May Day 2011 – A Significant Day for Aviation

The May Day of year 2011 – turned out to be a day of significant importance to aviation. In the true aviation fashion, two events where pilots said “Mayday” were solved on the very day.

1. AF447 FDR memory unit retrieved

The missing memory unit of the Air France Airbus A330-200 that crashed over the Atlantic on 1st June 2009, was recovered yesterday. The memory unit was found and lifted on board the Remora 6000 ROV yesterday.

The unit, while separated from the FDR unit, is still within a crash survivable cover and is likely to contain data that are still readable. While the BEA has warned that the status of the data cannot be guaranteed, the whole situation looks much more hopeful now.

2. Osama Bin Laden killed by US forces

The US President Barrack Obama announced today Osama Bin Laden has been killed by the US forces last week. The top terrorist had been killed in a mission led by the US Special Forces. Osama Bin Laden was the mastermind behind 2001 World Trade Center attack where he used four American passenger aircraft as live missiles to attack the twin towers.

The aircraft and flights were

AA11 , operated by Boeing 767-200ER N334AA

AA77 , operated by Boeing 757-200 N644AA

UA93, operated by Boeing 757-200 N591UA

UA175, operated by Boeing 767-200 N612UA

The justice to the mastermind behind this inhumane attack has been brought. With this the US becomes only the second country in the world to kill an international terrorist leader that attacked its country, after Sri Lanka ( which killed the LTTE leader Prabhakaran in 2009. The LTTE is known as the organization which invented suicide bombing and also had an air force of its own. The LTTE too, had bombed commercial aircraft – all of which were belonging to SriLankan Airlines. )

Shall I say that this indeed is a victorious day for aviation ?