This episode entitled "Air Emrgency: Grand Canyon Collision",actor Tony Nappa played my uncle, Gerard Fiore, 1916-1956. He was the flight engineer on United Airlines Flight 718 involved in Grand Canyon crash of 6-30-1956. He did a fine portrayal of my uncle. My uncle's name was "Gerard" not "Gerald" as shown on IMDb. My uncle was concerned about airline safety during all his years in aviation. This show was an excellent portrayal of the investigation proceeded. This episode was tough to watch but the information gleaned from the investigation is appreciated. This episode did a fine portrayal of this tragic event in my family's history.
2 Reviews
Folks, If You Look Out Your Window, You'll See Another Airplane.
rmax3048237 September 2016
This show continues to impress me. A United DC7 takes off from Los Angeles and has a mid-air collision with another airliner over the Grand Canyon, a sensational event that I can still remember reading about in the newspapers.
It's 1956. The sky is largely empty because people are still getting used to the idea that they can fly rather than drive or take the train. There are only 117 commercial aircraft registered in the entire state of California.
There is the usual array of talking heads, newsreel footage, judiciously used computer-generated images, and reenactments. I really AM impressed. The producers have gone to the trouble of replicating the uniforms of the Stewardesses on the flights. And contemporary 1956 film clips are shown, those infomercials of the period, praising the comfort, the food, and the convenience of air travel. The narrator's "guy next door" voice assures us of the safety of flight.
The United flight fails to report its position at the appointed time. Similarly there is no message from a TWA Constellation that took off from L.A. at the same time, headed for Kansas City.
In the absence of radar or any beacons from the two airplanes a visual search is made and the wreckage found in the Grand Canyon. It's a tough spot for an investigation. The Grand Canyon is very deep. There are seven climactic zones from top to bottom. And the surface is corrugated, filled with rocky outcroppings and niches. And in 1956 there was nothing resembling the advanced technology of today, no black boxes. The investigatory techniques were rudimentary.
Both airplanes were assigned to fly different routes at different altitudes, but the TWA flight reported it was climbing from its assigned 19,000 feet to 21,000 to avoid clouds. That put both flights at the same altitude. But how did they come to the same spot in the sky? It was common in 1956 for pilots to fly over spectacular landscapes to give the passengers a show. "Wonderful sights down below," says the reassuring narration from the 1956 aviation commercial. "That's the Grand Canyon, one of the seven wonders of the world." The pilots didn't see each other because one had just emerged from a cloud and of course neither had onboard radar.
The usual question is "whose fault was it?" But it's inappropriate There are dysfunctions that are no one's fault. If you sit down at a computer and you find the keyboard is too high to reach comfortably, it is your fault? The computer's? The chair's? In this case both pilots followed the rules, as did the air traffic controller. Given the circumstances the collision was unavoidable.
It was the system -- the set of rules and the technology -- that needed changing. This disaster was such a shock that the necessary improvement followed promptly. Accidents of course will continue to happen. The sky is now more crowded than ever. But the technology has changed apace.
It's 1956. The sky is largely empty because people are still getting used to the idea that they can fly rather than drive or take the train. There are only 117 commercial aircraft registered in the entire state of California.
There is the usual array of talking heads, newsreel footage, judiciously used computer-generated images, and reenactments. I really AM impressed. The producers have gone to the trouble of replicating the uniforms of the Stewardesses on the flights. And contemporary 1956 film clips are shown, those infomercials of the period, praising the comfort, the food, and the convenience of air travel. The narrator's "guy next door" voice assures us of the safety of flight.
The United flight fails to report its position at the appointed time. Similarly there is no message from a TWA Constellation that took off from L.A. at the same time, headed for Kansas City.
In the absence of radar or any beacons from the two airplanes a visual search is made and the wreckage found in the Grand Canyon. It's a tough spot for an investigation. The Grand Canyon is very deep. There are seven climactic zones from top to bottom. And the surface is corrugated, filled with rocky outcroppings and niches. And in 1956 there was nothing resembling the advanced technology of today, no black boxes. The investigatory techniques were rudimentary.
Both airplanes were assigned to fly different routes at different altitudes, but the TWA flight reported it was climbing from its assigned 19,000 feet to 21,000 to avoid clouds. That put both flights at the same altitude. But how did they come to the same spot in the sky? It was common in 1956 for pilots to fly over spectacular landscapes to give the passengers a show. "Wonderful sights down below," says the reassuring narration from the 1956 aviation commercial. "That's the Grand Canyon, one of the seven wonders of the world." The pilots didn't see each other because one had just emerged from a cloud and of course neither had onboard radar.
The usual question is "whose fault was it?" But it's inappropriate There are dysfunctions that are no one's fault. If you sit down at a computer and you find the keyboard is too high to reach comfortably, it is your fault? The computer's? The chair's? In this case both pilots followed the rules, as did the air traffic controller. Given the circumstances the collision was unavoidable.
It was the system -- the set of rules and the technology -- that needed changing. This disaster was such a shock that the necessary improvement followed promptly. Accidents of course will continue to happen. The sky is now more crowded than ever. But the technology has changed apace.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
