Tuesday, December 30, 2014




Must not disrespect the metric system

A Fox News host has drawn the ire of the internet after speculating on air what could have caused the disappearance of AsiaAir Flight QZ8501.

Fox News co-host Anna Kooiman interviewed former FAA spokesperson Scott Brenner about the search for the missing flight Sunday morning, asking the airline industry insider whether foreign pilots were at a disadvantage since they were trained using the metric system. 

'Even when we think about temperature, it's Fahrenheit or Celsius,' Kooiman said. 'It's kilometers or miles. You know, everything about their training could be similar, but different.'

While the Imperial System may provide a conversion challenge for metric users, it likely was not a problem since the vast majority of the world excluding the U.S. uses the metric system.

Brenner pointed out that the bigger difference was foreign pilots' reliance on auto-pilot, which he says they are often required to switch over to after take-off. This requirement is due to the fact that most crashes are due to pilot error.

This line of questioning earned Kooiman some flack on Twitter, where users critiqued her questioning the metric system's relevance in the disappearance.

'Most all media speculation right after an air crash is ludicrous but Anna Kooiman takes the cake,' one user wrote.

SOURCE


5 comments:

Jerry Doctor said...

"It's kilometers or miles..."

Actually, it's neither one. Aviation uses knots.

Bird of Paradise said...

I can remember back when they tried to get america into this Metric system they failed even though they still have soft-drink in 1 to 2 liters

Anonymous said...

CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo considers the possible fate of missing Air Asia flight QZ8501:

“At this point, given it was extremely bad weather, the chances of this being some sort of terrorist activity are very small because most terrorist activities take place in good weather.”
And you thought Anna Koiman was dumb.

Jerry Doctor said...

Ana Kooiman - another FOX blonde news babe (I think they have a secret island where they raise them.) who may not be real bright but at least she's nice to look at.

Mary Schiavo: Typical federal administrator. Scary to think that for six years she was the DOT inspector general.

Anonymous said...

The metric system is much more convenient than the English system for most purposes.