Talking to the Media

[hazatude]

I'm a journalist with CP24 I'm looking for an experienced pilot -- perhaps even a retired one, to answer questions -- to come in to Citytv tonight for a show. You need to have landed at Pearson before. You will not be asked to speculate. Call me for more details.
416.948.7991
This is your chance to bring aviation credibility to television.
Thanks very much,
Natalie.

Captain Greg Haza

pm me for details (please enclose a picture of yourself)

[N2]

Step right up folks and have your few minutes of fame!

[neechi]

Equally disgusted with above opinions of the coverage yesterday.

The most disturbing thing of all to me was how the media seemed to be disappointed that nobody died. You could almost see it. They were no doubt thinking "we are going to miss out on months of special reports and interviews with survivors, memorial services for victims with close ups of grieving family members.

The fact that they had to show footage from a crash 15 years ago of a plane wreck in the U.S. with some poor guy being carted off in a body bag with smoldering airplane in the background to get the gore and shock factor in there is all the proof i need to nominate journalism as the number one slimey sik fuk career choice.

[Flying Low]

Here's a quote from the Toronto Sun's editorial:

We take air travel so much for granted these days that we forget how close we always fly to disaster. In the blink of an eye, or the flash of a lightning strike, hundreds of lives can be destroyed. The most routine flight can suddenly go horribly awry.

My God!!!! If I had only known.

Better not get in a car...only a truck tire away from disaster!
Better not go for a walk...a dog might maul me!
Enter a building?? No way...it might collapse!
Eat at a restaurant?? Are you kidding...ever hear of food poisoning!

Wow...we are so close to disaster at all times! Might as well bring back lawn darts! Can't make life anymore risky!

For those persons without a sense of sarcasm...please disregard the above post.

[R1830]

I was so annoyed I actually felt the need to get back out of bed after a long day to write this.


First whoever was bashing the 15 year old girl passenger who was interviewed last night: What the heck do you know, this girl was on the freaking plane, maybe the gear did collapse at some point during the off runway excursion, maybe it didn't, but I'd say a passenger on the plane knows a heck of a lot more about whether it did or didn't than you sitting in front of your computer. Here everyone is nagging about no one should be talking about stuff and deciding what happened and you are posting on a public forum about how uninformed someone who was actually there is. Last I checked you don't need to be a pilot to know when it gets really really rough on the ground something isn't right. The poor girl has just survived a fairly traumatic event, she is obviously shaking and she is talking about something she was there for just hours before. It may not be a perfect account but she has a right to say her bit.

About the guy who was interviewed and refered to as Captain, again all you do is bitch that the media has people that don't know what they are saying as experts. Well here's a pilot, he obviously did at least have a glance at the weather, I don't think he said anything really untrue or inflamatory. I watched it and basically he said yeah the weather probably was a factor and dexcribed some of the stuff that may or may not have been a factor, and he even said, hey you know what this might or might not be what contributed to this thing any time something like this happens it is a whole bunch of stuff piling up not just one factor. The media is going to refer to him as Captain because they want to make him look as qualified as they can, he was after all their expert. Anyway either stop complaining about the media having uninformed sorces or stop complaining that people are talking to the media.

The media get everything wrong. They have a bit of knowledge about a wide range of topics, but they don't know how to fly an A340 or build a house so when they do a story on anything they get a lot wrong. Heck I fly commercially every day and I don't know how an A340's systems work so how can they get it perfect. I'm not defending the media, they get way too much wrong and what they get right they put spin on so it comes out sounding the way they want it to, but someone has to talk and tell people hey it wasn't just lightning, or just wind, or rain, it could have been any one of a number of things. If no one talks to the media you're going to have people running around saying well the pax said there was lightning that must have been it, or rain whatever. At least if someone says hey, it's early to speculate as to exactly what happened, that will come out later, but there were a variety of factors involved the public feels a bit better about it and isn't terrified next time they get a plane and it's raining.

Jeez cut some people a bit of slack, especially the scared kid who just survived a plane crash.

one more note...today on the news the lady on CBC said that it was still safer flying than driving and there is no need to get all panicy about flying, so to that newswoman thanks for getting it right.

[mikegtzg]

Thank you for writing your post R1830. I agree with your perspective. People want to hear something...and the media can't just report, "We can't give you any information at all because pilots sensitivities are offended".
What would expect the media to do...Wait until the TSB finishes there report.

[gelbisch]

Yes, but the point these other guys is trying to make is that the media does get a little carried away. Put aside the little girl for a minute, and maybe even Captain Yoyo--I didn't see the interview so I can't really comment on him--and most of their sources are questionable. I think that they generally care more about a good presentation than getting the truth across... or at least if the truth is hard to come by than a good sound bite is the next best thing.

A co-worker of mine was killed in an accident back when I was instructing. I still remember a newspaper quoting a farmer who lived near the crash--why are farmers always assumed to be aviation experts?--as saying that we frequently flew low over her fields, turning off our engines and then quickly starting them up again right over the ground. Yeah, that's what we did.



Should they bother to check with, hmm, I don't know, the flight school, maybe? about something like this? No way! Send it to the press! It sounds good!

As someone earlier stated and as I've often thought... whenever I read anything aviation-related, the only thing I know anything about, I see so many glaring errors that I can't help but wonder if everything else I read and am completely ignorant about is not also riddled with errors and mistruths.

Things that make you go hmm...

[Flying Newf]

I hope Capt Marco feels proud of himself today, for running his mouth off about something he knows nothing about, I bet he is a Pilot in training? If anybody knows him let us know what he is Capt of? What A dumass!!!

[flyindude]

I was so annoyed I actually felt the need to get back out of bed after a long day to write this.


First whoever was bashing the 15 year old girl passenger who was interviewed last night: What the heck do you know, this girl was on the freaking plane, maybe the gear did collapse at some point during the off runway excursion, maybe it didn't, but I'd say a passenger on the plane knows a heck of a lot more about whether it did or didn't than you sitting in front of your computer. Here everyone is nagging about no one should be talking about stuff and deciding what happened and you are posting on a public forum about how uninformed someone who was actually there is. Last I checked you don't need to be a pilot to know when it gets really really rough on the ground something isn't right. The poor girl has just survived a fairly traumatic event, she is obviously shaking and she is talking about something she was there for just hours before. It may not be a perfect account but she has a right to say her bit.

About the guy who was interviewed and refered to as Captain, again all you do is bitch that the media has people that don't know what they are saying as experts. Well here's a pilot, he obviously did at least have a glance at the weather, I don't think he said anything really untrue or inflamatory. I watched it and basically he said yeah the weather probably was a factor and dexcribed some of the stuff that may or may not have been a factor, and he even said, hey you know what this might or might not be what contributed to this thing any time something like this happens it is a whole bunch of stuff piling up not just one factor. The media is going to refer to him as Captain because they want to make him look as qualified as they can, he was after all their expert. Anyway either stop complaining about the media having uninformed sorces or stop complaining that people are talking to the media.

The media get everything wrong. They have a bit of knowledge about a wide range of topics, but they don't know how to fly an A340 or build a house so when they do a story on anything they get a lot wrong. Heck I fly commercially every day and I don't know how an A340's systems work so how can they get it perfect. I'm not defending the media, they get way too much wrong and what they get right they put spin on so it comes out sounding the way they want it to, but someone has to talk and tell people hey it wasn't just lightning, or just wind, or rain, it could have been any one of a number of things. If no one talks to the media you're going to have people running around saying well the pax said there was lightning that must have been it, or rain whatever. At least if someone says hey, it's early to speculate as to exactly what happened, that will come out later, but there were a variety of factors involved the public feels a bit better about it and isn't terrified next time they get a plane and it's raining.

Jeez cut some people a bit of slack, especially the scared kid who just survived a plane crash.

one more note...today on the news the lady on CBC said that it was still safer flying than driving and there is no need to get all panicy about flying, so to that newswoman thanks for getting it right.

Now that you're done ranting, let me explain what i was strying to say. Maybe I should've been clear. My point was that the average passenger could give a rats ass about day-to-day operations at an airline/airport. The minute there's an incident, they all become experts. Standing in line yesterday to get coffee at YYZ, I was talking to a couple trying to get to YVR. They began asking a million and a half questions about "this red alert thingy". Trust me, i tried to explain that it was a normal operation here, or any other airport, for that matter, whenever lightning strikes are reported within 10km from YYZ. Nope, they just wanted to know why the travelling public had never heard of it before.

Just imagine trying to explain an MEL to them. The fact that an a/c can fly with certain item rendered u/s by maintenance.

Again, I wasn't out to bash her in particular.

[abc xyz]

I believe hes a RJ Capt with AC. Any company ops manual tells u to keep your mouth shut - wondering if hes gonna get in shit from the higher ups out of courtesy to the AF crew.

Running to the cameras to get your 20 seconds of fame is pathetic. Let the boys and girls on the ground do their job and the facts will come out. We all have some theory of what may or may not have happened but should keep our thoughts to ourselves or in a casual forum.

The media only cares about sensationalism and not the facts.

Just my 2 cents

[CID]

This is actually all quite entertaining. The aviation community is famous for displaying disgust at the media when reporting aviation stories or even when when watching movies with airplanes in them.

Meanwhile, consensus can’t even be reached among themselves! If you put a bunch of aviation professionals in the room to talk about an accident, don’t give any of them access to weapons because there will eventually be violence as they accuse each other of being idiots.

Having two pilots talk about aviation related issues, is as hilarious as having a couple of accident “eye witnesses” talk about the obligatory “flames” and “sputtering” prior to the accident.

I’ve actually witnessed a couple of pilots duking it out over radio procedures!

From the media side, they find themselves in a strange position when it comes to aviation stories. Fortunately for them, the general public is extremely fascinated by aviation even though its been around for about 100 years and flying is as common as taking a bath. (I fly every week whether I need to or not)

Hundreds could be killed in a boat or a bus but nobody takes pause to investigate the make and model of the vehicle or the accident history for that matter. Nobody cares how the accident will affect travel elsewhere or how those people will make their way home. But aviation is still a novelty that people feel drawn to.

We all have been involved in conversations with aviation laypersons who sit around consolidating their knowledge of aviation. Of course they come away from the discussion even more misinformed than they entered. Garbage in, garbage out. “Yep…I flew from New York to Calcutta non-stop on an Airbus 737”

This is very much how the news media comes off immediately after an accident. They feel compelled to address the story because of the huge public interest, then scramble around looking for “experts” to give them some filler.

And then to close the loop, the aviation community gathers around and condemns them for doing a crappy job even though the very “experts” that spout off on the news are products of the same industry.

But on the grand scheme of things, who really cares? What does it matter? We accept the fact that details can be sketchy immediately after a disaster. We accept inaccuracies when earthquakes or hurricanes are involved. Even when Iraq is the subject matter. So why not airplane accidents? We all know the details will be resolved sooner or later. And why do we all act so superior when we read news about aviation? And if we know so much, why don’t we step up and offer our opinion on national TV? I know. Because no matter what we say, some other aviation “expert” will crap all over us. And will a total lack of cooperation from the aviation community stop the flow of misinformation? No. The public has a major chub-on for aviation and the news outlets want a piece of that action at any expense.

[Flying Nutcracker]

Ever been interviewed by an interrogative journalist??? I have! Ever wonder how they get the sensational answers their looking for??? They angle their questions so it's hard to stick to facts. Just like a political poll!

As pilots we make informed decisions based on factual information. So I say we all should just wait and see what the TSB comes up with! Then we can decide for ourselves what happened!

Who cares about the press anyways... apart from the fact that they've managed to piss me off up to several times the last 48 hours!!!

Now it's the lawyers turn to dig into the goldpot!

[BTD]

CID, well said.

However when it comes to inaccuracies about things like Hurricanes and Earthquakes there will be people out there who don't accept them, and as pilots we either aren't as familiar with earthquakes perhaps as how an aircraft stops on the runway and for those pilots who are familiar with it, they don't post about it here on avcanada.

You are right though, there will always be quabbles about how to do certain things while flying (thats what 80% of this site is). It comes down to a lack of research on the media's part. I've heard reports that someone called the runway a driveway. The media spreads the information around the least they could do is a bit of research into the background and not just the face of what has happened.

There will always be mistakes about every topic, not just aviation.

[Chantal]

I guess I got the most information at the time but they didn't mention there was a Red Alert at the Airport and that's why I was watching a Burning plane for an hour or so.

It was nice they interviewed the passengers. I didn't care much for the interviews with "world travellers" complaining about being stranded, it's like be glad you're safe People.

[bush pilot]

A quote from another topic that fits well here.

"Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. 14% of people know that."

[CID]

I've heard reports that someone called the runway a driveway.

But how come you drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?

[bush pilot]

From the other thread

posted by me

Just happen to see a clip of tonight's news and get this

"breaking news about Air France's 340 that overshot the runway, reports were made that the co-pilot was flying, however we cannot confirm because the captain was still in the hospital with back injuries."

What the hell, I guess the co-pilot is only used for the checklist and to get the captain coffee. Infact I am surprised I do not see him going down the isle serving nuts!

[c185]

How journalists write their stories:

http://radans.net/jens/planestory.html