Jet Collision

Did you hear the news about the two jets that collided over the South American jungles just a few days ago? One plane landed and the pilots were arrested. The other plane crashed, killing all passengers and crew.

Both jets were equipped with a modern traffic collision avoidance system, which monitors other planes and sets off an alarm if they get too close.

Geraldo Pereira of the Federal Procecutor’s office said the Embraer Legacy 600 transponder, which automatically transmits electronic signals that communicate a plane's location, may not have been operating.

"Preliminary investigations indicate that the pilots may have turned off the transponder, that they knew the risks they were running and nevertheless they took certain attitudes that endangered the lives of people," he said.

This is not the first time this kind of thing has happened, either.

In 1984 an Avianca Airlines jet crashed in Spain. Investigators studying the accident made an eerie discovery. The “black box” cockpit recorders revealed that several minutes before impact a shrill, computer-synthesized voice from the plane’s automatic warning system told the crew repeatedly in English, “Pull up! Pull up!”

The pilot, evidently thinking the system was malfunctioning, snapped, “Shut up, Gringo!” and switched the system off. Minutes later the plane plowed into the side of a mountain. Everyone on board died.

When I saw that tragic story on the news shortly after it happened, it struck me as a perfect parable of the way modern people treat the warning messages of their consciences.