The Luck of the Draw

 A jet, for whatever reason, lands too late, doesn't stop before the end of the runway, slams through a fence, T-bones a crew van, and five people in the van left work for the last time in their life. The NTSB is investigating, attorneys are sharpening their knives, and five families are now adjusting to something totally unanticipated. The families of those that survived in the van are dealing with the horrendous injuries of their loved ones. May God ease their suffering. Prayers are all that is left for them. Whatever happened, the flight crew that survived will have something on their mind that will never leave. 

The video at the following link has an assessment by a professional pilot of what he sees as pilot error for the crash. It's interesting and informative, and doesn't look good for the pilots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm6G7EOP5Qc

Badly Corroded Steel

A New York high rise under remodeling is collapsing. From one of the photos, the corrosion is apparent, and too much of the steel is gone to hold the weight of the stories above. If the rest of the building is in such bad shape, demolition is probably the only solution, and I don't have any idea on how that can be done without damaging the surrounding buildings. In my opinion, it's too dangerous to attempt any work inside, and I wouldn't want to deal with the lawsuits soon to appear. I know I wouldn't even want to expose some of the steel at ground level to see its condition.

This article give some more information. The contractor has multiple violations, and the work involved adding additional stories to the building. 

What gets my attention is the engineering involved. How can additional floors be added without careful examination of the existing structure? Regardless of engineering calculations for structural adequacy, if the original plans were used, they're basically useless. Structural steel design calculation are dependent on the sectional amount of steel, and the tensile strength. Corroded steel can't be calculated without a clear understanding of how much steel is gone, and whether the original shape used for calculations still applies. Considering what some of the pictures reveal, I can't imagine a competent engineer being willing to stamp the plans when a little examination would have revealed the degradation of the original structure. If I had to guess, some money was passed under the table, and a city employee is now in a world of shit.