I remember my first visit to the United States over a decade ago. Landing from my small, bustling hometown of Meerut, India, I was instantly awestruck. The silence, the systematic flow of traffic, the lack of honking—it was a world engineered for flawless human convenience. Everything was neat, clean, and in order . For nearly a year, I was hypnotized. I praised this country for its efficiency, its cleanliness, and, notably, its lack of stray animals . Where were the dogs, the cows, the insects that are a normal part of life back home? The US, I thought, was truly a superior model of civilization. My clothes never even collected dust; it seemed the entire landscape was sterilized. But as the years passed, the hypnosis began to fade. I started asking a darker question: What is the price of this perfect order? The Cost of the Empty Road My initial praise for the US was based on what I didn't see: no stray animals, no swarming insects, no dust. I realized this absence wasn't a s...
Just now I saw a video that was uploaded by Air Safety Institute. I feel sorry for the three people who died in that tragedy, particularly feeling sorry for the female pilot who was at complete peace and calm till the last moments even though she was burdened by air traffic controllers with frequent instructions throwing her all around at the airport. The elaboration detailed by the Air Safety Institute mostly blaming the pilot for the tragedy forced me to write this article. We may agree that in most cases we blame the pilot for any incident or accident. The elaboration given by ASI is quite sorted, but the thing I didn’t like in here is that the first culprit here is found to be the private pilot who had minimal amount of flying experience. It is easy to blame the pilot for not being alive to fight for her case and everyone else involved in the tragedy, particularly the ATC who want to save their jobs and reputation. What I didn’t like was the cirrus private pilot was as...