ARE MALAYSIAN BASED AIRLINES CURSED?
By Liz Gunn || For the third time this year, there has been an “air incident” involving a Southeast Asia airline. In March, Malaysia Airlines lost contact with flight 370, a plane that has yet to be found. In July, another Malaysia Airlines plane, flight 17, was blasted from the sky over the eastern Ukraine by pro-Russian separatists. Now, flight QZ8501, an AirAsia airbus traveling from Indonesia to Singapore with 162 people on board, has been missing since early Sunday morning.
I’m not particularly superstitious and I don’t usually believe in curses, but this is really odd. It’s not completely unheard of for planes to go missing, but it is rare. Twice in one year in the same geographical location is at least a tad suspect. Is Southeast Asia the new Bermuda Triangle?
Malaysia Airlines flight 370, that went missing in March of this year and remains so, sparked a lot of conspiracy theories and speculation on what really happened. Still, no one knows…or at least anyone who does isn’t sharing that information publicly.
It’s easy to think this might be a similar situation, but there is a stark contrast between the two airlines in question. Being Malaysian based is really where their similarities end.
Malaysia Airlines is the country’s flagship carrier, a major airline which since the second air incident this past July, is now owned in full by the Malaysian government. Ironically, in 2013, Malaysia Airlines was implementing a “turnaround plan” in hopes of cutting costs and regaining profitability. The company has not turned a profit since 2010, and back to back fatal accidents just months apart from one another are not helping the situation. Not only did they see a decline in ticket sales, but crew resignations increased significantly after the second incident – most of them citing pressure from family members.
AirAsia, on the other hand, is a budget airline. It’s a no-frills carrier that offers rock-bottom fares and last-minute flights. It was created by Tony Fernandes, who has been called the Asian version of Richard Branson – founder of Virgin Group.
From a public relations standpoint, AirAsia has stayed on top of this one, unlike Malaysia Air’s bizarre response to their missing flight back in March. AirAsia has real-time updates available on their website, emergency call center numbers for family members and has been completely forthcoming with the media, as far as anyone can tell. The search and rescue operation has just started up again, as it is now Monday morning in Indonesia.
My heart goes out to the friends and family members of the 162 people aboard AirAsia flight QZ8501. It’s plausible to think many of them were heading to or from visiting family during the holidays. Regardless of how or why another plane has vanished from the sky in Southeast Asia, it’s safe to say my bucket list trip to Bali has been indefinitely postponed.
LIZ GUNN is a wife, mom, travel enthusiast, food snob, daydreamer and lifelong Gamecock fan. A graduate of the University of South Carolina, she lives in Columbia, S.C. with her husband and daughter.
23 comments
Jesus…A plane flew into a storm at low alt. Nothing to see here.
How tragic! I will pray for all those onboard.
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Picture … Not an AirBus.
Plane crashed in very bad weather.
Might as well put on CNN with the mute on.
Cessna Citation =/= AirBus A320. This is why I hate stock photos.
162 people, 16 people what’s the big difference, just be happy she didn’t put a picture of a pancake shaped like an airplane up.
I hate them as well. It was this or a US Air branded plane. Neither made sense, but this one annoyed me less.
Talk about no choice and no choice. I guess that was the best decision based on what was available. I do some newsletter work occasionally and I have a serious hate for stock photos.
Same here -in my line of work I’m forced to choose between crap stock photos every day. I’ve even purchased some, but those are semi-crappy too. Never what I need when I need it!
Sounds like those people fly as well as they drive.
The odds of all three being accidental crashes just plummeted. This is terrorism plain and simple.
Proof? Of course not.
“My bucket list trip to Bali has been postponed”
Why, in my wildest dreams I would have never have thought that you would want to visit Bali!!!!!!!
If you ain’t careful you might get stereotyped as another southern female gadfly!!!!
“Bless your heart”
Please take your pick (from Wiki)—-
A gadfly is a fly that annoys horses and other livestock, usually a horse-fly or a botfly.
Gadfly can also refer to:
Gadfly (social), a person who upsets the status quo
A practitioner of gadfly ethics, one of the competing theories about how to pursue goodness
Bali (Wiki) — again, take your pick:
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Bali is also famous for its artisans who produce a vast array of handicrafts, including batik and ikat cloth and clothing, wooden carvings, stone carvings, painted art and silverware. Notably, individual villages typically adopt a single product, such as wind chimes or wooden furniture.
The Arabica coffee production region is the highland region of Kintamani near Mount Batur. Generally, Balinese coffee is processed using the wet method. This results in a sweet, soft coffee with good consistency. Typical flavours include lemon and other citrus notes.[35] Many coffee farmers in Kintamani are members of a traditional farming system called Subak Abian, which is based on the Hindu philosophy of “Tri Hita Karana”. According to this philosophy, the three causes of happiness are good relations with God, other people and the environment. The Subak Abian system is ideally suited to the production of fair trade and organic coffee production. Arabica coffee from Kintamani is the first product in Indonesia to request a Geographical Indication.
Bali (Wiki) —– ooops!
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In Bali, prostitution is conducted by both men and women. Bali in particular is notorious for its ‘Kuta Cowboys’, local gigolos targeting foreign female tourists.
By 2013, Indonesia was reportedly the number one destination for Australian child sex tourists, mostly starting in Bali but also travelling to other parts of the country. The problem in Bali was highlighted by Luh Ketut Suryani, head of Psychiatry at Udayana University, as early as 2003. Surayani warned that a low level of awareness of paedophilia in Bali had made it the target of international paedophile organisations. On 19 February 2013, government officials announced measures to combat paedophilia in Bali.
This plane was forced to climb to avoid a storm. The plane stalled as radar showed it down to 105 mph at 36,000 feet. This is exactly what happened with the Air France flight in 2009 – the air speed indicators froze in the updraft of the storm, pilots didn’t realize speed dropped and it fell out of the sky.
Well that settles it. No investigation needed because some jacklag FITS reader figured it out from home. Go home boys, we’ve solved this one already.
While all other reports say that the pilot was declined permission to climb due to crowded airspace. What a bunch of dumbasses all of those guys are.
Will hears this story, immediately begins typing “This is boeing’s fault because of the tax subsidies the state of SC gave to it………”
Can we change that picture? The Cessna Citation has GPS reporting to satellites, the Boeings and Airbuses as operated by AirAsia = Not.