Exciting Week at Work
For those of you that don't know, there was a plane crash at work this week. Here is the KTVU Channel 2 report (a local station), and there are links (appearently) to security videos from the buildings it grazed...
On Wednesday, Sept. 16th, I was minding my own business, eatin' lunch at Kennedy Park (it's next to the airport), and hear a constant stream of noise. It was helicopters hovering over the park, kinda, and thought that there was some kind of police action or an accident on the freeway. I know that there are bound to be a ton of noise complaints from the residents, and when I head back into the office, I ask my supervisor, Dolores, about it. She said that everything was fine, but that there was a plane crash while I was out. It explains why all the news helicopters are up (and not parked next to the tower) and why all of them were hovering around the border of the airport. The guy was reported to be fine and when I was shown where the crash happened, I just saw a plume of white smoke on the other side of the airport. There was a constant stream of calls from news people and coworkers and those lovely noise complainers. We didn't answer any questions, and we don't have a media person, so they all had to wait until Jenny, our operations manager, got back into the office (the airport manager was in Tahoe at a conference).
While we waited for more details, Courtney, Airport Intern, told me what she heard and saw, and I believe her when she says she was in shock and almost in tears. She heard the plane having trouble, and ran to her window on the second floor to take down the plane number for reference to future noise complaints and such. She saw the plane almost on it's side burst into flames, and then ran downstairs. Dolores was so engrosed in her phone conversation that she didn't hear anything, but was afraid that something had happened to Courtney, judging from the way she looked and how she works alone upstairs. Crazy! We have a firestation on airport land, and they put out the fire almost instantly.
On Friday, I saw the wreck and the maintenance manager explained to me what'd happened. You can see tire marks on the top of two buildings, see the train car that was hit (and broke the wing in half), and then the scortch marks on the second building that were very clear flame marks. It looked like a black campfire. B/ the plane hit the train car, it spun around and landed on the train tracks (that aren't used), and skid to a stop with the train track switcher in the broken wing's "armpit". The body of the plane was intact, the firefighters broke all the windows out, the nose and wing were broken, and the airport's fence was untouched until the firefighters tore it down to get to the plane. The only other damage to the airport was the burnt grass.
Overall, the pilot was beyond lucky to get out alive and relatively unharmed. The workers in the buildings were all evacuated and safe. The emergency response teams were quick. It was a very well organized disaster.
On Wednesday, Sept. 16th, I was minding my own business, eatin' lunch at Kennedy Park (it's next to the airport), and hear a constant stream of noise. It was helicopters hovering over the park, kinda, and thought that there was some kind of police action or an accident on the freeway. I know that there are bound to be a ton of noise complaints from the residents, and when I head back into the office, I ask my supervisor, Dolores, about it. She said that everything was fine, but that there was a plane crash while I was out. It explains why all the news helicopters are up (and not parked next to the tower) and why all of them were hovering around the border of the airport. The guy was reported to be fine and when I was shown where the crash happened, I just saw a plume of white smoke on the other side of the airport. There was a constant stream of calls from news people and coworkers and those lovely noise complainers. We didn't answer any questions, and we don't have a media person, so they all had to wait until Jenny, our operations manager, got back into the office (the airport manager was in Tahoe at a conference).
While we waited for more details, Courtney, Airport Intern, told me what she heard and saw, and I believe her when she says she was in shock and almost in tears. She heard the plane having trouble, and ran to her window on the second floor to take down the plane number for reference to future noise complaints and such. She saw the plane almost on it's side burst into flames, and then ran downstairs. Dolores was so engrosed in her phone conversation that she didn't hear anything, but was afraid that something had happened to Courtney, judging from the way she looked and how she works alone upstairs. Crazy! We have a firestation on airport land, and they put out the fire almost instantly.
On Friday, I saw the wreck and the maintenance manager explained to me what'd happened. You can see tire marks on the top of two buildings, see the train car that was hit (and broke the wing in half), and then the scortch marks on the second building that were very clear flame marks. It looked like a black campfire. B/ the plane hit the train car, it spun around and landed on the train tracks (that aren't used), and skid to a stop with the train track switcher in the broken wing's "armpit". The body of the plane was intact, the firefighters broke all the windows out, the nose and wing were broken, and the airport's fence was untouched until the firefighters tore it down to get to the plane. The only other damage to the airport was the burnt grass.
Overall, the pilot was beyond lucky to get out alive and relatively unharmed. The workers in the buildings were all evacuated and safe. The emergency response teams were quick. It was a very well organized disaster.
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