To Curious Eagles: Take My Interdisciplinary Course on Airplane Accidents (Part I of II)
Note: This post discusses airplane incidents. If you are scared of flying, know of someone who passed away in an airplane incident or think that airplane crashes should not be subject of casual discussion because of human lives at issue, please stop reading.
This is a seventh in a series, titled “Letter to an Eagle,” in which I author a letter to past, current, and/or future students of Boston College, expressing my views on my beloved alma mater, advising on surviving and thriving at The Heights, and sharing personal stories from my collegiate (and law school) days.
This seventh letter is addressed to the current students at Boston College, encouraging them to take a new interdisciplinary course that I personally designed.
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Dear Curious Eagles,
Liberal arts is at the heart of the education you are receiving at Boston College, and nothing epitomizes liberal arts better than interdisciplinary studies like a major in International Studies or the Perspectives Program.
There is, though, no single class that satisfies all of your core curriculum requirements. For students who seek such a class, I have specially created a four-year, all encompassing course in the study of airplane accidents.
I hope you’ll consider taking the class after reviewing the below syllabus.
Couse Name:
Multi-Year, Interdisciplinary Study on Airplane Accidents
Professor:
JoeSas, Ph.D in Aircrash Investigations
Class Meetings:
Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur, Fri 1:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M. in Gasson 201
Course Overview
This interdisciplinary, eight-semester class provides a deep look at airplane accidents from scientific, sociological, philosophical, and theological perspectives, among others. This course will satisfy all Boston College core curriculum requirements, in Arts, Cultural Diversity, Literature, Mathematics, Natural Sciences, Philosophy, Social Sciences, Theology and Writing.
Course Objectives
By the conclusion of this course, students will:
- Learn how airplanes fly and why they crash
- Be able to make educated guesses on cause of airplane accidents
- Understand the role of human nature in accidents
- Contemplate philosophically and theologically about falliability and capacity of humanity, and the nature of coincidences and fate
- Become comfortable in flying on airplanes that reflect decades of safety improvements
Required Materials and Assignments
The primary source material for this course will be a 20 Season DVD set of Mayday, a Canadian television series that takes an in-depth look at causes of various airplane accidents. For each class, you will be assigned several episodes, each about 40 minutes long, that share a common theme.
You will also be required to read Airframe, a 1996 novel by Michael Crichton, in order to satisfy your Literature requirement.
Office Hours
I am available 24/7 to any student who wishes to discuss airplane accidents.
Course Grades
98.5% of your final grade will be based on the passion you show during class participation on the topic of airplanes, and airplane accidents in general.
1% of your grade will be based on a pop quiz throughout the course, whose purpose is to check that you have been doing your Mayday watching assignments.
0.5% of your grade will be based on a short story you write à la Michael Crichton’s Airframe that is based on your research of one or more airplane accidents not covered in this course, in order to satisfy your Writing requirement.
Assignments:
Topic 1: History of airplane accident investigations (History and Arts)
The art of airplane accident investigations took a long time to develop. In the earliest days, such as with the crash of BOAC Flight 781, investigators used a rudimentary method of placing an airframe into a large water tank and pumping water into it in order to simulate the impact of air pressure. Today, investigators rely on flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, which themselves have advanced from tape to digital recordings, as well as radar readouts and quick access recorders (British European Airways Flight 548).
Topic 2: Physics of flight (1) – Lift (Natural Sciences)
At the core of how airplanes fly is the concept of “lift”, an aerodynamic force that holds airplane in the air. A key element of lift is the state of the wings. There may not be sufficient lift if pilots fail to de-ice the wings (Air Ontario Flight 1363, USAir Flight 405) or if they fail to extend the flaps (Spanair Flight 5022). These mistakes are almost always fatal.
Topic 3: Physics of flight (2) – Stall (Natural Sciences)
When an airplane is no longer creating lift, it enters a dangerous state known as “stall.” There are many reasons a plane stalls, such as lack of airspeed (Turkish Airlines Flight 1951) or pilot pulling the nose of the plane up (Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501), but there is always only one way to recover: put the nose down to gain speed. Stalled flights can recover, but many do not.
Topic 4: Physics of flight (3) – Glide (Natural Sciences)
An airplane that’s lost all engine power is simply a glider. The magic of aerodynamic lift is that so long as airplane doesn’t stall, a pilot can still fly and land the plane, regardless of whether the loss of power was caused by weather (Garuda Indonesia Flight 421), leaking fuel (Air Transat Flight 236), or birdstrikes (US Airways Flight 1549).
Topic 5: Physics of flight (4) – Air pressurization (Natural Sciences)
Above 10,000 feet, earth’s atmosphere becomes too thin for human comfort. This requires cabin pressurization in airplanes, a process by which conditioned air is pumped into airplane cabin. A failure to pressurize can cause lethal hypoxia (Helios Airways Flight 522), and sudden decompression can cause an explosion that leads to fatal structural damage (Japan Airlines Flight 123).
Topic 6: Engineering of airplanes (1) – Parts (Natural Sciences)
Quite literally, millions of parts make up an airplane. Each serves a specific function, and minor things like a wrong bolt (British Airways Flight 5390), a poorly designed cargo latch (Turkish Airlines Flight 981), a malfunction of a sensor (Birgenair Flight 301), or even lack of grease (Alaska Airlines Flight 261) can cause a fatal crash.
Topic 7: Engineering of airplanes (2) – Backup (Natural Sciences)
Airplanes are designed with multiple points of failure, like being able to fly with one engine or an alarm going off if essential pre-flight settings are off. Planes crash, not because of one failure, but because of series of unfortunate events, like an engine failing and pilot shutting off the wrong one (TransAsia Airways Flight 235) or pilots omitting an item on a checklist and a warning alarm failing to go off (Delta Air Lines Flight 1141).
Topic 8: Chemistry of fuel (Natural Sciences)
Fuel is often secondary causes of devastation when it ignite after a crash, but sometimes, it is the primary cause of an accident, such as when it ignites due to a short circuit (TWA Flight 800) or when water naturally formed from fuel causes ice (British Airways Flight 38).
Topic 9: Natural environment in flight (Natural Sciences)
Modern airplanes are rarely taken down by environmental phenomenons, but it can happen. Icing on wings is most deadly (American Eagle Flight 4184, Comair Flight 3272), but heavy storm with hail (Southern Airways Flight 242, TACA Flight 110), volcanic eruptions (British Airways Flight 9), phenomena known as microbursts (Delta Air Lines Flight 191), and even weather that’s too calm (death of Mexican Secretary of the Interior Juan Camilo Mouriño) can impact flight, sometimes fatally.
(To be continued in Part II)
