Since last week's debut of the Macbook's text to speech function as a podcast narrator, many of you responded to the survey about this narrator and have given AirSafe.com some valuable feedback. There were 78 responses, 63 of whome listened to the entire podcast. Of these 63, 10 said would not listen to this narrator again and 12 others were not sure if they would do so again. Most of those who would listen to this narrator again agreed that it would be appropriate for shorter podcasts.
Based on these results, this narrator will likely be used again, mostly for shorter episodes, or to supplement other audio content.
AirSafe.com Visitor Survey
In an earlier survey about what resources visitors use at AirSafe.com, most of the 35 who responded said that they visited multiple AirSafe.com related sites or services, with AirSafeNews.com, Plane-Crash-Videos.net, and the AirSafe.com podcast being the most popular choices.
Roughly half of the respondents have not listened to or viewed one of the podcasts. If you haven't done so yet, I invite you to check out one of the podcast videos that are hosted on YouTube. You can find all of audio and video podcasts are at podcast.airsafe.org
Only a few of the 35 admitted to using any social media resources. Also, when asked what they wanted changed AirSafe.com, the most popular response was adding more photos. A BirdStrikeNews.com article from last month addresses both points to some extent. In Ten Free Social Media Things You Can Do, AirSafe.com provided suggestions for free and easy to use social media tools you can use, as well as an example of tools that are actively used at AirSafe.com. Based on your feedback, some of them will be used on a more regular basis throughout AirSafe.com's network of sites.
By the way, some social media resources are in the right hand column. You can join the email notification list so you can get an email whenever this site is updated. You can also click on the Twitter logo and subscribe to AirSafe.com's Twitter account. If you don't have a Twitter account, you can easily sign up. Also, if you use Google Reader or another kind of RSS reader, you can click on the appropriate link or icon and subscribe that way as well. If you have no idea what RSS is all about, that will be covered in a future article.
American Airline Turbulence Event near Tokyo
Earlier this week, AirSafe.com came across several small article news articles about a turbulence event involving an American Airlines 777 (N777AN), Flight 61, near Tokyo on Monday (26 October 2009). Reportedly, nine passengers were injured and five, including three children, were treated at a local hospital after the aircraft landed. The plane encountered turbulence over the Pacific Ocean, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) southeast of Tokyo's Narita airport. The aircraft landed without further incident about 14 minutes later.
Passengers reported that the airplane had already experienced strong turbulence for about 20 minutes. Also, the 'fasten seatbelt' signs had been on for about 45 minutes before the event. There were 228 passengers and crew members aboard the Boeing 777.
Since this was an event that happened in Japan, and because it did not cause substantial aircraft damage or fatal injuries, it is unlikely that information from this incident will be in the accident and incident databases of the FAA or the NTSB. If you find any additional sources of news about this incident, please leave a comment and a link to that information.
Related Resources
Turbulence Risks
Selected Fatal Turbulence Events
Air Canada Turbulence Event from 2009
Child Restraint Advice from the FAA
TurbulenceForecast.com
Report About Air Canada Turbulence Event from January 2008
Seat belts and child harnesses are so very important! Passengers seem not to fully understand how turbulence can cause serious injury.
ReplyDeleteAirlines often have a policy to save themselves against possible sueing and switch on seat belts sign prematurely. This brings a sense of complacency in the cabin crew and passengers. The seat belt sign should be used judiciously and when they are on should be treated with importance. I have travelled on flights where seat belt sign was left on and probably the captain forgot about it for a long time.
ReplyDeleteFlying in our atmosphere is an inherently unnatural act. Turbulence is one of the potentially dangerous tradeoffs that we accept in getting to a destination quickly. As in an automobile, always, always keep your seat belt fastened tightly.
ReplyDeleteI would not mind having a flight last one more hour if it meant we were avoiding heavy turbulence. Why this pilot didn't take another route? He couldn't? So why take off and get these people injured? Did American airline paid for the hospital bills?
ReplyDeleteA very fine article and exceptional blog. Is there any way I can subscribe to new articles, you know I like acquiring them on email or something like that.
ReplyDeleteSurvey Data Analysis