How Did A Decimal Point Doom Varig Flight 254?

Comments · 3.3K

• ME

  @MentourPilot · 2 years ago · pinned

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• AT

  @atzuras · 2 years ago

  Captain&apos;s log: The sun is in the wrong position today. The Amazon River changed places overnight. The radio stations are wrong. It feels I am the only doing it right.&quot;

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• NI

  @Nilboggen · 2 years ago

  These passengers are definitely the most proactive crash victims I have heard of. They were sending expeditions, found water, found a way to contact authorities. Basically, rescued themselves.

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• SE

  @sepocon · 2 years ago (edited)

  It reminds me of when I was very young and I worked as a porter in a hospital. The surgeons used to go around to patients beds before they took them to theatre. They would write REMOVE THIS KIDNEY and DON&apos;T REMOVE THIS KIDNEY on the patients back (or similar) with a permanent marker. They would ask the nurses and patient and the patients family to confirm.<br><br>I always thought it was very unprofessional and made them look stupid. Now I realise it was an amazing act of humility.<br><br>They then took the patient into the theatre and before disrobing them confirmed again with the nurses and the patient which side they were operating on. They then took off the patients gown and confirmed that their assessment from the day before matched the one from just now.<br><br>As a software developer we do similar checks called santity tests. Very basic quick tests to make sure nothing mad is happening.<br><br>All these pilots had to do was say &quot;does the direction match the map and does the sun match both&quot;. Similar sanity check.

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• BI

  @birchy188 · 2 years ago

  &quot;Months after the accident, the flight plan Varig 254 used was shown to 21 pilots of major airlines in the world during a test conducted by the International Federation of Air Line Pilots&apos; Associations. No fewer than 15 pilots committed the same mistake that the Varig flight 254 crew had made.&quot;

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• RA

  @rabblescamp · 2 years ago

  Flying into the sunset.<br>CAPTAIN: &nbsp;&quot;The radios aren&apos;t working correctly, the nav aids are screwed up, and now the freaking sun is in the wrong place.&quot;

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• NE

  @NeasCZ · 2 years ago (edited)

  From what I&apos;ve heard, there was actually a passenger who realized they&apos;ve been heading in a wrong direction long before the pilots did, by recognizing some landmarks. He was ignored.

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• JO

  @johncrossphd342 · 2 years ago

  &quot;Lets see, did I input the wrong data, or did someone move a city of a million people? Hmmm, damned bureaucrats must have moved that damned city!&quot;

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• FI

  @firstnamelastname5474 · 2 years ago

  I don&apos;t know what part of this incident is more ridiculous, the fact that a missing decimal caused this, the lack of what you would think is basic navigational sense or the understanding that you&apos;re absolutely lost and going to crash in a rainforest but still not informing anyone.<br><br>It is, ironically, still pure dumb luck that they had a forest surveyer passenger and that they were actually just a few kilometers out on an open field manned by a farmer.<br><br>If this wasn&apos;t posted here at Mentour Pilot, I would think Hollywood is going crazy at it again.

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• MA

  @marceloskyrioca · 2 years ago

  @mentourpilot your video is very precise. My name is Marcelo DaSilva and I was member of the rescue team (Para-Sar) that found the &nbsp;airplane in the jungle, I still have many pictures of the accident and I remember that day like was today. Great job.

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• KI

  @Ki_WorldWideWeb · 2 years ago

  Lost scenarios like this are why we teach our students to &quot;Climb, Conserve, Confess&quot; if they get lost. Getting yelled at for poor navigation practice is better than being dead.

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• SL

  @slohmann1572 · 2 years ago

  Another Brazilian here. I remember captain Garcez was initially treated as a hero for his skill landing the plane. Later we found out how his arrogance played a huge role in the disaster.

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