The Boeing 737 MAX

The Boeing 737 MAX is a narrow-body aircraft series made by Boeing as the fourth generation of its most popular airplane the Boeing 737. The new 737 series was launched on August 30, 2011 and performed its first flight on January 29, 2016. 

On October 29, 2018, Lion Air flight 610, a 737 MAX 8 nose-dived and crashed into the Java Sea 13 minutes after take off from Jakarta’s International Airport. All 189 onboard died. The accident is under investigationwith the final report expected in the summer 2019.   

Many experts believe that the Indonesian pilots lost their battle because they had only 40 seconds to deactivate the automated anti-stall system called MACS - Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System - which is designed to Stake readings from two devices called angle of attack sensors that determine how much the plane’s nose is pointing up relative to the horizontal and it pushes the plane down in an effort to prevent it from stalling thus inadvertently caused the crash.

On March 10, 2019, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 a 737 MAX 8, crashed six minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa on a scheduled flight to Nairobi killing all 157 on board. The cause of the crash is unclear as of April 1, 2019, though the aircraft's vertical speed after takeoff was reported to be erratic and the pilot had requested clearance for an emergency landing.  There are eerie similarities in the behavior of the aircrafts in these two crashes.

All commercial airplanes are flown by the pilots manually and also by on board computers for the majority of the flight. 

In addition to the accidents in which MACS is suspected that played a role two US pilots have reported that their MACS caused their Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes to tilt down suddenly at mid flight but quickly corrected.  

According to ATAG a total of approximately 100,000 scheduled flights are in the air every day globally.  Although these are similarities between the two accidents, a disconcerting fact, their rarity makes air travel exceedingly safe with the most dangerous part of every trip being the car travel from the house to the airport on the day of the trip. 

In nearly 100 million flights by United States airlines over the past decade, there has not been a single fatality, while about 100 Americans die every day in car crashes, and a similar number from gunshots, and a larger number from opioids and other drugs. 

The culture of safety within commercial air travel is real, and it is a credit to all components: the aircraft companies, the airlines, the air-traffic controllers, the weather forecasters, the pilots and flight crews and ground-maintenance operators, and even the regulators.

The decision of the U.S. and Canada the last countries to ground the Boeing 737 MAX, came after satellite-tracking data point to similarities between the two crashes and have raised questions about the downside of automation.

And while automation has contributed to the airlines stellar safety record it may have played a role to accidents as pilots lose their skill of manually flying the aircraft and complicated automation systems may confuse them and potentially cause them to take wrong actions.  In the Ethiopian Airlines crash, one of the pilots had just 200 hours of flight time, less than a seventh of the time the FAA generally requires for a pilot to fly a passenger plane in the US.

It is not yet known what caused the crashes of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 and Lion Air Flight 610, both after erratic takeoffs. Investigators are looking at whether the MACS software system may have been partly to blame.

Boeing has identified ways to improve MACS and is working on a software patch to submit to theFAA for approval.  In the meantime all American airlines and Boeing are providing additional training to the pilots so that they recognize and take corrective actions if MACS provide abnormal information.  Although it is understandable that the flying public wants assurances about the safety of the aircrafts we fly on it is axiomatic we allow Boeing and the regulatory agencies to complete their investigations and if deficiencies are found to correct them.  In the meantime we should all accept the fact that air-travel is an exceedingly safe way of transportation.   

Oumuamua

On October 19, 2017, astronomers at Hawaii’s PanSTARRS telescope detected an object in the sky that was moving unusually fast and likely had originated from another solar system. As it was the first interstellar object to be detected within our solar system, they named it Oumuamua, the Hawaiian word for a scout or messenger. (Artist depiction in Wikipedia)

An article at Scientific American describes six unusual facts about Oumuamua. The first one being that astronomers didn’t expect such an object to exist but the most unusual fact about it is that it deviates from an orbit that is shaped by the gravitational force of our sun. As the object is moving, in a hyperbolic trajectory, the question arises what gives it the extra acceleration.  As Oumuamua’s acceleration has not been seen with asteroids astronomers wandered whether the object may be an Unidentified Foreign Object sent to our solar system by an alien civilization.

It is known that there are conditions similar to those on Earth in a quarter of all planetary systems around other stars and there are 100 billion stellar systems in our galaxy the Milky Way.  Also 100 billion galaxies exist in the known universe making the existence of other intelligent beings elsewhere likely.  Could other intelligent beings send a scout to observe our solar system?  Future discoveries about the Cosmos will unravel mysteries such as Oumuamua, fast radio bursts, or what happens to space-time inside a black hole.

A Trilogy

Temples in the shape of the sky

and beautiful girls too 

with grapes in their teeth, you should have!

birds that nil the weight off our hearts 

and the blue we loved is everywhere!

The temple of Poseidon in Sounion

with its deep sky blue

and the vastness of the pelagic sea

it is the temple in the shape of the sky

that symbolizes our love too!

And the statue at the apex of the island

at the entrance of the blue bay’s too  

was photographed by my love 

and her father too 

they are as beautiful as our love too! 

by Odysseas Elytis, Nobel laureate 1979 and two more

Dawn of a New Day and a New Year

The games were over now. The gathered armies scattered,
each man to his fast ship, and fighters turned their minds
to thoughts of food and the sweet warm grip of sleep.

But Achilles kept on grieving for his friend,
the memory burning on . . .
and all-subduing sleep could not take him,
not now, he turned and twisted, side to side,
he longed for Patroclus' manhood, his gallant heart.

What rough campaigns they'd fought to an end together,
what hardships they had suffered, cleaving their way
through wars of men and pounding waves at sea.

The memories flooded over him, live tears flowing,
and now he'd lie on his side, now flat on his back,
now facedown again. At last he'd leap to his feet,
wander in anguish, aimless along the surf, 

until dawn appeared with her rosy finger flaming over the sea and shore 

would find him pacing.

 from Homer’s Iliad Book XXIV 

Parker Solar Probe acquired the first ever photo taken from inside the sun’s corona. The bright streak is a coronal streamer. Up to now, all photos of the sun have been taken from a great distance, either from ground or from telescopes in space given the sun’s extreme heat. The sun is a magnificent, hot, glowing ball of gas with its enormous hot plasma and bright coronal streamers streaking out into the surrounding blackness that matches Homer’s magnificent descriptions of sun’s rays at Dawn in both the Iliad and Odyssey. 

Today, at the dawn of the New Year, my favorite description of Dawn by Homer is… Dawn appeared with her rosy fingers.  I wish you all a Happy New Year.

Last Sail in 2018

My brother Nikos, steering Okyrhoe, to her winter berth.  They are near Patroclus islet and not far from cape Sounion.

Closing towards cape Sounion with a storm looming in the east. 

The sun lights a rock of the precipice at Sounion at sunset. Cape Sounion is surrounded on three sides by the sea and is where king Aegeas waited for his son Theseus return from Crete. 

Cape Sounion which the Venetians called Capo Colonne is noted for its temple of Poseidon, one of the major monuments of the Golden Age of Greece. 

Cape Sounion is close to the city of Lavrio, which in antiquity was called Thorikon.  It was known for its silver mines the proceeds from which supported the rise of Athens to the most important city in Classical Greece.

Christmas Star

The star of Bethlehem or Christmas star is a major seasonal symbol for most of the world, and it is referred in the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament (Matt 2:2, 7-10, King James Version). 

As we don’t know the exact day Jesus was born and the Bible does not say, leaving us though few clues such as the shepherds were out in the field “keeping watch over their flock by night” (Luke 2:8), something it was likely done in the spring when lambs were born. 

As few astronomical records exist, it is likely that the star of Bethlehem was a nova or supernova, a previously unseen star that suddenly brightened the night sky. Indeed, one such star was recorded by the Chinese in the spring of 5 B.C, and was seen for more than two months.

Another hypothesis is that the Christmas star was likely the planet Jupiter or a conjunction of Jupiter with two other planets, Saturn and Mars. According to astronomers a series of such conjunctions took place in 6 and 5 B.C.  Planets bore great astrological or mystical significance to the ancients.

   

As planets and stars move from east to west during the night it make sense that the kings followed the phenomenon as according to the Scriptures they came from the east most likely Persia.  Thus it appears that Jesus birth was likely in the spring, probably between the years 7 and 4 B.C. 

I wish you all a Merry Christmas!!!

The leaves fall and the generations pass

Like the generations of leaves, 

So are the lives of mortal men.

Now the wind scatters the old leaves 

Across the earth,

And when the spring comes round again

The living timber bursts with new buds.

And so with men, 

One generation comes to life 

While another dies away.

From Homer’s Iliad

In memory of Norbert (Nobby) Enslen a good man, father and husband who passed peacefully at the age of 68.