The Information above is Provided in the Event This Form is to Be Recorded

Are you sure that the NRA is the problem?Oh, I know that the media and the talking heads are all making them out to be some 500 lb gorilla and the reason psychos shoot up school yards, but have you ever bothered to look into the matter beyond the headlines?I’ll give you an example. In 2017, the push was for a “Universal Background Check”. The idea was to be sure that people buying guns were not criminals. Believe it or not, the NRA wholly supports this and in fact was involved with creating the current NICS (National Instant Check System) that is used.But the bill that was proposed was not what you heard in the media. First, it would not plug any “Gunshow Loophole” because there is no such thing. The only sales at a gun show that the bill covered was private sales. Of course, private sales can occur anywhere, not just gun shows.But the bill didn’t make the NICS easier for private sales. They just required all private sales to be conducted through a licensed dealer. Had this actually passed, a gun show would be an ideal location for such sales as there would be access to many dealer. In effect, you would greatly increase the number of private sales at a gun show by this law.So, what is involved with a sale through a dealer? Well, the dealer would have to do the following:1) Record the transfer in their bound book. This is a book where all the transactions of a firearm is recorded via that dealer. The book is auditable by the BATF and many dealers have faced fines for poorly kept records, so many dealers go to great pains to keep their book neat and accurate.2) Fill out the federal form 4473. This is required by all dealer sales of both new and used guns. It asks for the buyer’s name, address, the make and model of the gun, serial number, and then asks a bunch of questions. The dealer can get fined if the person fills out the form wrong. For example, answering a question with “Y” or “N” instead of “Yes” or “No” is a BATF violation. So the dealer has to carefully examine the form for errors and have the person fill out another if errors are found.3) The dealer then calls into the NICS. NICS can come back with a “Proceed”, “Denied” or “Delay”. A delay can take up to 3 days. Typically this is a name that appears similar to a Prohibited Person and requires some research. If this happens, the transfer is on hold. The dealer has no idea when the result of the research is likely to finish. If you are at a gun show, the show could be over before the approval is made.4) All this paperwork, verification, etc takes time. Time is money. So dealers charge for this service. It is typical for a dealer to charge $25-$40 per gun, but sometimes multiple guns get a discount because the dealer can process up to 4 on a single form, but when more than one gun is transferred, the dealer has to fill out Form 3310 which is supposed to help with gun trafficking.All of this is well and good if you are buying a gun from someone you don’t know and many people will require sales be conducted at a dealer for the piece of mind such protections provide. But friends and family typically do not bother with the hassle and expense.One thing you need to realize is that to get a gun dealer license is not an easy process. Since the federal government cracked down on so called “kitchen table” dealers back in the 1980’s, you now must show a commercially zoned storefront with posted business hours to qualify. Many communities don’t want gun shops, and use zoning laws to make them difficult or unattractive. For example the city of Boston does not have any dealers. In fact, the nearest dealer is 3 towns away. Many rural areas don’t have the traffic to keep a dealer in business and you’ll find they are typically only open in the evening or on a Saturday as they work another full time job. Keep this in mind as we get into the next issue.But the bill didn’t stop at sales. It stated that ALL transfers had to be done in this manner. No exceptions. So, two friends out on a hunt would need to go through the whole process listed above just to swap guns for the afternoon. Oh, and they would have to do it all again to give the gun back. It is very common on a range to try out other people’s guns - such a thing would also require the full transfer and back process. Demo guns at a national event by manufacturers? Same thing.Basically any time a gun were to swap hands, the law would apply. There are private shooting clubs where guns are treated like library books and members take whatever they want. Families regularly swap guns. Heck, some shooting courses provide guns for students to use. All of these events would have been impacted by these new transfer requirements.The NRA balked at this. Essentially the rule would curtail many of the traditions and practices that are very common and virtually never result in any kind of criminal activity. In essence it would criminalize things that simply are not crimes.Not only would it create criminals where no criminal intent existed, but the cost to manage the volume of temporary transfers, the staffing needed to take the calls and do the checks would have cost millions each year. All money that would not go toward actually dealing with criminals.When the issue was brought up, many members of Congress agreed the requirements were too restrictive and the whole bill failed to pass. The supporters of the bill did not even attempt to listen to the complaints and work out a manageable fix.Did you hear any of that in the media?But what about catching criminals?Well, the bill didn’t change anything in regards to enforcing the rules to make sure the people who should not own guns were properly entered into NICS. In fact, other than maybe getting fired, there is NO PENALTY for failing to report a person. We have laws that will jail a teacher or coach that fail to report bullies. We have laws that put priests in prison who fail to report potential inappropriate behaviors in other clergy. But we do not have any laws that punish law enforcement agents that fail to do their job and make sure that dangerous people are reported to the background system. And this bill made no effort to change that.NICS is not open to anyone but federally licensed gun dealers. The left are so worried that the system might be used to check people for things other than guns that they refuse to create a means to allow people to verify someone they are selling a gun to. It would be easy to create an app that takes a photo of the buyer and seller’s ID (or just their faces and type in some data) and then return a simple “Proceed” or “Deny” with no other details. You’d have plenty of information to audit for illegal use. And if someone didn’t have an ID, they could then use a dealer. Heck, you can’t file taxes on-line without submitting some kind of ID, so this isn’t anything unique.And yet, the bill did nothing to address the issue of accessing the NICS for easier private sales.Here is the thing. We have 20,000 gun laws in this country. On the federal side, a prohibited person touching a gun could see them in prison for a minimum of 5 years. And yet, we still see cities with high violent crime rates that have virtually no federal cases. Why isn’t law enforcement using those stiff federal laws to get the violent people off the streets? Such a program called “Project Exile” worked wonders in Richmond, VA to reduce violent crime dramatically.OK, back to the “Universal Background Check” bill.I spent a lot of words above explaining what the bill would have required of people and why the situation would have been a nightmare. You never saw any of this in the news and the media pretty much ignored the issue.When the bill was defeated, it was never reported that a “terrible bill that would have cost millions and made criminals out of the innocent was defeated”, instead, all you ever heard was“The NRA used its influence to defeat the Universal Background Check bill that would have closed the gunshow loophole”Almost everything about that statement is false.So, be careful what you want to “Fight Against”. I suspect that most of what you think about the NRA is highly biased due to the way the organization is treated in the media. When you look at the actual facts, many times their concerns are quite valid. And, they have a lot of rank and file law enforcement on their side which helps them represent real world situations. I’ve found their positions in many cases very well presented. Most of the arguments you get on TV news are highly edited and taken out of context to promote an agenda, not facilitate a debate.Make sure you know what you are fighting for. You might be surprised.

There have been many arguments both for and against the World Culture Festival 2016 being conducted on the Yamuna plains. The National Green Tribunal alleges that the event has destroyed the river and the environment.Let us go through a detailed analysis of the various important claims put out by the National Green Tribunal’s (to be referred as NGT hereafter) Expert Committee alleging damage to the Yamuna Floodplains post the World Culture Festival, 2016 conducted by the Art of Living Foundation.I would like to present before the readers a statistically unbiased and scientifically backed representation of this case which is currently sub-judice.Land Description:Before we go further, it is essential that we first geographically define the area over which the World Culture Festival was conducted (From 11th March –13th March 2016)The land parcel is a finite piece of land over the Yamuna floodplain bound by the DND Flyover to its South; Barapulla Drain to its North;River Yamuna to its East and Ring Road to its West.Area ~ 25 hectaresCan be located on WGS (World Geodetic System) 84 coordinates 24 deg 34’55’’N and 77 deg 16’43’’EHere is the detailed image categorically bifurcating the various land sites w.r.t it’s usage for the event(Source: Google Earth, 15th of March ,2016)2. It is very essential to draw the following conclusions from the above satellite images:3-Permanently ramps existed since 2008 (Having bituminous pavement,with potholes and degenerating bituminous overlay).7-Area marked by the purple region previously had mounts of construction waste (malba) solid waste,which has been cleared for the WCF 2016 event by the Art of Living foundation at its own expense.8-Unpaved earthen road running parallel to the Barapullah drain,which is in existence at least since the year 2000,used for vehicles and earth-movers engaged in drain cleaning and slit removal in this section of Barapullah drain.The temporary installations and the make-shift stage are also clearly visible from the satellite imagery.Fig 1:Permanent Ramp 1 having bituminous pavement existed at least since Jan 2008Fig 2:Permanent Ramp 2 having bituminous pavement existed at least since Jan 2008Now, let us go and categorically visit each claim made by the NGTClaim 1: No permission sought from the NGT by the Art of Living Foundation before the eventFacts:The entire site belongs to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA)Firstly,the NGT is a court,a tribunal and an autonomous institute, not a government agency to give permissions.Here is the official permission letter sought by the Art of Living (Vyakti Vikas Kendra India-Trust of the foundation) to use the land site for the event and it no where states that prior permission from the NGT needs to be sought.As you can see, the permission letter is approved by the Honorable L.G. of Delhi and duly signed by the Office of the Chief Engineer (E.P.)Mr.D.P.Singh of the DDA on 15th of December 2015.Apart from this, the Art of Living organization had taken permission from 20 various organizations and competent authorities (Government Bodies)The entire list of the government bodies is elucidated below:Central Public Works DepartmentDelhi Development AuthorityDelhi Fire ServiceDelhi Jal BoardDelhi PoliceDelhi Pollution Control CommitteeDelhi Traffic PoliceDepartment of Irrigation and Flood ControlDistrict Disaster Management AuthorityEast Delhi Municipal CorporationIndian ArmyIrrigation DepartmentMinistry of Environment and ForestsMinistry of External AffairsMinistry of Home AffairsNew Okhla Industrial Development AuthorityPublic Works Department-DelhiPublic Works Department-UPSouth Delhi Municipal CorporationUttar Pradesh Government2. Claim 2: Alleging the presence of wetlands on the eventFacts:To understand this point, we need to first comprehend the difference between a wetland and a floodplain.According to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands ,signed in 1971 (Iran) wetlands are defined as: "areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six metres"(The Convention on Wetlands, called the Ramsar Convention, is an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. Number of Contracting Parties: 169)There are currently 26 Ramar sites in India which are enlisted below:Ashtamudi Wetland,KeralaBhoj Wetland,Madhya ParadeshChandertal Wetland,Himachal PradeshChilika Lake,OrissaDeepor Beel,AssamEast Calcutta Wetlands,West BengalHarike Lake,PunjabHokera Wetland,Jammu and KashmirKanjili,PunjabKeoladeo National Park,RajasthanKolleru Lake,Andhra PradeshLoktak Lake,ManipurNalsarovar,GujaratPoint Calimere Wildlife and Bird Santuary,Tamil NaduPong Dam Lake,Himachal PradeshRenuka Wetland,Himachal PradeshRopar,PunjabRudrasagar Lake,West Tripura DistrictSambhar Lake,RajasthanSasthamkotta Lake,KeralaSurinsar-Mansar Lake,Jammu and KashmirTsomoriri,Jammu and KashmirUpper Ganga River,Uttar PradeshVembanad-Kol Wetland,KeralaWular Lake,Jammu and KashmirBhitarkanika Mangroves,OrissaSo, according to the Ramsar sites (India being a signatory of the Ramsar convention) , the World Culture Festival venue does not come under the wetland category.Wetlands come under Ecologically Sensitive Zones are are protected areas by the government.Now,let us analyse the land area with respect to the Survey of India (The Survey of India is India's central engineering agency in charge of mapping and surveying) mapsHere is the Annexure -1B Portion of 1:25000 Scale Detailed Map of Delhi, published by the Survey of India in the year 1985,Under the direction of Major General Girish Chandra Aggarwal, Surveyor General of India; Titled-’Delhi Guide Map,Third Edition 1985′The map clearly depicts the WCF 2016 event site as an extremely flat “Point Bar” (floodplain deposit) without existence of any wetland or enclosed waterbody. The flatness of this land parcel is to the extent that contour indicating difference in height of the order of 100cm is also non-existent throughout the area.Another important point for record in this map is the existence of natural path of ‘Kushak River – Barapullah Drain’ prior to straightening of its channel traversing straight into River Yamuna and filling of its original channel. The map also depicts the situation prior to construction of Guide Bank and DND Flyway.Looking at the National Wetland Atlas (Published in March 2011 by the Space Application Centre,ISRO,Ahmedabad),it fails to indentify a single wetland on the event site.According to the National Geographic Society, floodplains are defined as “A flood plain (or floodplain) is a generally flat area of land next to a river or stream. It stretches from the banks of the river to the outer edges of the valley”A Floodplain does not require jurisdictions of the environmental authorities that a wetland does.Floodplains have a rich history of interacting with the society for civilizations to flourish.The first great civilizations all grew up in river valleys. The oldest, 3300 to 2500 BCE, was along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Middle East; the name given to that civilization, Mesopotamia, means "land between the rivers". The Nile valley in Egypt had been home to agricultural settlements as early as 5500 BCE, but the growth of Egypt as a civilization began around 3100 BCE. A third civilization grew up along the Indus River around 2600 BCE, in parts of what are now India and Pakistan. The fourth great river civilization emerged around 1700 BCE along the Yellow River in China, also known as the Huang-He River Civilization.Many towns have been built across floodplains because of easy access to fresh water,the fertility of floodplain land for farming,cheap transportation, via rivers and railroads, which often followed rivers and ease of development of flat land.Large cultural and religious gatherings taking place on various floodplains across India like the Kumbh Mela and the Maramon Convention.The World Culture Festival venue was thus a floodplain and not a wetland as claimed by the Expert Committee of the NGT.3. Claim 3: Destroying the natural flow of the river YamunaFacts:A comparison of river morphology has been conducted on satellite images for the period between 22nd of December 2000 till 10th of May 2016.Fluvial Geo-morphology of the river (i.e. land form related to the river) and its floodplain (over which the event was organized) indicates continuity of a pattern in channel dimension, sedimentation,bank deposition,bank erosion and flow of the river.On a careful examinations of images between 26th August 2015(month of monsoon in Delhi) to 10th May 2016(Pre-Monsoon Dry Summer Season) no abnormality in the pattern of flow;channel dimension;riverbed;or morphology of both the banks has been noticed.Further,examination by ground verification in a series of field studies found no scientific acceptance of the above mentioned claim by the NGTHere are the satellite images taken that show the continuity of pattern of the river flow:Pic 1: 26th August 2015 (Post-monsoon)Pic 2: 29th October 2015 (Post-monsoon)Pic 3: 23rd November 2015 (Post-monsoon)Pic 4: 15th of December 2015 (Post-monsoon)Pic 5: 27th of February 2016 (Preparation for the event in progress;stage scaffoldings under construction)Pic 6: 15th of March 2016 (Post WCF, Pre-Monsoon)Pic 7: 25th of May 2016 (Depicting the entire area utilized by the World Culture Festival 2016,now evacuated,cleared and all the temporary installations removed)And as I write this answer now (13 th of May 2017, 15:39 hr), I have taken the snapshots from Google Earth of the venue and it is as it was before the event.The above images tell us that there is no change whatsoever in the natural river course of the Yamuna. This again proves the Expert Committee’s claims as false and unscientific.Selection Bias by the Expert Committee members?In the report,the expert committee have replied upon a singular satellite image for the event as opposed to a larger sample size covering pre-monsoon and post monsoon images for 15–20 years despite its availability to the public on Google Earth.The Expert Committee compared the satellite images of the venue dated 5th of Sept 2015 (Peak monsoon season) with that of a mid summer picture of March 2016, post the event (Summer pre-monsoon)It doesn’t take an Einstein to realize that such a comparison cannot be done in the first place.The Expert Committee is basically trying to attribute the negative effect of the lack of rain to the World Culture Festival !4. Claim 4: Destroying the reeds,grasses,natural vegetation on the river bed and the venueFacts:High pollution in the River Yamuna has led to a situation where dissolved oxygen tends to zero (often less than 1), high load of suspended particulate matter, high turbidity almost blocks the sunlight penetration in the water within few centimeters of vertical depth etc.All of the above factors collectively create a situation where no macro flora could grow or anchored within the riverbed of the Yamuna.Reeds and grasses could only grow beyond the riverbed in the riparian zone of the floodplain.The images of the last 15 years,indicate that the floodplain around the venue had some strips and patches of reeds. Those patches have been compared with the images after the event and on a comparison of images, no change in area covered by reeds has been observed.Riparian reeds along the Barapullah drain and small patches behind and in front of the guide bank (near the bridge of DND flyway) are unaltered before , during and the period post the event.Also the number of trees before and after the event were counted using high risk satellite images and they were found to be the same.Pic 1: Regrowth of grasses on over the location where once the stage was raised (17th of April 2016)Pic 2: State of grasses on the event venue (17th of April 2016)Pic 3: Undisturbed riparian reeds along the abandoned channel in front of the Guide Bank (17th of April 2016)Pic 4: Undisturbed riparian reeds along the Barapullah Drain (17th of April 2016)Also, another important to note that the Expert Committee of the NGT accused the Art of Living Foundation for bringing in and dumping the malba (construction debris) and flattening the malba thereby destroying the flood plain.Firstly, as shown by the satellite images of the land parcel furnished earlier, the purple area indicates the unsolicited construction debris that existed since the year 2000.Trucks were seen emptying tonnes of malba on a daily basis when the Art of Living began preparation for the event (circa December 2015)Once the land was allotted to the foundation, the Art of Living sent out a letter the the DDA citing these concerns about the existing construction dump.To which, the DDA didn’t remove the debris whereas told the Art of Living Foundation to remove the malba at its own cost !Here, is the invoice of the contractor ,who was given the duty to remove the debris from the venue site ,under the instructions the Art of Living Foundation (Cost borne by the Art of Living Foundation !)This is how the site appeared before the event:So, why did the NGT falsely accuse the foundation wherein no cementing/foundation work of any sort was undertaken for the event?5. Claim 5: Disturbed the aquatic life of the riverFacts:The river Yamuna (Delhi stretch) is nearly devoid of fish species due to extremely low level ( ~0) dissolved oxygen in the river water.Let us analyze the water quality of the river Yamuna first.Referring to the “Water Quality Status of Yamuna River” report by the Central Pollution and Control Board (erstwhile Ministry of Environment and Forests,Government of India),here is the longitudinal profile of the dissolved oxygen.(Report foreword by V. Rajagopalan, Chairman-CPCB)(Notice the graph points near Nizamuddin Bridge ,Agra Canal)The report goes out further to state that“ In Yamuna River low BOD and low DO was observed more oftenly may be due to consumption of oxygen by settled sludge in the riverbed.”(Ref 3.13, page No.42)Other key notations from the report are listed below:“The sources contributing pollution are both point & non-point type. Urban agglomeration at NCT – Delhi is the major contributor of pollution in the Yamuna River followed by Agra and Mathura. About 85% of the total pollution in the river is contributed by domestic sources. The condition of river deteriorate further due to abstraction of signNow amount of river water, leaving almost no fresh water in the river, which is essential to maintain the assimilation capacity of the river.”“In the critically, polluted stretch of Yamuna river from Delhi to Chambal confluence, there was signNow fluctuations in dissolved oxygen level from Nil to well above saturation level. This reflects presence of organic pollution load and persistence of eutrophic conditions in the river.”“Bacteriological contamination is signNowly high in the entire Yamuna River stretch. Total Coliforms are generally well above the prescribed water quality standard even sometimes at Yamunotri also. The microbiological analysis confirms that the bacteriological contamination was predominantly contributed by human beings.”Here are the longitudinal profiles of the Total and Faecal Coliforms in Yamuna River :Not to forget the drains opening up in the Delhi stretch.“Najafgarh drain of NCT – Delhi is the biggest polluter of River Yamuna, which contributes about 26% (year 2001) to 33% 22 (year 2000) of total BOD load and 48% (year 2003) to 52% (year 2001) of total discharge that joins Yamuna river and canal at Delhi by various drains. There are 70 sub drains that join main Najafgarh Drain. The study indicated that the total BOD load received by Najafgarh Drain through sub-drains was 136 TPD, whereas the BOD load at the terminal end of the Najafgarh Drain was 83 TPD only. This reduction may be contributed by biodegradation, deposition of setllable material at the bottom and diversion of drain water for irrigation etc”.“ River Yamuna receives signNowly high amount of organic matter, which is generally, originates from domestic sources. For biodegradation, this organic waste requires oxygen, causing signNow depletion of dissolved oxygen in river water. The oxygen depletion not only affects biotic community of the river but also affects its self-purification capacity. This problem is critical in the river stretch between Delhi and confluences of river with Chambal. In Delhi stretch, the load of organic matter is so high that it consumes the entire dissolved oxygen available in river water.”Presenting another latest report by the Central Pollution Control Board titled “Water quality status of in Delhi stretch of Yamuna River”Exhibit 1: Water quality of river Yamuna river in terms of Dissolved Oxygen (DO)The above graph clearly shows that the standard DO should be~4–5 whereas near the Nizamuddin bridge and Okhla region it below 1.Exhibit 2: Water quality of river Yamuna in terms of Total ColiformThe report also throws light on the discharge of various drains in the river Yamuna.“There are twenty one major wastewater drains in NCT-Delhi, out of which 18 drains join Yamuna River and rest joins Agra/Gurgaon canal.All the drains join Yamuna River downstream of Wazirabad barrage.These drains are being monitored regularly on monthly basis.The range of total BOD Load of 18 drains join Yamuna river was 105 TPD (August, 2015) to 229 TPD (January, 2016).Total discharge of these drains was varied from 29 m3/s (May, 2016 to 43 m3/s (August, 2014).The collective average of these drains for the year 2015 and 2016 in terms of discharge was about 34.8 m3/s and 34.3 m3/s respectively whereas, BOD load average for these two years was 164 Tons/day (TPD) and 178 Tons/day respectively.Based on the Discharge and BOD load of 18 drains Najafgarh drain was the biggest polluter of Yamuna River followed by Shahdara drain. These two drains alone contributes about 74% of total Bod load and 82% of total discharge of the 18 major drains that join Yamuna river at Delhi.”Exhibit 3: Discharge of major drains joins Yamuna River at DelhiLastly, I wish to produce a report titled “ Restoration and Conservation of River Yamuna” authored by the NGT Expert Committee members itself in the year 2012–13(Authors Prof. C.R.Babu, Prof.A.K.Gosain, Prof.Brij Gopal-All being expert members of the NGT)The report categorically states that“the loss of life supporting potential of the river is the major concern to the public, the Government and the courts”“the flowing water, the river bed, the floodplain forest and grassland ecosystems are locally extinct”Here is a snapshot of the same :The report also states that:“The Delhi urban stretch of 22 km in the downstream of Wazirabad barrage upto Okhla barrage (Section III) is critically polluted and dry weather flow is almost the treated and untreated sewage from 22 drains and the fresh water flow from upstream or lateral connection and it is perhaps one of the most polluted river stretches in the country with zero DO and over 30 mg/l BOD levels”Whereas, the same committee members in its final report slamming the Art of Living state the following:How could the World Culture Festival destroy something that according to the same committee members didn’t even exist in the first place.Why is the Art of Living blamed selectively for the pollution of the river Yamuna over the past decades?Isn’t this nothing but sheer hypocrisy?From the above data, following points to be noted:Yamuna river (Delhi stretch)is a dead river with almost zero dissolved oxygen, high amounts of pollutants and no fresh water. How can aquatic life survive under these chemically harsh conditions?The discharge of major drains in the Delhi stretch of the river along with industrial effluents and the pollution levels of Yamuna is alarming.Why does the NGT put the blame on the Art of Living Foundation which has done zero damage to the floodplains and the river?What has NGT done to curb the industrial and human pollution which are harming the river Yamuna?There is a strong judgmental bias in the current NGT report Vs the Art of Living and Others6. Claim 6: Alleging compaction and leveling of the floodplainFacts:Before going to analyse the charges of compaction, it is quintessential that we first define the nature of the land where the event was conducted.According to the report “Environmental flow for monsoon rivers in India-The Yamuna river as a case study”, the Yamuna floodplains has alluvial sandy soil (Reference: Rao, S.V.N., Kumar, S., Shekhar, S., Sinha, S.K. & Manju, S. 2007. Optimal pumping from Skimming Wells from the Yamuna river flood plain in north India. Hydrogeology Journal 15: 1157-1167)According to one of the Expert Committee member-Prof.A.K.Gosain’s earlier published research paper titled- “A new scheme for large-scale natural water storage in the floodplains: the Delhi Yamuna floodplains as a case study”, the author says “the river has been bringing sand from the mountains and depositing it along its basin, forming the floodplains. This accumulated sandy layer exists to an average of depth of 40 m”The report earlier furnished in claim 5 by the expert committee members itself (Can be found here) states that the floodplain near the river Yamuna has “sand and gravel”.Hence, it is a well established fact that the floodplain has sandy soil ! So, can sandy soil be compacted ?Now,given the above data, let us go through some scientific studies about sand compaction and verify the allegations by the NGT.For a confirmatory statement on the extent and exact reason of consolidation and/ or compaction in qualitative and quantitative terms, laboratory test of undisturbed soil samples from the land parcel will be required.By comparing the current soil density with the previous records of soil density over the land parcel,the difference could be worked out.But conducting such a test of unconfined sand/sandy soil appears almost impossible due to the established principles of soil mechanics.Referring to the established principles of soil mechanics and geo-technical engineering from the widely accepted and used textbook for soil mechanics by Prof.V.N.S.Murthy tiled “A Text Book of Soil Mechanics & Foundation Engineering” let us go through the pressure-void ratio curves of sandIn the above curve, it is clearly evident that “ more than 90 % of the compression has taken place within a period of less than 2 minutes. The time lag is largely frictional. The compression is about the same whether the sand is dry or saturated”.“The amount of compression even under high load intensity is not quite signNow as can be seen from the curves.”It is obvious that the natural consolidation of this land parcel would have taken place in the geological past immediately after the deposition with some movement of animals and humans over it.It appears from the final report that the expert committee didn’t conduct any geo-technical analysis and not a single report was attached as an annexure to their claim.Verbally saying that they went there and saw the top soil layer become a thick crust is not evidence. There are tests that are legally permitted in the courts of law which the expert committee doesn’t seem to have done.The WCF area occupied ~ 25 hectares of land out of the total 9300 hectares of the floodplain (Approximately 0.26 %)So to exert the high pressure for land compaction it would require numerous heavy weight rollers (which apparently weren’t used by the organizers).Furthermore, the curve for dense sand in ‘Void ratio v/s pressure in kg/sq.cm’ indicates that dense sand (as deposited by the Yamuna and Ganga) does not show noticeable changes with increase in pressure.It is an undeniable fact that this land parcel has been under agricultural practices since decades (if not centuries).Agricultural practices; tilling (harrowing); movement of farms equipment and agricultural machinery; movement of dumpers for unabated dumping of construction waste for years and then the movement for trucks and dumpers for removal of the same has already shaped the consolidation and /or compaction of this land parcel ages before the event of the World Culture Festival 2016 was organized.Moreover, it is important to note that the entire stage for the event was supported by a series of iron scaffolding with raft footing (shown in the figure below)An Engineering Marvel ?Nothing was anchored in the natural stratum to hold the stage, overall the stage had a floating foundation. Can’t believe? have a look at this :Pics: The stage was made of thousands of such scaffolding rods in lattice structure spread across 7.5 acre (stage area)Pic: Scaffolding structure (showing the highest level) used for construction of the stage ; photographed during the removal of the stage.Pic: Steel plate rod used for distribution of the load, without any anchorage in the ground; photographed during the removal of the stage.The stage had negligible impact on the ground. Overall the stage was a floating stage and the impact of a floating stage on sandy soil is insignNow. For the record, no cement foundation was done as can be seen from the pictures.Trivia: The physics behind this stage bears a strong visual analogy with a yogi sleeping on a bed of nails. As a matter of fact, this ancient technique used by hathayogis in India has been a source of inspiration for the design of this stage !Pic: The concept of “Yogi Nail Bed” used as an inspiration for the WCF stage is based on the principle of uniform distribution of weight over a large surface area, therefore the overall impact is extremely low or negligible.Finally, the only court permissible test to determine compaction of soil is the CBR Test (California Bearing Ratio Test). It involves taking soil samples before and after the event and then applying the test. Since the expert committee did not collect any soil samples before and after the event to come up with the alleged 13 cr damage,the Art of Living Foundation themselves requested the NGT to conduct the CBR test at the venue, and the application was duly rejected !Here is the permission letter made by the Art of Living Foundation to the NGT (which was disposed off by the NGT !)The Chairman of the Expert Committee of the NGT Mrs.Shashi Shekhar (IAS) (Ministry of Water Resouces, Govt. of India)even goes out to the extent of saying the compensation of 120 cr put forth on the Art of Living foundation as ad-hoc and unscientific and not based on any scientific assessments. The Chairman does not even endorse the compensation.Also, it is important to see whether the NGT conducted any scientific studies before quantifying the damage if any ?It would be very astounding for the reader to realize that no such thing was done. Only a mere “visual inspection” was conducted by the Expert Committee members of the NGT at the venue on the 6th of June 2016(Singular visit).And no scientific evidence and data samples have been provided by the NGT Expert Committee in the Court of Law.That’s like going to a doctor who after just glancing at your direction hands you a list of ailments he assesses that you suffer from and proceeds to slap you with a fat bill for your future treatments !It is surprising to believe that the Chairman of the Expert Committee Mr.Shashi Shekhar has distanced himself from the committee’s recommendations. The Chairman’s signature is also missing from the final report. And only 4 out the 7 Expert Committee members have signed the final report !7. Claim 7: Going from ecological “restoration” to ecological “rehabilitation” of the floodplainFacts:Throughout the first report, the Expert Committee members of the NGT have used the term “restoration” and in the final report they use the word “rehablitation”Why the sudden switch?Because, the NGT Expert Committee cannot prove any damage that was done to the floodplain and the environment by the event.In their final report this is what they state:It is not possible for the ‘Expert Committee’ to assess the ecological status of the site before and after the event? This was their primary job in the first place !Also, the committee points out that it is extremely difficult to assess the costs of environment damage and degradation accurately because“it requires substantial time, human and other resources to collect detailed quantitative information on the nature, extend and magnitude of various activities listed earlier for restoration”That’s a clever way of saying that they cannot prove the damage quantitatively and qualitatively and hence the question of restoration is redundant.They also go on to state that “estimation of the costs of restoration requires the preparation of a Detailed Project Report that may take several months to a year besides financial resources.”Who can buy that argument? Why was the Expert Panel commissioned in the first place?Moreover, the Expert Committee states that it has now decided to “REHABILITATE THE IMPACTED SITE”.The NGT’s proposed plan includes creating a bio diversity park, two large water bodies, three tier planting of vegetation,and establishing new sewage treatment plants,etcLet’s put things into perspective, firstly, the Committee says that it cannot prove any damage scientifically. Consequently they cannot assign costs to restore damage. Hence, they wish to switch the narrative from being a “restoration cost” to “rehabilitation cost”. And moreover, they wish to build a utopian biodiversity park for which the Art of Living should bear the cost ! (Slow claps !) Wait, I am not yet done !In order to build this dream park, the Expert Committee has submitted a ‘Budget’ for building this park. The budget lists ‘Salaries and Consultancies’ as a cost component to monitor and supervise the construction. This cost component totals up to 7 CRORE RUPEES ! Here is their estimations !That’s not all friends. The NGT Expert Committee even goes on record to state that “rehabilitation” will take a period of 10 years and the expert committee members have nominated themselves to undertake this project as “Consultants”(Indeed a very sly way of pocketing the 7 crore!)In the final analysis,the expert committee members in their final report state that they are unable to differentiate the activities required to restore the floodplain and the activities to undo the alleged damage due to the event. That is a very clever way of saying that they cannot differentiate the damage done to the floodplain before the event and the damage done by the event.As this article says,“The Art of Living case will go down as a test for environment activism in the country. The nation expects the NGT will gather enough courage to call the bluff of the committee and go by the merits of the case”.References:http://delhi.gov.in/wps/wcm/conn...https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/pape...http://www.cpcb.nic.in/newitems/...Delhi Development AuthorityTextbook of Soil Mechanics and Foundation EngineeringGoogle Earth – Google EarthNational Green TribunalHomepage | Ramsarflood plainCentral Pollution Control Board :::https://www.artofliving.org/in-e...http://www.who.int/water_sanitat...Will NGT call the Yamuna expert panel's bluff?Written by:Soham D’SouzaBachelors in Chemical Technology-Institute of Chemical Technology (former UDCT) , MumbaiMumbai

I was in this position two years ago.Investing $3,000 in a traditional asset like stocks, bonds, funds, etc, is hardly a worthwhile effort.  Even if you double your money over the course of a year, you've impacted your net worth by only an additional $3,000.  Most likely, you'll get something close to the historical average of a 10-12% return on your investment, and earn perhaps $300.  What the heck is the point in studying traditional investments for that type of reward?Instead, focus your time on increasing cashflow by reducing your personal spending and your lifestyle expenses.Here are some far better "investments" that a 23 year old can make, that I made, and that have paid off handsomely for me:1) Invest in cooking equipment and begin making all your own meals.  This $300 investment saved me $75 per week, annualized to $3,900.  That's a pretty incredible return.  Plus you eat much more healthy food..2) Invest in a good bicycle for perhaps $250 and use that to replace your car over the next 6 months.  You can do this by moving closer to work, taking a new job closer to home, or combining the two.  Driving 10 miles each way to work costs $10 per day (20 miles round trip * $0.50 per mile).  Annual savings are $2,600, more if you embrace biking and use it for things outside of your commute as well.At the end of your first year, you have saved an extra $6,500 just with these two "investments".  That's all after-tax, immediately available, cash. Coupled with any additional savings, you should be able to purchase a first property.  If you purchase it intelligently, and rent out the extra space, you should be able to have tenants pay for your cost of housing.  Congratulations, at the tend of a year, you've tripled your money, eat better, transport yourself in a sustainable and healthy manner, and live for free.These "investments" are far, far more powerful than wasting time learning about stocks and will allow you to sock away far, far more money each month and year to apply to future investments.  If and when you get to $50,000 or $100,000 in net worth, investing in stocks begins to make sense, and your time should be spent focusing on pursuing the investment avenues that appeal most to you.

Hi there!I stumbled across this question and thought I add a few things to this topic since I can totally relate to it!I was literately skinny fat! Here’s my first pic, taken in January 2015:And yes, you wouldn’t believe it but my body fat % was 16%! And my visceral fat level was 7! Even though I weighed only 71kg here! So I was skinny fat - and that as a health professional! I knew I wasn’t doing what I was psignNowing and I couldn’t stand anymore what and who I was seeing in the mirror!The most embarrassing fact is, that I had known about this for years and years and years and I never ever had done anything for it.Now, here were my three problems:underweightbody fat % too high, means too much belly fatvisceral fat levels too highAnd then on January 15, 2015 I said to myself ‘F… this, I had enough now’ and my goal was not only to put weight ON but at the same time get rid off this stupid BELLY FAT!Now this photo shows me with 8.8% of BELLY FAT and the visceral fat level was 3!WHY IS IT SO HARD TO LOSE BELLY FATWell, it is actually not that hard, if we know what, why and how to do it! Back at school I was a pretty slow learner. Especially in maths and physiques… It would took me a long time to finally understand even simple things. And of course I always said, maths and physiques are hard subjects for me.BUT once I finally understood it, it was rather easy actually!Same for losing belly fat etc. as well and let me explain a bit more about it!HOW THE HECK DID I DO THISI finally followed what I was psignNowing and this is what I did!Right Amount of Protein and WaterYes, sure, macros are protein, carbs and fat and you need the right amount of micros as well. Usually though, people have too much carbs but way too less protein and water!But to make sure that our metabolism can do what it is supposed to do, we need to fuel it correctly! Like putting the RIGHT fuel in our car! We need enough protein and enough water to get there! Otherwise it’ll slow down and not burn fat!How much is enough though! Studies and research suggest that for female 1–1.5g/lbs of body weight of protein is sufficient. Of course if you are a female who is into bodybuilding and/or competing it is different!For men it is between 2–2.5g/lbs of body weight! Here as well - if you’re a bodybuilder etc. it is different.In regards to water:You need to have 1l of water per 25kg of body weight. PLUS another liter when you workout and another liter when it’s hot and you’re sweating a lot. I have about 6 liters per day and it took me some time to get there - especially as I don’t like warm water and I don’t like plain water haha I know I am picky ;) That’s the reason why my fridge looks like that:I have my water then with my BCAAs ;)Now it can and will be a challenge to pimp the water intake and a quickly to adopt strategy is that you have one glass of water right when you WAKE UP (NOT when you get up!). And from that point on, you have one glass of water every 30 minutes. A glass usually comes with 250–300mls so it is at least 500mls you get per hour. Over 8 hours it is 4 liters. You see, it is actually really easy.Well, on a side note - yes, the restroom is going to be your best friend ;)So now to the number topic!Knowing my numbersFirst of all you need to know your numbers. Means, only if you know how many calories your body needs to maintain(!!) its weight, then you know how much to eat to either maintain the weight, lose a bit or gain a bit. If you don’t know the numbers then it’s like driving a car without a fuel gauge. How much fuel is left? How far can I get? When do I need to refuel? What fuel do I need? So, if anyone tells you, you don’t need to know your numbers, then just run far, far away from this person!To find out your own numbers, I have hyperlinked the whole line here to my free macro calculator. Just click here!Only when you know your numbers, you can, for example, lose fat safely, effectively and you won’t bounce back up! And I am sure, you know a lot of people who lost fat and then put it all back on again! Two reasons - not knowing the numbers and not knowing what to it!MyFitnessPalA great app and download the free version of it! No need for the paid one! Put the goal numbers in and from that moment on, you track everything you eat and drink!Exercise RegimeWhen you want to lose fat effectively it needs to weight based training. But I also squeezed in 3 HIIT sessions per week right after my weight training. These HIIT sessions didn’t last more than 30 minutes, in fact, mostly 20 minutes.Your MindsetLook, if your mindset is not in the right space then not much is going to happen! You need to know your WHY and you need to be emotionally attached to that. Why emotionally? Because we are just humans and we tend to fall of the wagon at some stage - but when our WHY is deep and makes us emotional then that is a huge thing to hop back on the wagon!Hope that helps and you got value out of it. If so, please help me spread the message and share and upvote it. Any further questions, just send me DM here after following me here, ok?Have a great dayPatrick

Well it's nice to see that a conservative voice is being represented on Quora (not being sarcastic), but this is getting a little out of control.CNN is by no means an unbiased professional news organization, but people are seriously kidding themselves if they think they've ever really been seen as such in the past decade or so. The Daily Show mocked them endlessly under Jon Stewart for their inane coverage of nonsensical bullshit and hilarious technical blunders. CNN has and always will be a capitalist organization, and they've found a niche that they can exploit, I have zero problems with that. For breaking news they're actually a decent outlet, but they should be viewed in tandem with multiple others that come from different biases.For an understanding of why this is true we need to go back a bit. The advent of the internet more or less threw a wrench into every service industry. News now had competition from any random yahoo (no pun intended) who opened a blog. Eventually these yahoo's starting gaining followings that rivaled their own, something needed to change.For truly professional news organizations (and a few still exist) change was somewhat simple, they could move online and more or less continue their business, but, fringe outlets (professionalism wise) either died or made a radical shift. It was determined that the existence of multiple outlets made the "one stop shop" concept for news that existed in the mid century obsolete. People could find their biases anywhere, and actively searched them out. If these outlets were going to survive they were going to need to cater to their "true base", and ultimately draw viewers in and keep their eyes. You do this by finding a narrative and sticking with it.The key is mixing in some professionalism with the partisanship, otherwise you end up like an MSNBC. CNN still has people like Fareed Zakaria and Anderson Cooper, FoxNews still has Charles Krauthammer and Chris Wallace (just some random examples for both, there are plenty more). On the other hand CNN has Don Lemon and Fox has Hannity, the former of which is probably the most inept on TV and the latter being quite possible the dumbest person to ever host a news show. You use these outlets for what they can offer and toss out the rest. I personally think CNN and Fox are both obviously biased, but they are a decent finger on the pulse of breaking news with a particular spin. We have so so so goddamn much news at our fingertips nowadays that frankly anyone who says they are somehow being denied anything, or that people are being purposely swayed to one direction, is pushing their own narrative. They're just telling you to "look over here" and see the "real" news. We create our own narratives nowadays, its just a matter of whether you're willing to do the work to craft one that takes both sides into consideration.The fastest way to figure out if someone is full of shit is listening to their opinions on news outlets. If they're the kind of person who uses terms like "fake news" (and this goes for the left too, let's not forget that WaPo really coined the damn term), you can pretty much assume that they're searching for their own confirmation, not really trying to learn anything. I like to call this "informational masturbation", you just want to get to the good stuff, not do the work to actually find something meaningful. Trust me when I say I fucking hate reading Breitbart every morning, but I do it because their "bias" represents a large portion of the country.Honestly if you're ignoring a media outlet because you think they're biased I'd respond with don't be so goddamn naïve. This goes for liberals just as much if not more than conservatives, but an opinion doesn't disappear because you want it to. If a large portion of the country feels a certain way you damn well better figure out why.tl;dr CNN serves a purpose, "fake news" is bullshit, all news is biased, mix them all together and make your own opinion without falling into the trap of confirmation bias.

It’s Mauritania, 151st largest economy by GDP measured in market exchange rate. (answer updated, see below)Going through the list of countries ordered by GDP and checking for their presence in the list of free-trade agreements (both multilateral and bilateral) Mauritania seems to be the largest WTO member with no other trade agreement in place.Note that Nigeria (27th largest) does not qualify because they are part of a regional trade agreement not listed in Wikipedia (WTO link here). Also, Iran (29th) does not count as it is not a WTO member yet.UK will probably soon dislodge Mauritania from this league table.For what it’s worth, I think the Leave leaders talking about the superiority of WTO terms of trade over a deal with EU (at a cost) may not be the most clued in people on this topic.They are undoubtedly high achievers, educated in classics, English, medicine etc and had long successful careers in journalism, medicine and British armed forces before turning to politics. But they are not exactly international business experts, except for one with keen interest in fisheries (unfortunately less than 0.6% of British economy at the moment)Listening to the UK businessmen who actually sell things abroad, there are very, very few clamoring for trading on WTO terms alone.The ones who are cheering for WTO, either sell in UK exclusively (for example, Tim Martin of Weatherspoon, a pub chain) or those who have shifted all their supply chain out of UK (James Dyson of Dyson with entire manufacturing shifted to Malayasia and Singapore fifteen years ago).UK based businesses in sectors with signNowly large comparative advantage over the world and who actually sell abroad, prefer a deal before UK leaves the common market and a transition period of up to ten years[1] or already moving some operations out of UK [2] anticipating that the Leave experts in international business will prevail.Reason why “no deal” and WTO will be immensely disruptive for UK businesses (with exposure to international trade) was summarized in a JP Morgan market research article early this year.It’s well worth a full read (here - Brexit: No deal is still not credible)We have sought to explain previously why we do not believe the ‘no deal’ option is a credible one for the UK (see Brexit: Beyond “deal or no deal”, 20 January 2017). The key to this is to understand that UK-based activity has adapted to the framework for trade facilitation that the EU has provided, and that the sudden removal of that framework without provision of a functioning replacement would be enormously disruptive to activity in the short run. It is extremely difficult to put numbers on this effect because, as we explain below, there are no meaningful precedents for such an abrupt change. Our expectation is that, as time passes and greater numbers of UK-based firms move into contingency planning for a ‘no deal’ Brexit, awareness of these issues will rise, and so will the pressure from businesses for the administration to seek a deal.…It is extremely difficult to try and put numbers on the size of the shock to output that could occur in the case of no agreement as Brexit occurs. There are basically no precedents we can identify for a shock of this sort acting across sectors simultaneously.The nearest we can get is research on the potential and actual impact of port closures. Strike action and the potential for disruption via terrorist and other events have generated some research on this issue for the US. Research commissioned by the CBO published in 2006 suggested that a 3-year shutdown of ports on the West Coast and a one-week shutdown of all ports would generate a near 0.45% drop in GDP. A more recent (2014) analysis of the impact of a 20-day closure of West Coast ports put the impact at 0.3% of GDP.In our view, the impact of Brexit without an agreement would be orders of magnitude larger than these estimates. In addition to the issues created around movement of goods through customs procedures, there would be a broader regulatory shock extending across sectors. Given the breadth of the EU’s regulatory signNow, it is very likely there would be important impacts which we have missed in the account above. In addition, the share of trade in GDP for the UK is signNowly higher than for the US.Update:Answer updated after Paul Mainwood pointed out that Iran doesn’t qualify since it’s not a WTO member yet.Also Christian Larsen commented that Iran already has at least one trade agreement (with Pakistan).Footnotes[1] BT Chairman Pushes for Brexit Transition Deal of Up to a Decade[2] Are global businesses in the UK making contingency plans in case of the worst outcomes for Brexit, e.g. no deal?

Edit2: See here for my extensive reply to a climate denier. I'm just here to express actual science, but I think misinformation and pseudoscience are dangerous when wielded for political/economic gain. It's morally/socially reprehensible to use propagandistic views to allow humanity to signNow the brink of extinction so that a handful of people can stay in power/make a few dollars for a few more years.Edit: Thanks to everyone who has supported this answer! I'm overjoyed that so many people have found it informative! I'm debating whether to add more to explain a couple of things I feel I glossed over.This is a long but thorough reply. I've taken this as an opportunity to lay down a complete explanation of the phenomenon of "Global Warming". I may go back and edit this to add/modify more points later. I'm also planning an answer to What should we do about global warming? but I may take a break for a while.Sources are at the very end.The short, and abbreviated answer is: imbalanced heat-budgets. The longer answer is a bit more involved, but it boils down to three core concepts:In order to understand global warming you have to understand why we have the stable climate that we have. In order to understand our climate stability you have to understand how the water and atmosphere affects the surface temperature of the Earth. The easiest way to understand how the water and atmosphere influences the surface temperature is to compare our climate to the moon's.The Moon's TemperatureThe moon is, without meaningful difference, the same distance from the sun as the Earth, and yet:The "light side", the side facing the sun, has an average temperature of around 250 Degrees Fahrenheit (F) (121 Degrees Celsius (C)).The "dark side" of the moon has an average temperature of -250 F (-157 C).This means the difference between day/night temperatures on the moon is 500 F (278 C).The poles have been measured at an impressive -413 F (-243 C). That's only 43 F (30 C) above absolute zero and comparable to Pluto's surface!The Earth's TemperatureMeanwhile, on Earth:The hottest recorded place (Death Valley, CA) was 134 F (56.7 C).The coldest recorded place (Vostok Station, Antarctica) was -128 F (-89 C).The average Earth temperature is 61 F (16 C).The largest recorded difference between day/night temperature in one location (Loma, MA) is 49 F (9 C) versus -54 F (-48 C) which makes a difference of 103 F (57 C), in the desert.Some places can have temperature differences between day/night as small as 7 F (4 C), in humid Hong Kong.The differenceThe Moon's maximum temperature is 116 F (64.3 C) hotter than Earth's.The Moon's minimum temperature is 285 F (154 C) colder than Earth's.The difference between night/day temperatures on the Moon is 397 F (221 C) greater than even Earth's most extreme case!All of this while the Moon and Earth sit approximately the same distance from the sun!Why the difference?So why are there such huge differences between the Moon/Earth? Why is the Moon's climate so much more extreme than Earth's, with higher highs, and lower lows?It all boils down to the fact that the Earth is mostly covered by water and has a nice, thick atmosphere that's full of water vapor and other gasses, while the moon is bare rock.Why is water so important?Water is a fascinating molecule with some interesting properties, the most relevant here being its amazing capacity for absorbing heat. In fact it has the second highest "heat capacity" of any non-carbon molecule, only behind Ammonia.What this means is that it takes a tremendous amount of energy to raise the temperature of water compared to other materials, and it takes a long time for that heat to escape and for the water to cool.Conversely, rock and metal have a very low heat capacity. They heat up quickly, and also cool down quickly. It doesn't take much to get their temperature up, but they also lose that heat easily.Think about how long it takes to boil water on the stove compared to just heating an empty metal pan. Then think about how long it takes for boiling water to cool to room temperature, while an empty pan off the stove will be cool to the touch in a matter of minutes. The point is, water resists change and retains heat for a very long time. (This is also why water is a highly efficient coolant)How water's properties affect the climateRelating this back to the question of the Earth's climate, the water on the surface of the planet serves as an efficient means to resist rapidly increasing/decreasing temperatures. The water also serves as an efficient means of (relatively) long-term heat storage. Regions of earth that are surrounded by water and have a humid climate tend to have very stable temperatures and rarely experience extreme temperature variance in short periods of time. Regions of earth that are far from water, are very dry, or only have a very small surface area covered by water compared with exposed rock, metal, and sand will tend to have rapid and extreme temperature variations between seasons and between day and night. This is why coastal towns experience a mild climate while inland towns, or especially towns in deserts, tend to experience large variances in temperature and weather.The simplest evidence of this difference in heat capacity is when you go to the beach and notice how windy it is. The wind is a result of the land and the water changing temperatures at different rates and influencing the temperature of the surrounding air to create a pressure gradient that drives continuous winds from cooler areas to hotter areas. In the daytime the land heats quicker than the water, and the wind blows inland. In the nighttime the land cools quicker than the water, and the wind blows out to sea.In short, the surface water serves as a local temperature stabilizing force that resists large differences in temperature due to day/night/seasonal differences. It keeps the Earth cool during the day, warm during the night, and locks away the sun's heat so that it's slowly released over time, even if the seasons get colder. This is also why you might get your first snow before the lake freezes over, because the lake has a lot of heat stored away that has to be lost while the water droplets in the atmosphere are small enough to cool quickly.But what about larger-scale areas beyond the local environment?Heat TransportIn addition to simply serving as a local temperature buffer, water also distributes heat across the surface of the planet. When a fluid, such as water, experiences differences in temperature across its surface it also experiences differences in density in these regions which then result in a net movement of the fluid from denser regions to less-dense regions, and the movement of the denser regions away pulls in water to fill the vacated space. The net result is that currents form and these result in the transport of high temperature water into colder areas, and low temperature water into warmer areas, creating a further mechanism for equilibrating temperature over large scales.But what about regions that are far away from water?Why is the atmosphere important?One unfortunate quality of water (from a global temperature regulation standpoint) is that, at our planet's temperature, it is a liquid. A liquid can only occupy a fixed volume of space, and is unable to extend beyond that volume. This is only unfortunate in the sense that it means that only regions that are close to a body of water can reap the temperature regulating benefits provided by said water body. Regions that are further away are less able to benefit from the water body's temperature-regulating effects.On the other hand, gasses expand to fill the available volume of space. Therefore, even in places on earth that don't have directly adjacent bodies of water, there is still an overlying atmosphere composed of gasses. In other words, the atmosphere facilitates temperature regulation in regions that are far from water. Gasses allow for some temperature regulating benefits at the surface, but not nearly to the extent of water. Most gasses have a far lower heat capacity than water, so they're not as efficient at directly absorbing heat as water, but it's still better than nothing.  The gasses of the atmosphere provide a less efficient direct temperature stabilizing force than water bodies, but this isn't their primary means of regulating temperature.The atmosphere extends water's influenceIn addition to the gas molecules themselves, the atmosphere provides a medium in which water can vaporize and distribute across the entire surface of the planet. Water vapor usually is found near bodies of water from which it evaporated, but it can be transported even into regions far flung from water, given the right conditions. It doesn't rain much in the desert, but it does rain sometimes.Water that's vaporized exhibits many of the qualities of liquid water, except that its ability to resist temperature changes and store heat are reduced compared to bodies of liquid water. Therefore, vaporized water can transport heat like the seas, but it's less efficient. Also, when atmospheric water collects and cools it precipitates, adding water to places that may be far from the coasts, and providing water's temperature-regulating benefits inland while transporting the absorbed heat back into the atmosphere or, eventually, into the sea.This whole process is called the Water Cycle, and in addition to explaining the means by which water moves through a system, it also explains how water can have influence over the climate of inland locations far from coastal regions. Places with low water content and little water inflow are deserts and exhibit desert-like properties including extreme temperature variations.However, the primary reason why we're concerned with the atmosphere isn't it's ability to transport heat directly. So what is the primary effect that the atmosphere plays regulating the Earth's temperature? To understand that we need to understand how celestial bodies lose heat.How heat is lost by celestial bodiesBodies in a vacuum (such as the Earth, or the Moon) have only one means to gain or lose heat: thermal radiation. All other means of heat transfer require direct contact between bodies.Thermal radiation is a result of a material with high temperature emitting black body radiation (radiated heat) where the wavelength and intensity of the radiation depend on the temperature of the object. For example, a hot iron or electric stove will turn red as it gets hot, and the coils on a toaster can toast bread without directly touching it.This is a result of thermal radiation leaving a heat source (the toaster coils, or the sun) and being absorbed by a surface (the toast, or the Earth). The end result is a rise in temperature by the absorbing surface that eventually drops as the surface emits its own thermal radiation and loses heat.How the Atmosphere Interferes with Heat LossThe primary means by which the atmosphere warms the planet is by slowing the loss of heat. When thermal radiation strikes the earth it could be absorbed by gasses/vapor in the atmosphere, absorbed by a body of water, or absorbed by a solid surface. This raises the temperature of the surface, which then emits its own thermal radiation as it loses heat.When thermal radiation is emitted by a surface within the atmosphere, the radiation either leaves the planet and travels into space, which cools the planet, or it is reabsorbed into the atmosphere or water vapor.The thicker the atmosphere, the more water vapor present, and the more heat-absorbing molecules (such as CO2 and CH4) that are present in the atmosphere, the harder it is for heat to escape, and the more heat that is retained.This is called the "Greenhouse Effect" because it's the same principle that keeps a greenhouse hotter than the open surroundings, and is the primary reason why the Earth is warmer than the moon.To lay out the situation let's look at the simple system of the moon  as an example for comparison.Heating and Cooling the MoonWhen thermal radiation from the sun hits the moon, it is absorbed as heat or reflected as light (why the moon shines). The moon loses heat by emitting thermal radiation in the form of infrared light which is emitted into space as the surface of the moon cools. This process is rapid and there are no complicating factors. Radiation is absorbed, temperatures rise. Radiation is emitted, temperatures fall. Temperatures are extremely localized and there is no means of distributing them. Heat is not quickly distributed from one location to another, each region's temperature is independent of all other regions unless they're directly touching.Heating and Cooling the EarthWhen thermal radiation from the sun hits the Earth, it's more complicated.Infrared radiation is absorbed or reflected by the atmosphere, water vapor, surface water, or land and temperatures rise. Some radiation is emitted back into space and the temperature falls. Some heated particles join air/water currents that disperse the heat over a large area, which spreads heat absorbed in one place to distant regions that weren't directly affected, and slows the rate at which thermal radiation is emitted by slowing the rise in temperature of any small area. This allows more heat to be absorbed than emitted while the temperature is low.Some heated particles emit infrared radiation only to have it reabsorbed elsewhere before it can escape back into space. Sometimes radiation makes many "jumps" before it finally escapes, and these "jumps" allow the heat to be retained for a very long time after their initial arrival and causes the atmosphere to warm which in turn can warm the land and sea.The atmosphere makes it harder for heat to escape once it's entered, and water stores a lot of heat before its temperature starts to rise, so a lot of heat gets captured and retained before it starts to get lost to space.Also, since the water and atmosphere are so good at distributing the heat at short and long distances it means the heat is spread out over a much wider area than it first arrived and is only slowly given up by the water in the system. This means that heat is retained over days/nights/seasons, and is spread by currents to even out the differences in heat input in different regions of the Earth. This setup doesn't produce a homogeneous planet where everything's the same temperature, but it does provide a much more even distribution of heat than the moon which lacks these systems.There's just one last point left to understand Global Warming, and it's a culmination of applying all of the above concepts to a time scale where we measure their effects. This one last concept is called heat budgets.Heat BudgetsA heat budget is much like a regular budget, except instead of money you're looking at heat exchanges.In a regular budget you lay out all the ways that money enters a system and the amounts that enter from each means (income). You also lay out all the ways that money exits a system and the amounts that exit through each means (expenses). You sum up the total income (gross income) and you sum up the total expenses (gross expenses) then you subtract the gross expenses from the gross income to find out whether you've gained money (net profit) or lost it (net loss). At the end of the day you apply your net profit/loss to how much money you started with (your bank balance) to find out how much money you've now got in total.A heat budget is exactly the same, except:money = heatincome = incoming heat = from the sunexpense = outgoing heat = thermal radiation that escapes the Earthgross income = total incoming heatgross expenses = total outgoing heatnet profit/loss = net heat increase/decreasebank account = global temperatureHere's a good diagram of what the Earth's heat budget looks like at present (by NASA):Conclusion: How it all fits togetherThe issue of Global warming is that prior to the industrial revolution the Earth's heat budget was in a reasonable state of equilibrium (natural slow million-year scale shifts aside) where the amount of heat coming in to the Earth's atmosphere was equal to the amount of heat leaving the atmosphere, so the global temperature wasn't really changing much.The problem that arose, starting with the industrial revolution and continuing to this day, is the fact that in order to facilitate the massive-scale productivity that allowed us to produce large amounts of goods for sale to hugely increase the global economy, we have to burn a large quantity of oil and coal which put a lot of extra Carbon Dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. We also release natural gas (CH4) into the atmosphere by accident or as a result of livestock production or other mechanisms. We also remove a lot of natural systems that remove CO2 from the atmosphere, such as forests, jungles, swamps, marshes etc. due to expansion of living areas, conversion of land use, harvesting resources, or simply due to carelessness.The problem, then, is that through the course of our actions, and over the long term, we are fundamentally altering the composition of our atmosphere in such a way that the rate at which CO2 and CH4 is entering the atmosphere is increasing, while the rate at which it's removed is decreasing. This increase in concentration makes our atmosphere more efficient at retaining heat and reduces the amount of heat that can be lost to space. This means the temperature of the earth will rise as a result of being unable to efficiently cool, and it means that the environment in which we live will change. The manner in which specific weather sytems, such as your local area, will change is unpredictable as the Earth is efficient at distributing heat (as noted above). All that can be accurately said is that the average temperature of the Earth will continue to go up until it is high enough that the amount of heat lost is equated with the amount of heat being continuously gained.It's important to note that there's a lag time between an increase in CO2 and CH4 in the atmosphere and an increase in temperature. The rate at which heat is entering the Earth's biosphere isn't changing (the sun isn't getting any hotter), all that's changing is that we're not cooling off as efficiently as we used to. A good analogy is that it's like throwing on a blanket: it doesn't heat you up immediately, but your maximum temperature goes up once you warm up to it. What we're effectively doing right now is piling on more blankets every year, but it will be a while before we see the temperature catch up to the maximum threshold we've set up for ourselves.The terrifying danger is that by the time we signNow a temperature that we realize we need to fix the situation, we will be too deep to get out before we're cooked.Worst Case Scenario:The temperature of the planet signNowes a "tipping point" where the increase in temperature suddenly flies out of control and the planet suddenly gets very hot very fast. This has happened before, and one of the single biggest dangers is that if the ice caps melt completely it may trigger it happening again a rapid rise in temperature would result from a reduced reflectivity of the earth and resulting in more sunlight getting absorbed than previously, producing a positive-feedback loop where the Earth rapidly "cooks" itself.This would almost certainly result in a mass extinction of all species that are adapted to their current environments as it would alter every environment on earth short of the deep sea, but even then the acidification of the oceans (more CO2 in the atmosphere causes it to dissolve into the oceans raising the acidity of the oceans and killing off much of the life there) may kill off most ocean life as well. That would result in a mass extinction where humans wouldn't stand a chance at survival.At that point intelligent life on earth would have to evolve again, but then what would be the point? Intelligent life will have already proved to be an unsustainable outcome.Well, I think we had a pretty good run, at least. Maybe the next intelligent race to inhabit the Earth will think kindly of us? Though I'm not sure how much consolation that will be to most people.Sources:What Are the Causes of the Extreme Temperature Differences on the Moon? | The Classroom | SynonymWhat is the Temperature on Earth?Diurnal temperature variationProperties of waterSea breezeWater cycleThermal radiationBudgetEarth's energy budgetEarth's Energy Budget Poster : HomePermian–Triassic extinction event

1. The pilot who got stuck outside the aircraft at 17,000 ft ​This is one of the most fascinating flying stories of all time. I am going to explain this incident by combining, editing and modifying the text from various online sources. I will also be using the screenshots from National Geographic's "Air Crash Investigation."British Airways Flight 5390 left Birmingham Airport at 7.20am on a fine morning in 1990, heading for Malaga in Spain. At the controls were Captain Tim Lancaster, 42, and his co-pilot, 39-year-old Alastair Atchison, both experienced flyers, and their take-off was routine.Co-pilot Atchison handled a routine take-off, and relinquished control to Lancaster as the plane established itself in its climb. Both pilots subsequently released their shoulder harnesses, while Lancaster loosened his lap belt as well.About 15 minutes into the flight, the cabin crew had begun to prepare for meal service. The plane had climbed to 17,300 feet (5,270 m) over Didcot, Oxfordshire. Suddenly, there was a loud bang, and the fuselage quickly filled with condensation. The left windscreen, on the captain's side of the cockpit, had separated from the forward fuselage. Lancaster was jerked out of his seat by the rushing air and forced head first out of the cockpit, his knees snagging onto the flight controls. This left him with his whole upper torso out of the aircraft, and only his legs inside. The door to the flight deck was blown out onto the radio and navigation console, blocking the throttle control which caused the plane to continue gaining speed as they descended, while papers and other debris in the passenger cabin began blowing towards the cockpit. On the flight deck at the time, flight attendant Nigel Ogden quickly latched his hands onto the captain's belt. Susan Price and another flight attendant began to reassure passengers, secure loose objects, and take up emergency positions. Meanwhile, Lancaster was being battered and frozen in the 550+ KMH wind, and was losing consciousness due to the thin air.​Atchison began an emergency descent, re-engaged the temporarily disabled autopilot, and broadcast a distress call. Due to rushing air on the flight deck, he was unable to hear the response from air traffic control. The difficulty in establishing two-way communication led to a delay in British Airways being informed of the emergency and consequently delayed the implementation of the British Airways Emergency Procedure Information Centre plan.Ogden, still latched onto Lancaster, had begun to suffer from frostbite, bruising and exhaustion. He was relieved by the remaining two flight attendants. By this time Lancaster had already shifted an additional six to eight inches out the window. From the flight deck, the flight and cabin crew were able to view his head and torso through the left direct vision window. Lancaster's face was continuously hitting the direct vision window; when cabin crew saw this and noticed that Lancaster's eyes were opened but not blinking despite the force against the window, they assumed that Lancaster was dead. Atchison ordered the cabin crew to not release Lancaster's body despite the assumption of his death because he knew that releasing the body might cause it to fly into the left engine and cause an engine fire or failure which would cause further problems for Atchison in an already highly stressful environment.​Atchison eventually received clearance from air traffic control to land at Southampton, while the flight attendants managed in extreme conditions to free Lancaster's ankles from the flight controls and hold on to him for the remainder of the flight. By 07:55 the aircraft had landed safely on Runway 02 at Southampton. Passengers immediately disembarked from the front and rear stairs, and emergency crews retrieved Lancaster.The captains body had suffered tremendous physical trauma, getting sucked out of the cockpit and getting pinned down by 600 kmph winds on the cockpit window at -17 degree Celsius. He would have also suffered oxygen deprevition for more than 22 minutes.Despite the trauma captain Lancaster suffered, there is a small twist to his story. He somehow survived this horrific ordeal with two bone fractures, bruising ,shock frostbite and a broken finger.  There were no casualties on this flight.Less than five months after the accident Lancaster was working again. He later retired from British Airways when he signNowed the company's mandatory retirement age of 55 at the time. In 2005 Lancaster was reported flying for EasyJet.​Actual photo of the WindshieldBy flying alone, battling 600+KMPH of winds at -17 degree Celsius and oxygen deprivation, Co-Pilot Alastair Atchison's achievement in saving this plane is  truly outstanding.First Officer Alastair Stuart Atchison and cabin crew member Susan Gibbins were awarded the Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air award in recognition of their extraordinary flying under extreme conditions.Accident investigators later discovered that when the windscreen had been refitted to the plane the night before, the wrong bolts had been used to secure it; they were little more than half a millimeter too small, and had failed under intense air pressure. Surprisingly the old bolts were also incorrect ones; the engineer, working under pressure and without reference to manuals, had simply replaced the old bolts with new ones on a like-for-like basis.As a result of the incident, windscreens on British Airways planes are now secured by bolts on the inside of the plane, rather than the outside, putting them under even less pressure.It is highly recommended that you watch the documentary "Aircrash Investigation : Ripped out of the cockpit"Sources:1. Wikipedia: British Airways Flight 53902. June 10, 1990: Miracle of BA Flight 5390 as captain is sucked out of the cockpit – and survives2. Ghost Plane!​SituationA Helios Airways Boeing 737 is circling the city of Athens for more than two hours in a holding pattern. There is no communications from the plane even after multiple attempts. The Greek air force sends two of its fighter jets to investigate the situation. One of them is in a shooting position behind the 737 while the other one is trying to visually access the situation. The fighter pilot can see passengers on their seats but none of them are moving or reacting to the presence of a fighter jet. There is one non responsive person on the pilots seats slumped over the controls.​Then the fighter pilot radios that there is one person moving in the cockpit! But this person is not communicating with the fighter pilot.​Sounds like a movie? This true story is as suspenseful as a good thriller movie. I strongly suggest that you watch this episode of Air Crash Investigation. It is highly dramatized and made nearly like a movie itself. Air Crash Investigation - Ghost Plane - Helios Flight 5223. AirCraft roof ripped off​\\​Aloha Airlines Flight 243 was a scheduled Aloha Airlines flight between Hilo and Honolulu in Hawaii. On April 28, 1988, a Boeing 737-297 serving the flight suffered extensive damage after an explosive decompression in flight. Earlier, in the first incident, we saw the captain enduring a huge physical stress, in this case, the passengers are sitting on an airplane seat with no roof.I suggest you to watch "Air Crash Investigation: Hanging by a thread": Per Page on youtube.com:The flight departed Hilo at 13:25 HST on 28 April 1988 with six crew members and 89 passengers, bound for Honolulu. No unusual occurrences were noticed during the pre-departure inspection of the aircraft. The aircraft had previously completed 3 round-trip flights from Honolulu to Hilo, Maui, and Kauai that day, all uneventful. Meteorological conditions were checked but no advisories for weather phenomenon occurred along the air route, per Airman’s meteorological information (AIRMET) or signNow meteorological information (SIGMET). The captain was 44-year-old Robert Schornstheimer. He was an experienced pilot with 8,500 flight hours; 6,700 of those were in Boeing 737s. The first officer was 36-year-old Madeline "Mimi" Tompkins. She also had signNow experience flying 737s, having logged 3,500 of her total 8,000 flight hours in them.No unusual occurrences were reported during the take-off and ascent. Around 13:48, as the aircraft signNowed its normal flight altitude of 24,000 feet (7,300 m) about 23 nautical miles (43 km) south-southeast of Kahului, Maui, a small section on the left side of the roof ruptured with a "whooshing" sound. The captain felt the aircraft roll left and right, and the controls went loose. The first officer noticed pieces of grey insulation floating over the cabin. The door to the cockpit was gone so the captain could look behind him and see blue sky. The resulting explosive decompression tore off a large section of the roof, consisting of the entire top half of the aircraft skin extending from just behind the cockpit to the fore-wing area.​First officer Madeline "Mimi" Tompkins was flying the plane at the time of the incident. After discovering the damage, the captain took over and steered the plane to the closest airport, on Maui island. Thirteen minutes later, the crew performed an emergency landing on Kahului Airport's Runway 2. Upon landing, the crew deployed the aircraft's emergency evacuation slides and evacuated passengers from the aircraft quickly. Tompkins assisted passengers down the evacuation all, 65 people were reported injured, eight seriously. At the time, Maui had no plan for a disaster of this type. The injured were taken to the hospital by the tour vans from Akamai Tours (now defunct) driven by office personnel and mechanics, since the island only had a couple of ambulances. Air traffic control radioed Akamai and requested as many of their 15-passenger vans as they could spare to go to the airport (three miles away) to transport the injured. Two of the Akamai drivers were former medics and established a triage on the runway. The aircraft was a write-off.58 year old Flight Attendant Clarabelle Lansing was the only fatality; she was swept overboard while standing near the fifth row seats. Despite an extensive search her body was never found. She was a veteran flight attendant of 37 years at the time of the accident.​Real photo of the planeSource: Wikipedia Aloha Airlines Flight 2434. Strange Lights around the plane + all four engines fail​British Airways Flight 9, was a scheduled flight from London Heathrow to Auckland, with stops in Bombay, Madras, Kuala Lumpur, Perth, and Melbourne. It is a Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet with 263 people on board.​The plane was flying above Indian ocean near Java at night. After few hours, strange bright lights started appearing all around the aircraft. Despite the weather radar showing clear skies, the crew switched on engine anti-ice and the passenger seat belt signs as a precaution.I strongly suggest to watch this dramatized documentary " Aircrash Investigation: Falling from the sky" here --> youtube.com.This incident is better watched than read. Even a book was written about this incident named All Four Engines Have Failed: The True and Triumphant Story of Flight BA 009 and the Jakarta Incident: Betty TootellBut if you choose to read then continue (otherwise skip to the next incident):As the flight progressed, smoke began to accumulate in the passenger cabin of the aircraft; it was first assumed to be cigarette smoke. However, it soon began to grow thicker and had an ominous odour of sulphur. Passengers who had a view out the aircraft windows noted that the engines were unusually bright, with light shining forward through the fan blades and producing a stroboscopic effect.At approximately 13:42 UTC (20:42 Jakarta time), the number four Rolls-Royce RB211 engine began surging and soon flamed out. The flight crew immediately performed the engine shutdown drill, quickly cutting off fuel supply and arming the fire extinguishers. Less than a minute later, at 13:43 UTC (20:43 Jakarta time), engine two surged and flamed out. Within seconds, and almost simultaneously, engines one and three flamed out, prompting the flight engineer to exclaim, "I don't believe it — all four engines have failed!"Without engine thrust, a 747-200 has a glide ratio of approximately 15:1, meaning it can glide forward 15 kilometres for every kilometre it drops. The flight crew quickly determined that the aircraft was capable of gliding for 23 minutes and covering 91 nautical miles (169 km) from its flight level of 37,000 feet (11,000 m). At 13:44 UTC (20:44 Jakarta time), Greaves declared an emergency to the local air traffic control authority, stating that all four engines had failed. However, Jakarta Area Control misunderstood the message, interpreting the call as meaning that only engine number four had shut down. It was only after a nearby Garuda Indonesia flight relayed the message to Air Traffic Control that it was correctly understood. Despite the crew "squawking" the emergency transponder setting of 7700, the 747 could not be located by Air Traffic Control on their radar screens.Many passengers, fearing for their lives, wrote notes to relatives. One such passenger was Charles Capewell, who scrawled "Ma. In trouble. Plane going down. Will do best for boys. We love you. Sorry. Pa XXX" on the cover of his ticket wallet.Owing to the high Indonesian mountains on the south coast of the island of Java, an altitude of at least 11,500 feet (3,500 m) was required to cross the coast safely. The crew decided that if the aircraft was unable to maintain altitude by the time they signNowed 12,000 feet (3,700 m) they would turn back out to sea and attempt to ditch into the Indian Ocean. The crew began engine restart drills, despite being well outside the recommended maximum engine in-flight start envelope altitude of 28,000 feet (8,500 m). The restart attempts failed.Despite the lack of time, Captain Moody made an announcement to the passengers that has been described as "a masterpiece of understatement":"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress."​Without the engines noise, the planes was totally silent and the lights in the cabin went out!As pressure within the cabin fell, oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling – an automatic emergency measure to make up for the lack of air.Without the engines, most of electronic things will stop working including the public addressing system.Lead Flight attendant came to the the cabin with a megaphone and announced:"Can you hear me. There is a small problem with our public addressing system. Place your mask over your mouth and nose and breath normally"​On the flight deck, however, Greaves's mask was broken; the delivery tube had detached from the rest of the mask. Moody swiftly decided to descend at 1,800 m per minute to an altitude where there was enough pressure in the outside atmosphere to breathe almost normally.​At 13,500 feet (4,100 m), the crew was approaching the altitude at which they would have to turn over the ocean and attempt a risky ditching. Although there were guidelines for the water landing procedure, no one had ever tried it in a Boeing 747, nor has anyone since. As they performed the engine restart procedure, engine number four finally started, and at 13:56 UTC (20:56 Jakarta time), Moody used its power to reduce the rate of descent. Shortly thereafter, engine three restarted, allowing him to climb slowly. Shortly after that, engines one and two successfully restarted as well. The crew subsequently requested and expedited an increase in altitude to clear the high mountains of Indonesia.As the aircraft approached its target altitude, the strange lights on the windscreen returned. Moody throttled back; however, engine number two surged again and was shut down. The crew immediately descended and held 12,000 feet (3,700 m).As Flight 9 approached Jakarta, the crew found it difficult to see anything through the windscreen, and made the approach almost entirely on instruments, despite reports of good visibility. The crew decided to fly the Instrument Landing System (ILS); however, the vertical guidance system was inoperative, so they were forced to fly with only the lateral guidance as the first officer monitored the airport's Distance Measuring Equipment (DME). He then called out how high they should be at each DME step along the final approach to the runway, creating a virtual glide slope for them to follow. It was, in Moody's words, "a bit like negotiating one's way up a badger's arse." Although the runway lights could be made out through a small strip of the windscreen, the landing lights on the aircraft seemed to be inoperable. After landing, the flight crew found it impossible to taxi, due to glare from apron floodlights which made the already sandblasted windscreen opaque.They had landed the jumbo jet blind as their windscreen had nearly became opaque due to scratches caused by the strange lights!The crew received various awards, including the Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air and medals from the British Air Line Pilots Association. Following the accident, the crew and passengers formed the Galunggung Gliding Club as a means to keep in contact. G-BDXH's engineless flight entered the Guinness Book of Records as the longest glide in a non-purpose-built aircraft (this record was later broken by Air Canada Flight 143 and Air Transat Flight 236).One of the passengers, Betty Tootell, wrote a book about the accident, All Four Engines Have Failed. She managed to trace some 200 of the 247 passengers on the flight, and went on to marry a fellow passenger, James Ferguson, who had been seated in the row in front of her. She notes: "The 28th December 2006 marks the start of our 14th year of honeymoon, and on the 24th June 2007 many passengers and crew will no doubt gather to celebrate the 25th anniversary of our mid-air adventure."​Post-flight investigation revealed that this flights problems had been caused by flying through a cloud of volcanic ash from the eruption of Mount Galunggung. Because the ash cloud was dry, it did not appear on the weather radar, which was designed to detect the moisture in clouds. The cloud sandblasted the windscreen and landing light covers and clogged the engines. As the ash entered the engines, it melted in the combustion chambers and adhered to the inside of the power-plant. As the engine cooled from inactivity, and as the aircraft descended out of the ash cloud, the molten ash solidified and enough of it broke off for air to again flow smoothly through the engine, allowing a successful restart. The engines had enough electrical power to restart because one generator and the on-board batteries were still operating; electrical power was required for ignition of the engines.The strange lights were initially called  St Elmo's fire, but later it was found that the glow experienced was from the impact of ash particles on the leading edges of the aircraft, similar to that seen by operators of sandblasting equipment.5. Gimli Glider - Ran Out of FuelOn July 23, 1983,  Captain Robert Pearson, 48, and First Officer Maurice Quintal are at the controls of a brand new Air Canada's Boeing 767.At 41,000 feet (12 497 m) over Red Lake, Ontario, the cockpit warning system chimed four times and indicated a fuel pressure problem on the left side. Thinking the fuel pump had failed the pilots turned it off; the tanks are above the engines so gravity will take over and feed the engines. The computer said that there was still plenty of fuel, but this was based on the wrong calculations. A few moments later a second fuel pressure alarm sounded, and the pilots decided to divert to Winnipeg. Within seconds the left engine failed and preparations were made for a one-engine landing. While they attempted to restart the engine and communicate with controllers in Winnipeg for an emergency landing, the warning system sounded again, this time with a long "bong". The sound was the "all engines out" sound, an event that was never simulated during training. Seconds later the right side engine stopped and the 767 lost all power leaving the cockpit suddenly silent and allowing the cockpit voice recorder to easily pick out the words "Oh, f%$#!". The 767 is based on a "glass cockpit" concept in which mechanical instruments are replaced with display screen monitors. The jet engines also delivered electrical power to the aircraft, so most of the instrumentation suddenly went dead. One of the lost instruments was the vertical-rate indicator, which would let the pilots know how fast they were sinking and therefore how far they could glide. The engines also supplied power to the hydraulic systems, without which a plane the size of the 767 could not be controlled. However, Boeing actually planned for this possible failure and included a device known as a ram air turbine that automatically popped open on the side of the plane, using some of the plane's residual velocity to spin a propeller-driven generator and provide enough power to the hydraulics to make it controllable. ​RAM Air TurbineWith nothing in the emergency guide on flying the aircraft with both engines out, Pearson glided the plane at 220 knots (407 km/h), his best guess as to the optimum airspeed. Copilot Maurice Quintal began making calculations to see if they would signNow Winnipeg. He used the altitude from one of the mechanical backup instruments, while the distance travelled was supplied by the air traffic controllers in Winnipeg, who measured the distance the plane's echo moved on their radar screens. The controllers and Quintal both calculated that Flight 143 would not make Winnipeg, as the plane had lost 5,000 ft in 10 nautical miles (1.5 km in 19 km) giving a glide ratio of approximately 12:1. Stationed at the former Royal Canadian Air Force Base, Quintal selected Gimli to be the attempted place of landing. Since his time in the service, Quintal did not know the Gimli airport had become a drag racing ground. Also not knowing one of its parallel runways was now being used for auto racing. To further complicate the situation, there were many cars, campers and families close to the former runway as it was "Family Day" for the Winnipeg Sports Car Club. As they approached Quintal did a power-off "gravity drop" of the main landing gear, but the nose wheel, despite being built to open by swinging backwards with the force of the wind, would not lock. The ever-reducing speed of the plane also reduced the effectiveness of The "RAT" (Ram Air Turbine, a propeller driven hydraulic pump tucked under the belly of the 767. The RAT can supply just enough hydraulic pressure to move the control surfaces and enable a dead-stick landing) and the plane became increasingly difficult to control. As they grew nearer it became apparent that they were too high, and Pearson executed a manoeuvre known as a "forward slip" to increase their drag and reduce their altitude. This gave passengers on one side of the aircraft a view of the ground while passengers on the other side of the plane seen blue skies. With the reduction of speed and altitude the 767 silently leveled off and the main gear touched down. Pearson "stood on the brakes" the instant the plane touched the runway, blowing out several of the plane's tires. Two kids were  cycling at the end of the runway. They looked back and saw a big jet approaching them. The terrified kids tried to outrun the plane.​The plane came to a stop at the end of the runway in a nose-down position due to the unlocked nose gear, only a few hundred feet from spectators of Family Day and the kids at the end of the runway. None of the 61 passengers were hurt during the landing, the only injuries that resulted from the landing of Flight 143 came from passengers exiting the rear emergency slide, a near vertical angle because of the nose down position of the plane. A minor fire in the nose area was quickly put out by course workers, who rushed over with fire extinguishers. ​Real photoWithin two days the aircraft was repaired and flown out of Gimli, after approximately one million dollars worth of repairs, Aircraft #604 the Boeing 767 known as "The Gimli Glider", is to this day still in the Air Canada fleet. Note: The mechanics sent from Winnipeg Airport to repair the aircraft, also ran out of fuel in their van on their way to Gimli.​Why this plane crashed?At the time of the incident, Canada was converting to the metric system. As part of this process, the new 767s being acquired by Air Canada were the first to be calibrated for metric units (litres and kilograms) instead of customary units (gallons and pounds). All other aircraft were still operating with Imperial units (gallons and pounds). The pilots miscalculated the fuel required for the trip in pounds instead of kilograms.Instead of 22,300 kg of fuel, they had 22,300 pounds on board — 10,100 kg, about half the amount required to signNow their destination. This simple problem with the units had caused this crash.Sources:- Gimli Community Web, Gimli GliderIf you would like to watch it, then search for "Air Crash Investigation: Gimli Glider"6) Kids fly a commercial jet​Aeroflot Flight 593, an A310 was en route from Sheremetyevo International Airport to Hong Kong Kai Tak International Airport with 75 occupants aboard, of whom 63 were passengers. Most of the passengers were businessmen from Hong Kong and Taiwan who were looking for economic opportunities in Russia.The relief pilot, Yaroslav Kudrinsky, was taking his two children on their first international flight, and they were brought to the cockpit while he was on duty. Aeroflot allowed families of pilots to travel at a discounted rate once per year. Five people were in the cockpit: Kudrinsky, copilot Igor Piskaryov, Kudrinsky's son Eldar , his daughter Yana, and another pilot, V. Makarov, who was flying as a passenger.With the autopilot active, Kudrinsky, against regulations, let the children sit at the controls. First his daughter Yana took the pilot's left front seat. Kudrinsky adjusted the autopilot's heading to give her the impression that she was turning the plane, though she actually had no control of the aircraft. Shortly thereafter Eldar occupied the pilot's seat. Unlike his sister, Eldar applied enough force to the control column to contradict the autopilot for 30 seconds. This caused the flight computer to switch the plane's ailerons to manual control while maintaining control over the other flight systems. A silent indicator light came on to alert the pilots to this partial disengagement. The pilots, who had previously flown Russian-designed planes which had audible warning signals, apparently failed to notice it.The first to notice a problem was Eldar, who observed that the plane was banking right. Shortly after, the flight path indicator changed to show the new flight path of the aircraft as it turned. Since the turn was continuous, the resulting predicted flight path drawn on screen was a 180-degree turn. This indication is similar to the indications shown when in a holding pattern, where a 180-degree turn is intentional to remain in one place. This confused the pilots for nine seconds. During this confusion, the plane banked past a 45-degree angle (steeper than it was designed for). This increased the g-force on the pilots and crew, making it impossible for them to regain control. After the plane banked to 90 degrees, the remaining functions of the autopilot tried to correct its plummeting altitude by putting the plane in an almost vertical ascent, nearly stalling the plane. The co-pilot and Eldar managed to get the plane into a nosedive, which reduced the g-forces and enabled the captain to take the controls. Though he and his co-pilot did regain control and level out the wings, their altitude by then was too low to recover, and the plane crashed at high vertical speed, estimated at 70 m/s (14,000 ft/min). All 75 aboard were killed.The aircraft crashed with its landing gear up, and all passengers had been prepared for an emergency, as they were strapped into their seats. No distress calls were made prior to the crash. Despite the struggles of both pilots to save the aircraft, it was later concluded that if they had just let go of the control column, the autopilot would have automatically taken action to prevent stalling, thus avoiding the accident.The wreckage was located on a remote hillside approximately 20 kilometres (12 mi) east of Mezhdurechensk, Kemerovo Oblast, Russia; the flight data recorders were found on the second day of searching.If you would like to watch it, then search for "Air Crash Investigation: Kids in the cockpit"Source: Aeroflot Flight 593I will add more details and more incidents soon.7. TACA Flight 110 [Remarkable landing]8. Hudson River Ditching9. Air Transat flight 236  [Flying with empty fuel tank]10. Malaysian Airlines MH370 (But I have only theories and assumptions, so I am going to leave it.)by - Kshitij SalgunanPS:- Due to readers demand for explanation of the Ghost plane story, I have written a fully fledged answer here : What happened to Helios flight 522-the ghost plane?

Two of Zaharie’s sisters, Dah & Sakinab were friends of mine and during a face to face meeting with them in December 2016 they surprised me by revealing after listening to ATC audio, that they could identify the final three radio calls by MH370 were made by their brother and that his voice was slurred.They volunteered this fact unprompted & unexpectedly in a very casual exchange as were were preparing to sit down for a meal together with Zaharie’s niece, her husband & their children.It shook me to hear this as it made sense to me, but it was a tiny detail which they themselves had not appreciated. Instantly I recognised this was a description of pilot hypoxia.Strangely it also infers the hypoxia already began before MH370 signNowed waypoint IGARIBecause they themselves never attached any value to that point it had never been widely disclosed.Sakinab & I pictured above when they disclosed the hypoxia bombshell to me. Both Sakinab and Dah Ah held personal views that MH370 had been hijacked to the Maldives and so did not attach much importance, whilst I was quite excited.I have to confess to using an old computer and never myself listening to the audio recordings. I have relied upon other people or transcripts.Radio Exchange with PilotsATC audio tapes do appear to confirm there was a bizarre exchange of radio communications with MH370:12:50:06 ATC Lumpur Control ~ Malaysian Three Seven Zero climb flight level three five zero12:50:09 MAS370 ~ [acknowleged] Flight level three five zero Malaysian Three Seven Zero01:01:14 MAS370 ~ Malaysian Three Seven Zero... [No additional comment]01:01:17 MAS370 ~ Malaysian Three Seven Zero, ah... maintaining three five zero01:07:55 MAS370 ~ ah Seven... Three Seven Zero, ... maintaining level three five zero01:08:00 ATC Lumpur Control ~ Malaysian Three Seven Zero? [No Response]01:19:24 ATC Lumpur Control ~ Malaysian Three Seven Zero contact Ho Chi Minh 120 decimal 9 Good Night...01:19:29 MAS370 ~ Good Night Malaysian Three Seven Zero [MH370 failed to give standard protocol to read back full ATC instructions & frequency]This exchange with ATC was a clear indication of pilot hypoxia. Conspiracy theorists point to the fact there were multiple different ATC recordings with different background noises.To me that is not evidence of a conspiracy. Zaharie’s sister Dah Ah believed otherwise. My view is it was more simple than that, simply because MH370 was passed off from one controller to another located in five different rooms with five different recording devices. Unless one has worked in aviation with some exposure to Air Traffic Control this simple explanation is not obvious.These different recordings had to be spliced together to make a continuous transcript so there is nothing particularly sinister about this fact for me. More important however is that the content itself was quite extraordinary.I checked back through historical news reports. Malaysia’s Government investigators insist it was the co-pilot’s voice in the last radio call.Those who knew Zaharie well disagreed. In 2014 his wife Faizah Khanum disputed the audio tapes insisting that the last radio call was made by her husband.Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370: Pilot’s Wife Speaks, Drops Potential Bombshell RevelationMH370 ~ ATC Verbal Aberrations: Was Captain Zaharie Drugged or Recorded?Interference, static, mumbling and then silence: Last moments of Flight MH370 revealedContrary to the pilot suicide narrative, Zaharie’s marriage was not in turmoil. The fateful night when he left for work, their housemaid Nur Hyatti who carried his flight bag out to the waiting van later testified that Zaharie hugged his wife in the hallway and kissed her on both cheeks. She later phoned Zaharie in the cockpit to say she would go and stay with her friend for company that night. Zaharie’s wife is the mystery woman who called him.I have also spoken at length with Tim (Fatima) Pardi who worked as a volunteer on a political election campaign with Zaharie. He doted on Tim’s daughter and often bought the little girl gifts which Tim found embarrassing. Two weeks before the loss of MH370 they had an argument when Tim demanded he stop showering her kids with gifts. This was the issue which Tim found hard to reconcile or refer to after MH370’s loss, which others have drawn out of context.In either case Zaharie was neither suicidal nor homicidal when MH370 took off.Zaharie’s sisters had very little idea of the hypoxia theory nor the symptoms of hypoxia. In fact they were more inclined to follow various theories that MH370 had been hijacked to the Maldives - however I digress.Here perhaps we have the first clue that hypoxia began before MH370 ever signNowed IGARI?A logical reason for that would be if there was electrical smoke in the avionics bay, called the MEC, causing the aircraft to automatically open a vent to evacuate smoke. Pilots would not have been alerted to any fire or smoke, nor interestingly to depressurization because the MEC override valve inhibits the cabin pressure warning on a Boeing 777.How do we know MH370 was a hypoxic flight?To put it simply, MH370 flamed out from fuel exhaustion and fell into an uncontrolled, ever accelerating spiral. This is a specific manouvere characteristic of hypoxia.Analysis of the satellite handshake signal at 00:11 UTC disclosed a deceleration of 0.315 knots/second indicating the first engine had flamed out. At this point any conscious pilot should have lowered the nose and established a glide.Instead at 00:19 UTC there was a log on request by the SDU (Satellite Data Unit, ie satellite antenna manager) which implied the aircraft was tumbling out of control. A log on request would only follow a power failure and that could only have resulted after a dual flame out initiated an automated APU start.(APU = Auxilliary Power Unit, a turbine powered generator in the tail which starts automatically by battery if power is lost from the electrical Main Bus relays)There were two signals received from MH370 at 00:19 UTC eight seconds apart. These were at 00:19:29 UTC and 00:19:37 UTC. Doppler BFO values for the first signal indicated MH370 was dropping at 12,000 feet per minute (“fpm”) and the second at 20,000fpm - 25,000fpm (finally updated as 25,000fpm). Either way the picture emerges from satellite data that MH370 was accelerating in a spiral dive.Fuel exhaustion coupled with a spiral descent to the sea is a classic known indication of crew hypoxia.Between the first and second 00:19 signals MH370 accelerated from a descent of 12,000 feet per minute (fpm) to 25,000fpm and the airframe would have experienced 60% in excess of ultimate destruction loads.Whilst the B777 Flight Crew Training Manual (FCTM) does not stipulate a maximum rate of descent it does note an Indicated Airspeed limit in descent of 310kts IAS (Indicated Airspeed). Elsewhere in the FCTM, it relates this to an initial rate of descent of 8,000fpm. Thus one can infer that a maximum rate of descent should be around 8,000fpm at FL350.We also know that the BTO data, or time displacement for signal return from MH370 revealed no difference between the last two signals. In other words MH370 was in virtually the same location, whilst the Doppler BFO data showed MH370 was moving very fast in the vertical axis and receding away from the satellite at 25,000 feet per minute.(above structural failure China Airlines B747SP -Feb 1985 in uncontrolled dive)G-forces acting on MH370The 00:19 signals were part of a handshake protocol which was never completed by MH370. The expected third log on signal, which never came would have confirmed the In- Flight-Entertainment (IFE) system log on. It is very likely MH370 broke up in mid air before the third signal was possible. At a rate of descent of 25,000fpm the stress on MH370’s airframe would have been about 6g. In other words six times the normal gravitational load. Under FAA Limit Load Factor for Part 25 Commercial airliners are certified to withstand+2.5g/-1.5g which would make the B777 ultimate destruction load +3.75g/-2.25g.Supposing therefore that the load on MH370 at 00:19:37 UTC was exactly 6g then MH370 experienced 160% of the load guaranteed to destroy the airframe.A good example of he G-force effect that MH370 must have suffered was the flight of China Airlines Flight 006 which went into a steep spiral dive following multiple engine flame out in February 1985. In the accident report the Boeing 747SP’s Flight Engineer said that the G-forces were so great that he could not lift his hand to signNow the controls. It was only by the conscious intervention of the Captain in pulling up the nose to decrease airspeed that control was regained. It took 30 seconds to recover Flight 006.https://www.ntsb.gov/investigati...Flight Data Recorders on the Air China flight showed the aircraft approached 5g forces before the data itself became unreliable, affected by the same G-forces.The China Airlines aircraft began to descend at 10:14:33 UTC. Between 10:14:50 and 10:15:23 the aircraft dropped 10,313ft. Thus for this period the rate of descent was 18,750 fpm or 75% of the rate of descent MH370 experienced.At just 75% the rate of MH370’s descent, Air China’s B747SP experienced 5g forces. Therefore we can confidently say therefore MH370 must have suffered 6g forces, or more than the maximum rated destruction forcesThanks to Seattle lawyer Blaine Gibson’s efforts to hunt for debris we also have objective evidence that MH370 broke up in flight, not on impact with the sea. Blaine discovered a triangular piece of carbon fibre panel from the leading edge RH stabilizer (MH370’s elevator) on a beach in Mozambique.(above Hi-Lock fastener on RH stabilizer panel only one not ejected by Flutter)All except one Hi-Lock fastener had been ejected from holes on the trailing edge which attached the spar beam. These fasteners had been ejected by flutter vibration whilst MH370 was still in flight. Then the panel was torn backwards in the slipstream from the leading edge. This was a two step process that could only have taken place in flight.There is no way a Boeing 777 could experience 6g forces without suffering a structural failure & break up before MH370 impacted the sea.Detection by Hydrophones at two locations detected an event at 00:23 UTC* which sounded like one large impact followed by a multiple cacophony of impacts. This was mistaken at first for a seafloor landslide, but could equally represent the first major impact of the fuselage & engines followed later by a succession of smaller parts that fluttered down after a mid air break-up.*(originally cited as 00:23 UTC - varies according to distance assumed)Above are the two candidate acoustic detections considered by Dr Kaadri at Cardiff University. The southern most sound detected was estimated to have occurred at 00:23 UTC following the last SATCOM transmission from MH370 at 00:19 UTC. Dr Kaadri himself was subsequently persuaded by others to dismiss this detection on grounds that MH370 lacked fuel endurance to impact so far south. Unfortunately Dr Kaadri’s expertise is not in aviation.The assumption made about fuel endurance relies on acceptance that MH370 made a detour west around Sumatra. That assumption is unproven & contested. Had MH370 not made a detour west around Banda Aceh, then a direct flight would have had sufficient fuel.Dr Kaadri also dismissed this event as a possible seismic event because it was a series of percussions and not one single loud event. This too is explained by a mid air break up causing several pieces of MH370 impacting at different time intervals. This would produce a series of percussions.Later after reading of Kaadri’s conclusions I was alerted that a French EARS hydrophone array on Amsterdam Island heard the same event and provided a heading from Amsterdam which provides an approximate impact location, 45:18 South, 88.00 East.By implication therefore if MH370 broke up at altitude then a huge amount of debris must have showered down over a wide area.Several people have reasonably asked then where were the debris?Interestingly MH370 debris were being tracked by the AMSA before the search area was abandoned in March 2014,The fact is from March 16 to March 26, 2014 there were multiple sightings of very large pieces of debris in two distinct clusters which by March 24 were drifting east 67nm apart. First spotted was a 24m (80 foot) object as big as a wing. Then on March 18 a Chinese satellite spotted another object 22.5m (75 feet) across.Australia’s Marine Safety Authority (AMSA) tracked these drifting debris from 16–26 March 2014, but then on 27 March they were removed from the investigation by the Australian Government.Where were the Debris?Between two larger objects sighted 16 March and 18 March, three French satellites captured photographic and radar imagery of 122 large & highly reflective floating objects on 20th March 2014.The next morning 21 March a US Navy P-8 Poseidon aircraft photographed objects ranging from 5m (16ft) to 10m (33ft) across.This image (above) was released by the US Government in response to a Freedom of Information Request for imagery from search planes by Paul Smithson. Australian researcher Annette Mansfield obtained the same image from the Australian Government unaware that Paul also obtained it.Based on advice by Chinese analysts who reverse calculated the drift of all debris sighted up to March 20, 2014, MH370 likely impacted within 300km of 45.30S, 85.30E. In conversations with Grace Subathrai Nathan whose mother was lost on the flight and who is herself now a campaigner for MH370 families, I have urged those relatives to crowdfund to acquire their own vessel and eventually equip it for a sonar search. They indicate a possible joint announcement on the next anniversary of MH370’s loss in 2017.On March 25, 2014 all search aircraft were grounded and then at Malaysia’s request (according to the ATSB) the southern search area where debris were sighted was abandoned. First the search area was shifted to directly due west of Perth for just a mater of days before it was announced the research vessel MV Ocean Shield had detected underwater pings at Zenith Ridge 1,340nm north of the debris locations. To this day it is unclear why MV Ocean Shield was looking so far away. These underwater pings were proven to be false leads.Interestingly radio buoys known as drifters were tracked from this southern search area to Reunion island within the 15 months it took to discover MH370’s Flaperon there.Since 09 March 2017 it has come to my attention that there was a previously undisclosed CTBTO underwater acoustic detection from Cape Leeuwin of an impact on the sea at 00:23 UTC on a heading of 234 degrees.Subsequently a French friend Jean Des told me that a French hydrophone at Amsterdam Island which was not part of the CTBTO network detected an acoustic signature for the same event on a heading of 137 degrees allowing the location to be pin-pointed.From advice on satellite BFO data provided by Australia’s DST Group [DSTG], the ATSB now conclude MH370 suffered a hypoxic flame out.https://www.atsb.gov.au/media/57...Golfer Stewart Payne’s Learjet crash in 1999 is the classic example. Windows of that aircraft were frosted by ice on the inside. That however was near the end of Payne’s hypoxic flight just before his Learjet flamed out. What interests us is what happened at the beginning?Payne Stewart Plane plane crash1999 South Dakota Learjet CrashTo answer the original question, on the advice of Zaharie’s sisters that Zaharie’s voice was slurred, it seems possible that whilst the pilots did deliberately turn back from IGARI they were also already suffering from impaired logic.An example of a hypoxic flight that demonstrates impaired logic was Kalitta 66 where the captain declared an emergency but kept insisting he only needed radar vectors to his destination. The Co-pilot was fighting him for the controls until the co-pilot passed out. A very clued up Air Traffic Controller understood what was happening and ordered the crew to descend to lower altitude. MH370 had no such luck. My friend Sylvia describes Kalitta 66 here:Hypoxia on Kalitta 66It seems increasingly likely that MH370 suffered a gradual decompression rather than a sudden decompression, or rather that it failed to properly pressurize in the climb.In theory had the Boeing 777 sensed a drop in duct pressure from the air conditioning system then an alarm should have sounded in the cockpit as pressure in the cabin dropped to 14,000ft pressure altitude.A question arises did MH370 ever pressurize correctly as they climbed or did it partially pressurize until the electrical failure and then gradually lose all pressure after an electrical failure?A Boeing 777 should pressurize to an equivalent of 8,000ft above sea level and hold that to any altitude above 8,000ft. So what process would inhibit cockpit alarms?In Helios flight 552 the aircraft failed to pressurize in the climb and pilots misidentified the alarm however there is no hint that there was any aural alarm on the flight deck from MH370’s ATC audio recordings.I stumbled across a possible explanation for the lack of alarm on the flight deck when I read the accident report for United Airlines flight UA955 which suffered electrical fire on the ground at Heathrow in February 2007 inside the avionics bay - known as Main Equipment Centre (MEC):“The ground handling crew observed smoke emanating from the MEC vent at the front of the aircraft and alerted the flight crew. Two minutes later ATC advised that smoke had been seen coming from the aircraft and that the fire service had been requested to attend as a precaution.”https://assets.publishing.servic...UNITED AIRLINES flight UA955 - Aviation Accident DatabaseThis alerted me that possibly the same electrical failure that caused loss of communications before 18:25 UTC may also have led to hypoxia.What if MH370 suffered an electrical failure filling the MEC with smoke and as pilots turned back for Kuala Lumpur with limited onboard systems, the aircraft itself compounded their problems by opening a vent to depressurise the aircraft?What if it was actually the plane that killed them?The public may be unaware that in a Boeing 777 unlike in the cargo hold, there is no fire extinguishing system for the avionics bay. There is a smoke detection system but that does not alert pilots to FIRE or SMOKE in the MEC.Instead, the aircraft autonomously switches air conditioning from AUTO to EQUIP COOLING OVRD. This closes a duct to the cargo compartment and opens a vent from the Equipment Centre (“MEC”) to outside air, using differential pressure from inside the cabin to ventilate smoke overboard. This same process is quite capable of depressurizing a Boeing 777 in flight.It turns out sensors for the cockpit pressure alarms use sensors in the air conditioning supply duct. In Lufthansa’s Quick Reference Handbook (QRH) 2003 page 8–9 it notes when the equipment cooling override valve operates the supply duct is subject to ambient air pressure. It is inferred from this, the MEC equipment cooling override valve also inhibits duct pressure sensors.This design error in the Boeing 777 exists on every one of the 1,500+ Boeing 777 aircraft flying around the world today, raising a serious question whether FAA’s type certificate for the B777 should be withdrawn in light of the MH370 disaster?There were further clues to electrical malfunctions on MH370. So called BTO jitters were identified in the satellite data from ACARS exchanges with MH370 before take-off. These inferred that MH370 was jumping all over the place on the surface of the earth and were uncommon phenomenon in a normal aircraft transmission.ATSB’s Satellite Working Group (SWG) sought to dismiss these BTO Jitters as nothing signNow and downplayed the degree of signal error by relating MH370’s jitters to experiments performed with properly working systems.What if the systems on MH370 were not working normally, but rather subject to abnormal voltage fluctuations?Then it would be a fair inference these Jitters were indicative of imminent electrical failure or overheating problems before take off and possibly smoke in the MEC.If MH370 was suffering electrical problems & MEC smoke during the climb, then the natural automatic response of the plane would be to open the override valve to ventilate & cool the MEC.This potentially is a major design flaw in the Boeing 777.This process would vent smoke overboard by redirecting cabin air pressure to push smoke out of the MEC. If this was happening then the aircraft itself may have been failing to pressurize during the climb even before it signNowed cruise altitude.More importantly because this would have been an automated process, the aircraft would have had the depressurization alarm inhibited, or at least degraded in the climb. Only Boeing can answer this technical question & they aren’t talking. The US Government, through the FAA refuse to investigate.One potential reason for Boeing’s silence is the financial implication. Corruption both in Government and the airline manufacturing industry.This could imply that no Boeing 777 flying in the world today is fail safe in the event of electrical fire in the MEC and therefore fails to meet standards of airworthiness and that Boeing may well suspect this about MH370.If there were real integrity in the US Government and the FAA regulatory body, then all Boeing 777s should have been grounded when MH370 went missing.Boeing Discovers Cause of Sudden Losses of Pressure by 777'sDuring test flights of the Boeing 777 prior to service there were two serious pressurisation failures. One was in February 1995. That plane in which four among the 19-member crew were hurt, a B777 test plane already painted with United Airlines colors, was flying at 43,000 feet near Seattle with its electrical systems running on batteries, to simulate a generator failure.One of two air-conditioning systems was shut down, putting extra pressure on the other. Remember there is evidence advanced by Australia’s DSTG that MH370 was experiencing an electrical failure. During the test flight with failure of a duct clamp, a check valve, which was supposed to stop the air from flowing in the wrong direction, failed. A valve which isolates the Forward cargo hold from the MEC when EQUIP COOLING OVRD operates to vent cabin pressure failed whilst two engineers were down inside the cargo hold.Australia’s DSTG previously identified prior to 18:25 UTC MH370 was operating without power to the AC Main bus relays just like the Seattle test flight in 1995. Pressurization malfunctions on the Boeing 777 always seem to have been accompanied by electrical malfunctions.Something similar struck in 2007 to Boeing 777 flying at 30,000ft. In that event the left air supply and cabin pressure controller (ASCPC) incorrectly shut off the right air conditioning pack and also the left bleed supply, then erratically opened and closed isolation valves during flight. The crew noticed and responded by descending to a safe altitude.FAA Airworthiness Directive for Boeing 777 aircrafthttp://www.airweb.faa.gov/Regula...This was an example when a Boeing 777’s Air Conditioning system failed at high altitude because a software issue led to the pressure duct valve closing. Crew should have had an alert in the cockpit but because the warning system was inhibited crew only discovered the fault through vigilance.An example of typical symptoms was on another hypoxic flight; Kalitta 861 which happened in 1994. In that flight the Captain who was wearing an oxygen mask still succumbed to loss of consciousness.Hypoxia on Kalitta 66Cleveland Air Traffic Controllers awarded for recognizing severe pilot's hypoxia, Jul 26th 2008So let us relate this to what passengers may have experienced. Passengers and cabin crew may, or may not have noticed passenger oxygen masks drop down as MH370’s cabin pressure dropped to a pressure altitude of 14,000ft.Whether passenger masks dropped or not may relate to whether the MEC override valve inhibited the cockpit alarms or not?Had these masks deployed cabin crew would have reacted immediately to ensure their own oxygen supply. Most cabin crew would have been in galley areas so early in the flight, thus they were very close to walk around oxygen bottles with 30 minute supply.I checked with a Malaysian Airlines Flight Attendant friend and she assures me cabin crew would not interfere with or try to contact the cockpit, at least not initially. There was no such standard operating procedure at MAS obliging communication with the cockpit when masks deployed.Had masks deployed then passengers would of course have experienced alarm, confusion and as it continued, rising anxiety. Gaspers on MAS aircraft were supplied from oxygen chemical generators with between 8–11 minutes of supply.Had the Gaspers not deployed then passengers may have become drowsy & cold. Some may have experienced euphoria, but then as the situation continued on many would start to feel headaches & breathlessness until loss of consciousness.Partial Decompression - Gradual IncapacitationIf there was a gradual decompression with some form of sensor inhibition masks may not have deployed at all. With gradual decompression there could have been 15–20 minutes before full loss of consciousness on board MH370.Temperature inside would have dropped. Outside Air Temperature (OAT) at IGARI was -44 degrees centigrade that night. If the MEC vent reduced cabin pressure then cabin air temperature was also dropping. Duct air temperature reduction also causes the air conditioning system to close the air supply inlet valve, so there are various ways the system may have tricked itself.It is worth noting therefore that in a B777 Air Conditioning system, if the duct temperature drops the Air Supply Cabin Pressure Controller (ASCPC) sensor is designed to close the Pressure Regulating Shut-Off Valve (PSROV). In plain language when sensors detect a drop in cabin temperature it closes the valve regulating bleed air required to keep the cabin pressurised.If there were sudden decompression at that altitude, people would have died from hypothermia very quickly, in less than 4 minutes at -44 deg C. However I assume there was a slower, more gradual process, that it took 20–30 minutes from MH370 signNowing cruise altitude before everyone was unconscious.If passenger oxygen masks failed to deploy then nobody may have even realised what was happening.Ghost Flight ScenarioAt such altitudes, once unconscious there was no way to breath properly. Crew and passengers who lapsed into unconsciousness would have expired from a combination of oxygen starvation to the brain and intense cold.If I am correct, that smoke venting from the MEC caused depressurization then it is also possible that burning which caused smoke to vent cabin pressure also ceased around 18:25 UTC when electrical power was restored to the SDU and later MH370 did pressurize properly.An automated system on the Boeing 777 called ELMS is fully autonomous and able to restore power just as easily as it could have disconnected communications in the first place.If that was the case then sadly it is logical to assume nobody aboard was left alive well before 2:25am (18:25 UTC). It would be an irony to think that electrical burning which caused the hypoxia may even have resolved itself allowing the plane to properly pressurize, but only after everyone had expired.If this is the correct interpretation for MH370, then it raises serious questions about the airworthiness safety of all Boeing 777 aircraft.The most merciful thing one can say is this: When it was tumbling from the sky at 25,000 feet per minute, nobody was alive to experience it.Personal RequestWhen I first wrote this explanation I never expected it to strike a chord with so many people. I am quite devoted to solving MH370 for the relatives of victims many of whom have become friends of mine. I genuinely feel that there was a deliberate effort to deceive the public over MH370. I feel it is very important for aviation safety to discredit the false narrative over MH370 and force authorities to continue their efforts until we know the whole truth. Because this article applies pressure to keep searching for answers, if you have found this article useful & interesting, please would you also take the time to share it on Twitter & Facebook to keep up the pressure?Since this article was first written a forum page was created on Reddit by detractors who support pilot suicide, specifically to attack & discredit this article.A common misconception repeated on Reddit was an objection that hypoxic flight does not explain how MH370 climbed to 45,000ft. The answer to this is quite simple. It did not. Not only was MH370 performance limited at IGARI preventing it from climbing above a pressure altitude of 39,000ft.On 24 June 2014 JACC boss Angus Houston gave a phone interview to the Malaysian Chronicle in which Houston himself refuted the climb to 45K. The JACC boss told the reporter that JACC commissioned two Thales radar engineers to review all Malaysian radar data for that night and they could not find any evidence to substantiate radar sighted MH370 climbing to 45,000ft and then diving west.How did a Hypoxic plane make all those Turns?Another common objection cited is that a hypoxic aircraft could not and would not have made the turns MH370 is alleged to have made through the Straits of Malacca passing Penang Island.The simple retort is Malaysian radar only sighted one aircraft. At almost precisely the same time Emirates Flight UAE343 / EK343 was flying almost the same route it was alleged that MH370 flew.Indeed when you match the data from a Malaysian Police report claim about MH370’s alleged speed and alleged turn from south of Penang towards the small rocky islet of Pelau Perak you also notice that for the route & positions claimed by Police to be true. MH370 would have to fly towards Pelau Perak on a heading of 294/295 degrees. Why is that a concern?Airline pilots program their Flight Management Computers (FMC) to steer their autopilots along airways with intersections at precisely surveyed navigational waypoints. Pelau Perak was not a navigation waypoint therefore how and why would MH370 flying in complete darkness make a precise turn over Pelau Perak from a heading of 295 degrees to 291 degrees to intercept waypoint VAMPI?The only rational conclusion is that the radar evidence for alleged turns by MH370 is bogus and fabricated by officials.