Pilot prays rather than fly his plane - 16 dead

mike65

Religion eh?

From reuters

A Tunisian pilot who paused to pray instead of taking emergency measures before crash-landing his plane, killing 16 people, has been sentenced to 10 years in jail by an Italian court along with his co-pilot.

The 2005 crash at sea off Sicily left survivors swimming for their lives, some clinging to a piece of the fuselage that remained floating after the ATR turbo-prop aircraft splintered upon impact.

A fuel-gauge malfunction was partly to blame but prosecutors also said the pilot succumbed to panic, praying out loud instead of following emergency procedures and then opting to crash-land the plane instead trying to reach a nearby airport.

Another five employees of Tuninter, a subsidiary of Tunisair, were sentenced to between eight and nine years in jail by the court, in a verdict handed down yesterday.

The seven accused, who were not in court, will not spend time in jail until the appeals process has been exhausted.

My name is URL

So was this an Act of God?

connundrum

mike65 wrote: »

Another five employees of Tuninter, a subsidiary of Tunisair, were sentenced to between eight and nine years in jail by the court, in a verdict handed down yesterday.

Were they praying with him on the ground

And in fairness, the praying worked i.e. he was saved!

Wagon

What a tit.

AnonoBoy

He's only an idiot if he was praying to one of them eastern gods. He if he was praying to our nice wholesome western god then it's alright.

Gone Drinking

Retardsville, population.. that guy.

Dragan

Jesus saves.....on air fare.

Genghiz Cohen

AnonoBoy wrote: »

He's only an idiot if he was praying to one of them eastern gods. He if he was praying to our nice wholesome western god then it's alright.

TheIntarwebs wrote:

Numbers 31:17-18 God commands Moses to kill all the Medianite people including children and women. To top it off he commands that the virgins be saved for later raping by Moses’ soldiers.

Dudess

I don't think he's completely responsible - the church that convinced him this was the way to go about things has a good deal to answer for also, in my opinion.
I know he's an adult and responsible for himself, but the profound effect religion has on some individuals can't be underestimated.

Gone Drinking

Dudess wrote: »

I don't think he's completely responsible - the church that convinced him this was the way to go about things has a good deal to answer for also, in my opinion.
I know he's an adult and responsible for himself, but the profound effect religion has on some individuals can't be underestimated.

He was a trained pilot, trained to deal with emergency situations. He's completely responsible

AnonoBoy

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

The sarcasm detector it is needing the repairs, yes?

Genghiz Cohen

No, just like to point out how horrible religion is whenever I get the chance.

Hobbes

Reminds me of the guy who kept praying to God to let him win the lotto. Week after week he didn't win and kept praying. Finally God came down and said to the guy "Will you ever buy a feckin ticket".

Kill Count for last 2000 years.

Religion - millions
Atheism - zero

People Saved in last 2000 years

Religion - zero
Atheism - zero
Science - millions.

Dudess

Gone Drinking wrote: »

He was a trained pilot, trained to deal with emergency situations. He's completely responsible

Very true. I retract my previous statement.

OldGoat

I never thought I'd be defending religion but here goes...It wasn't religeon that caused the aircrash* it was the pilots panic which manifested itself as praying, and in his panic he forget his training.
He might as well have been in the cockpit calling for his mammy and the resulting plane crash would have been the same outcome.
Critiqueing him for praying to his god in panic is a mistake however ridiculing him for forgetting his training and panicing in the first place is perfectly OK.
What a halfwit, don't they train these pilots anymore?

*Unless the plane was struck down by one of the angry gods

CiaranC

Deleted User wrote: »

Kill Count for last 2000 years.

Religion - millions
Atheism - zero

Mao and Stalin say HELLO

Dragan

Deleted User wrote: »

Kill Count for last 2000 years.

Religion - millions
Atheism - zero

My only issue with that is it implies that people who do not believe in a Higher Power can do no wrong...if you added up all the murders performed by people with no set religious creed i would imagine it gets pretty high?

Dragan

Dragan wrote: »

My only issue with that is it implies that people who do not believe in a Higher Power can do no wrong...if you added up all the murders performed by people with no set religious creed i would imagine it gets pretty high?

i just mean the killings where religion is the cause..

CiaranC

CiaranC wrote: »

Mao and Stalin say HELLO

i'm not splitting everything that's ever happened into religion/atheism.

just saying that alot more people die in the name of religion than in the name of atheism.

ejmaztec

Deleted User wrote: »

Kill Count for last 2000 years.

Religion - millions
Atheism - zero

People Saved in last 2000 years

Religion - zero
Atheism - zero
Science - millions.

Wrong section.:P

Manach

Considering how linked Athesim was with the totalitarian concepts of the 20th century or the excesses of the French and Russian revolutions, that count of 0 seems a tad low?

Dragan

Deleted User wrote: »

i just mean the killings where religion is the cause..

In that case your point is completely off.

No offence, but you cannot compare people who believe versus those who don't believe around an element of belief.

It's completely skewed and unfair.

Mr.Lizard

Yes, but what about all the times when there's an emergency onboard a plane and God DOES step-in and save everyone aboard?!?!

You never here those stories in the news! Biased media!

ok whatever. i really don't like the religion topic so not gonna post about it anymore.

Disease Ridden

I REALLY hate internet atheists!

telemachus

Deleted User wrote: »

ok whatever. i really don't like the religion topic

You probably shouldn't open with broad sweeping and inaccurate statements about the topic then, that has a habit of creating debate.

Dave!

Obviously prayed to the wrong god

mike65

One could argue that the "Year Zero" style beliefs of Stalin and Mao were religions in themselves.

telemachus

telemachus wrote: »

You probably shouldn't open with broad sweeping and inaccurate statements about the topic then, that has a habit of creating debate.

oh well i'll learn from my mistakes then won't i.


as far as the news story goes, if i had been flying, i'd have prayed to santa claus, at least he may have been able to catch me in his sleigh better than that guy's god saved his plane.

Dragan

mike65 wrote: »

One could argue that the "Year Zero" style beliefs of Stalin and Mao were religions in themselves.

Bingo. They enforced an alternative belief system at the end of the day.

CreepingDeath

connundrum wrote: »

Were they praying with him on the ground

Nope, I imagine they were the ground crew who failed to refuel or service the plane adequately.

Deleted User wrote: »

Kill Count for last 2000 years.

Religion - millions
Atheism - zero
Science - millions

People Saved in last 2000 years

Religion - zero
Atheism - zero
Science - millions.

Fixed your post.
Science killed millions too, if you consider Nagasaki, Hiroshima, the guns and bombs of WWII, the invention of the car, medical blunders on relatively healthy patients etc...

ScumLord

Deleted User wrote: »

i'm not splitting everything that's ever happened into religion/atheism.

just saying that alot more people die in the name of religion than in the name of atheism.

Give atheism a chance, it's only just started.

AnonoBoy

OldGoat wrote: »

I never thought I'd be defending religion but here goes...It wasn't religeon that caused the aircrash* it was the pilots panic which manifested itself as praying, and in his panic he forget his training.
He might as well have been in the cockpit calling for his mammy and the resulting plane crash would have been the same outcome.
Critiqueing him for praying to his god in panic is a mistake however ridiculing him for forgetting his training and panicing in the first place is perfectly OK.
What a halfwit, don't they train these pilots anymore?

*Unless the plane was struck down by one of the angry gods

Ssshhhh.... stop bringing a bit of logic into our religion bashing.

i really can't believe i'm running into such resistance here. it's like people don't think people have died because of religion.. so instead, you're picking at everything else in my posts instead to bring me down.

defend the fact that people have died for millenia because of believing what their parents did.

MoominPapa

Science doesn't kill people, people kill people

humanji

CiaranC wrote: »

Mao and Stalin say HELLO

Athiesm never commanded them to kill.

Am I the only one who thinks it's a bit mad that he got 10 years for this? He panicked, prayed, and then made the bad decision to crash land. If the praying wasn't involved would he still get a sentence like that? He didn't intentionally try to kill anyone, he was trying to save them.

thelordofcheese

MoominPapa wrote: »

religion doesn't kill people, people kill people

Fix'd

MoominPapa

MoominPapa wrote: »

Science doesn't kill people, people kill people

pretty much..

no one goes out into a battlefield and kills another man in the name of newton and the table of elements.

Zadkiel

I'm just amazed the pilot placed more faith in an imaginary friend than in his own training.

Mr.Lizard

Deleted User wrote: »

pretty much..

no one goes out into a battlefield and kills another man in the name of newton and the table of elements.

I would! I'd quite happily kill you and your entire village in the name of calculus or Dmitri Mendeleev.

humanji

humanji wrote: »

Am I the only one who thinks it's a bit mad that he got 10 years for this? He panicked, prayed, and then made the bad decision to crash land. If the praying wasn't involved would he still get a sentence like that? He didn't intentionally try to kill anyone, he was trying to save them.

your family are ina car and get killed by a lorry driver.

turns out the lorry driver lost his brakes, panicked, started praying and let his truck plough into your family's car.

same difference, i'm sure you'd say 10 years wasn't enough.

enda1

Was talking to an Italian colleague about this and he sadi that the real reason was that they knowingly fixed a wrong part to the jet (an ATR45 part to and ATR72) and this is why they are all in such trouble.

So basicly they ran out of fuel because they thought they'd fuel (fuel gauge was the part i think).

And I have a link he sent me but I didn't bother read it, mialy because I don't speak Italian

http://www.corriere.it/cronache/09_marzo_23/condanne_atr72_aereo_caduto_62eaac46-17aa-11de-b00e-00144f486ba6.shtml

humanji

Deleted User wrote: »

your family are ina car and get killed by a lorry driver.

turns out the lorry driver lost his brakes, panicked, started praying and let his truck plough into your family's car.

same difference, i'm sure you'd say 10 years wasn't enough.

Not really.

Your family are in a bus and the driver finds that something has gone wrong (and for some reason they can't just stop. Hey, it's an analogy, it doesn't have to be perfect!).

The driver panics, forgets his training, prays for help, and decides that the best way to save everyone on the bus is to drive the bus into a bush at the side of the road. Unfortunately this doens't work out to well and most people die.

How is this different to:

The driver panics, forgets his training and decides that the best way to save everyone on the bus is to drive the bus into a bush at the side of the road. Unfortunately this doens't work out to well and most people die.

Dragan

MoominPapa wrote: »

Science doesn't kill people, people kill people

Science can often provide a very effective means.

Religion can often provide a very "valid" reason to the person.

Neither of them kill people.

OldGoat

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Ssshhhh.... stop bringing a bit of logic into our religion bashing.

Mia culpa. I forgot where I was posting.
Bash away dear boy and may I borrow the bashing stick when you're done with it? Those Taoists have been getting uppity recently.:)

javaboy

Zadkiel wrote: »

I'm just amazed the pilot placed more faith in an imaginary friend than in his own training.

Indeed. Especially considering the last time the hand of God actually did intervene, the Tunisian guy was the only one out of more than 100,000 people who didn't actually see it.

MoominPapa

Science doesn't kill people, religion makes peoples kills people

Agamemnon

Reminds me of that Father Ted episode where the plane is going down and a priest says "Should we not just have a bit of an aul' pray?", only to be greeted with silence.

Mr.Lizard

javaboy wrote: »

Indeed. Especially considering the last time the hand of God actually did intervene, the Tunisian guy was the only one out of more than 100,000 people who didn't actually see it.

Well, talk about poetic! I guess (like Maradona) this pilot chap should have used his head.

BrokenArrows

Dragan wrote: »

In that case your point is completely off.

No offence, but you cannot compare people who believe versus those who don't believe around an element of belief.

It's completely skewed and unfair.

I believe he trying to state that people dont kill for the cause of atheism yet people all over the world over the centuries have readily killed for the cause of their specific religions. From the Christian crusades to modern day suicide bombers.