[DOT NEWS] accidents

Really, I'd bet many more than 6 people died from 1994-2004 from hydrogen-hydroxide (also know as dihydrogen monoxide) spills alone.

Alan

Not to mention what long term exposure does to one's skin.

:)

More than that died in this one accident alone:

Jerry Irv> "6 people died 1994-2004 from explosions and chemical spills."

How many have been injured or killed by "small package shipments (ie under 4 drums)?

Jerry

At that rate, I'd say that it sounds like DOT is doing their job.

Nobody has tried to crash any airplanes into large buildings in New York and Washington for the last 3.3 years now. I guess that means the Department of Homeland Sekurity is doing its job too.

Nobody has made any accusations of witchcraft in Salem for, what, 300-400 years now. I guess that means the witch-hunters got rid of them all.

-dave w

Since DOT regs do not themselves abate accidents, but merely report that they did occur and make sure there is a HUGE paper trail (and associated rediculous overhead cost) with every shipment, the accident rate is orthagonal with the regulations entirely.

Jerry

Same logic. And BTW DHS has used it in public and folks like Phil Stein believed it!

Must have.

Thank god they all got hanged/burned by angry mobs!

Make angry mob permits much easier to get so witches can be avoided in the future!

Witches scare me!

Jerry

Now that's FUNNY

Poor Jerry.

I wonder how all the companies in the US stay in busniess.

How do you know what I believe? Here's one - I believe it takes a moron to make that statement.

Watch out - that could be you on your next trip to a TX launch.

Your words.

Anybody remember Value Jet. "Improperly processed, configured, packaged, and shipped hazmat.

Jeff Taylor wrote:

The problem was not caused by a paperwork or packaging failure as DOT might wish.

It was caused by an electrical problem in the jet hardware (ie Boeing) which IGNITED the CARGO, a portion of which was Oxygen cartridges (solidox).

Those are normal and customary parts of aircraft to begin with and still today on EVERY flight.

No change.

Situational ethics by DOT to cease "hazmat" of specific, broad, random, arbitrary classes toyally different from the "solidox" cartridges.

Typical over-reaction.

Jerry

And Fred Wallace endorses it of course. Predictible.

If the units would of been properly processed and packaged and labled, they would, more than likely, not of been plased on board, in the gargo hold.

Only if installed as part of the installed acft system, not as shipable cargo on passenger acft, unless inert. They were not inert.

Say what??

Of course, the reaction was justified, as was DOT's to your activities..

Goodnight..

Fred

Yeah... they left the safety caps off the initiators of some pyrotechnic oxygen generators and threw them loose in a box.

The "improper labeling and paperwork" was the least of the trouble on that one!

The real culprit was a rushed maintenance shop situation, in which such a premium was placed on getting each job out of the way and getting on to the next one as fast as possible that necessary physical precautions in the handling of hazardous devices were overlooked: some strawboss gave some flunky an impatient instruction to "get them damn things boxed up and ship 'em out of here"... neither of them realized that it was impossible to do that, at that particular moment in time, without creating a hazardous situation, since the yellow plastic safety caps were still on the new oxygen generators that had just been installed in an airplane... they were needed there to disable the new generators from actually firing while a "mask drop" test was conducted to verify that everything had been reassembled correctly. Then the caps had to be removed from the new units in the airplane (readying them for use if needed) and installed on the initiator systems of the old ones that had been replaced (safing them so they wouldn't ignite accidentally in shipment) - but someone had been in a hurry to ship the old ones out already, without really understanding what was required to do so safely.

(They could have checked all the hazmat boxes on all the forms they wanted to, and that wouldn't have done a thing about the hazard created by the specific mechanical condition of the contents... )

-dave w

The purpose of all the special labeling and paper trail is not to abaate accidents, it is stop fire fighters and emergency responders, from, ah, responding, at least those without specialized safety gear. Indeed, rather than risk opening an unlabeled box, they will blow up mom's fruit cake, just to be safe. And God forbid that any powdered sugar should leak from mom's box of Christmas cookies.

Alan

I remember late in 2001, I was sanding out some PolyFiber "UV Smooth Prime" on a large-ish airframe project... as anyone who has used this brand of primer knows, the invariable byproduct of this task is large quantities of powdery white dust, and I commented to my roommate: "it's a good thing they deliver the mail down in the lobby; this stuff might make the Postal Service a bit nervous!"

-dave w