with the Flight Safety Foundation, told CNN. "If there is any problem I think you will see something come out very shortly."

Monday's incident is not the first mechanical problem for the 787 series, which was delivered to airlines starting in 2011 after years of manufacturing delays and cost overruns. The JAL plane was delivered in December.

In 2010, fire caused a 787 test flight to lose primary electrical power while flying from Yuma, Arizona, to Laredo, Texas. It landed safely using backup systems and the 42 people aboard evacuated using emergency slides.

An engine failed during tests on the ground in South Carolina in July 2012 and inspectors found a similar problem on another aircraft in September.

In December, another relatively new 787 operated by United Airlines diverted safely to New Orleans after experiencing mechanical problems.

"The 787, being a new airplane, does have teething problems," John Goglia, a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board, told CNN.

Goglia, a former airline mechanic, said it is common for new planes to have "these kinds of problems."

While serious, Hiatt did not think these issues are a sign of larger concerns with the 787 program.

"There does not appear to be a common thread in the problems the planes have seen," he told CNN. "If they had another situation, a fire, that was in that same locality you'd start to say yes, we've got something else that is going on."

Boeing said it was investigating the incident and noted it was too early to draw any parallels.

"We need to give our technical teams time to really understand the event," Lori Gunter, spokeswoman for the 787 program, said in a statement.

"Anything offered now would be speculation and likely incorrect. It's just too early to make comparisons to other events or to draw conclusions."

The NTSB sent a team to investigate the incident.

"It's one of our 'most wanted list' issues, fire in transportation," Eric Weiss, a board spokesman, said.

. . . . the list of problems with that plane is monumental, but I thought mostly related to idiotic management decisions not actual design.   

[Buster's Uncle]

Mom awoken by cat finds python wrapped around 2-year-old daughter
By Dylan Stableford, Yahoo! News | The Sideshow – 21 hrs ago..

 
Zara and Tess Guthrie (left); Tex Tillis with the python (Guthrie/Australian TV/Brisbane Times)
 
An Australian woman was awoken by her hissing cat early Sunday to find a python wrapped around the arm of her 2-year-old daughter.
 
Tess Guthrie, a 22-year-old from Lismore, New South Wales, said the 6-foot python was wrapped three times around her daughter's arm.
 
"I thought I was having a nightmare," Guthrie told a local television news station. "It was only because the cat was hissing that I woke up and saw the snake with its body wrapped around my daughter Zara’s arm."
 
The toddler was sleeping in the bed with Guthrie, who pried the snake off her. But before she could, the nonvenomous python bit the toddler three times on her left hand.
 
"In my head I was just going through this unbelievable terror, and my thought was that it was going to actually kill her at first, because it was wrapped so tight," Guthrie told the Brisbane Times. "Her little arm was bleeding really bad from the bites, and all I could feel was blood and Zara was screaming by that stage, and I was in hysterics because it was such a shocking thing to wake up to. It was just terrifying."
 
Zara was taken to a local hospital where she was treated and released. The coastal python (or "carper snake") was captured by a local wildlife official and eventually released back into the wild.
 
"The snake [had] not in any way, shape or form intended to eat the baby," Tex Tillis, who runs Tex's Snake Removals, told the Daily Telegraph. "It was trying to have a group hug."
 
"Pythons, underneath their bottom jaw, have a row of sensors which enable them to see the world in terms of infrared pictures," Tillis explained. "So in the dark they're going to see a baby as this warm spot."
 
Of course, snake invasions are nothing new down under.
 
Last month, a 3-year-old Australian boy escaped injury after a collection of eggs he had found in his Queensland yard and stashed in his bedroom closet "hatched into a slithering tangle of deadly snakes."
 
Also in December, a childcare center in Darwin was forced to be shut down before Christmas because of a snake infestation. According to ABC Australia, snake catchers who were called in when a baby python was spotted found a nest with 23 baby pythons and 41 hatched eggs inside a wall.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/python-baby-mom-wrapped-cat-175346395.html

Only in Austria...

[Unorthodox]

"Carper snake"? 

Did they mean a CARPET snake/Carpet Python?  haven't heard of 'carper snake'. 

Betting it was a juvenile.  They can be a bit on the nippy side. 

[Dale]

Only in Austria...

Still haven't learnt the difference between Europe and The Great Southern Land I see.   

[Buster's Uncle]

Am I gonna have to put a cork hat on Hitler?

[Dale]

Am I gonna have to put a cork hat on Hitler?

Do you actually realise how insulting it is to Aussies to be constantly referred to as Austrians?

[Buster's Uncle]

Yes.

Yes I do.

[Zoid]

A guide to the world for americans

Austria: Alps, Arnold Schwarzenegger and The Pope, no kangaroos!

Australia, Kangaroos, Koalas and every deadly creature that slithers or scutters.

Sweden, beautiful blondes, ABBA and social democracy, NO cuckoo clocks!

Switzerland, alps, chocolate and cuckoo clocks.

[Buster's Uncle]

...BTW, I've always womdered how the Von Trapp family skied from Australia to Sweden...

[Zoid]

It IS possible, but you have to go via northern Finland...

[Buster's Uncle]

Where the depressed fish people live?  Yuck.  When does the Specific Ocean ever freeze over enough to do that anyway?

[Zoid]

If you look at the map Norway, Sweden and Finland and Russia all come together in the very north. So it's possible to go by land from Austria to Sweden if you don't mind the driving (or the skiing)

[Buster's Uncle]

Don't bother me with your "reality".

[Zoid]

[Buster's Uncle]

You're not an American and have that backwards. 

But you're not an American, so I guess it doesn't matter.