Originally Posted by
Kbboy
Some of those things are obvious and not really "miracles". A door blown out is not an immediate or serious danger unless it hits and damages something. Planes with far worse structural damage have landed safely before. Entire rows of seats had been detached and large sections of the fuselage were completely gone, yet the planes landed safely as long as the pilots were OK and no damage to control surfaces/electric/hydraulics. You could potentially take off and land with all cabin doors missing and it would be uneventful. Also, since the plug door was in the aft section and was blown with some force, it would be less likely to hit any part of the plane. I wouldn't term anything miraculous there.
Yes, the door did not injure anyone on the ground (but it wasn't over a densely populated area) and the iPhone did not break is indeed miraculous.
You seem to overly minimize a number of things here. Yes, the door landed in a less densely populated area, but it could have easily landed on someone simply out for a walk in the neighborhood or it could have landed on a car driving down the street or it could land on someone sitting out on their back patio having a cup of coffee. I'm not going to chock the fact that this didn't happen up as "miraculous" but it is indeed pretty damn lucky and could have been a very, very bad outcome.
Furthermore, yes, nobody got sucked out of the plane BUT there were no passengers in the window and aisle seat. And I do wonder what would have happened if those seats had been occupied, even if they did have their seat belts securely fastened. I suspect there is a possibility that the window seat passenger might have had a very, very bad outcome. I don't know if you can call the two passengers misconnecting a "miracle" but again, pretty damn lucky. Most flights today are very, very full. Having two seats open, right where the accident occurred would be considered "lucky" by just about anyone evaluating this incident.
Finally, I don't think anyone is asserting that an airplane can't safely land when something like this happens. Obviously it can, and it did. But nonetheless, I think it's naive to imply this wasn't a big deal; it's a pretty big deal. I also think if this thing was at cruising altitude it's hard to say what the outcome might have been. Several things might have turned out a whole lot worse (not saying they sitll couldn't have landed the plane, but there still might have been some far more serious outcomes).
Look, I'm not at all an alarmist and do not let fear drive my travel choices and I do think frequently FT threads skew towards alarmist/hyperbole, but on the same token, I think you are somewhat minimizing what was (or certainly could have been) a pretty serious incident.
And I will say, for me at least, my faith in Boeing is increasingly being challenged. It is getting harder and harder to continue to write off these incidents as a statistical anomaly and I fear at some point "luck" may run out and one of these incidents may lead to a very bad outcome (obviously some would make the case that at least in two events that has already occurred).
Regards