>

They're now calling it the Airborne Toxic Event.
An absolute YIKES! after watching that. >

Get the kid, get the shit, we are gettin the fuck out a here! >

Yeah, I thought that video did a lot better job of getting the sentiment across... >

Just remember, railroads are actively trying to take the conductor out of the cab and effectively cut crew size on trains from 2 to 1. The conductor is essentially the first responder to all derailments and grade crossing accidents and carries a hard copy sequenced list of all rail cars in a train and their commodities.
They’ve drastically cut car inspectors and track employees as well over the last 5-7 years.
Train size and weight has doubled in that same time frame causing added stress on infrastructure and rolling stock. 
Keep in mind, we are doing our best out here to move products safely through your town without the proper rest or equipment to do it safely. >

Just like airlines are attempting to have just 1 pilot in the cockpit.
When profit is the # 1 objective corporations know no bounds. Anything in the way is expendable. >

Yeah, the day they go down to one pilot is the day I stop flying. Planes are great and safe ... but having a backup (even if not to manage the workload) is important. >

I give it a 40% chance it happens in the next 40 years, and it's not going to happen in the next 20 years. Not only do the aircraft manufacturers need to manage a computer capable of replacing the workload of the first officer in an emergency situation, they also need to gain the public trust, and we're at least a couple decades away from that, and that's without another 737-MAX style fiasco. 
We live in a connected world, so every country would need to sign off on having one pilot, it wouldn't matter if the FAA lost its mind and said "sure, one pilot, what could go wrong," because US airlines don't make any money if they can't fly to other countries. The downside of this is you end up stuck with silly outdated rules like "turn off all of your cell phones" just because one country won't agree to move past it. >


every country would need to sign off on having one pilot, it wouldn't matter if the FAA lost its mind and said "sure, one pilot, what could go wrong," because US airlines don't make any money if they can't fly to other countries.

That's easy enough to work around. They just fly one pilot domestically and two for international flights. Realistically they would need two pilots for long hauls anyways. Most of their flights, by far, are domestic so it's still a win for the airlines. >

Sure, there are theoretical workarounds, but it's a huge hurdle. All other factors aside, there would be too big of a risk for Boeing or Airbus to design and build an aircraft that could only be sold and flown in one country. >

I wouldn't expect them to design the aircraft any differently. It would still have two positions for pilots, they would just fly it with one on domestic routes. >

A large commercial aircraft capable of being safely (keyword) flown by one pilot would need to have very significant design changes inside the cockpit. The way the FAA certifications are currently structured suggests they would be required to keep a completely separate pool of pilots and aircraft specifically for those one-pilot operations. The requirements and training are structured to ensure that a pilot doesn't confuse one type of aircraft with a type that they've previously flown, they can't just jump back and forth. And a huge portion of the training is to ingrain crew resource management and working seamlessly with your co-pilot and how the aircraft systems might behave differently depending on whether you're sitting in the left seat or the right seat and what that means about how the tasks are split up.
Decades of precedent and ways of thinking would need to be thrown out the window, and the one-pilot pilots would need to forget everything they were taught about splitting the workload with another human. >

The planes can mostly fly themselves these days and they are already designed to be flown from either seat by a single pilot if necessary (e.g. one of them had the fish and becomes incapacitated by food poisoning). While the captain traditionally sits in the left-hand seat, he doesn't actually have to. There's nothing about the design of the aircraft itself that would need major retooling to allow single pilot flight. 
I'm certain you're right about additional training requirements but if the FAA were to authorize it, I see no reason to think that they wouldn't also update regulations to not need a separate pool of pilots and planes. A setup more like ETOPS seems much more likely. The airframe is certified for over-water, or in this case single-pilot, operation but the actual aircraft requires additional maintenance and the airline and pilot also have to be certified for it. 
Any requirements would be additional to the base configuration so there shouldn't be any reason you couldn't use the same aircraft in a longer flight with two pilots too. Maybe they require an extra feature like a pilot monitoring system, so the autopilot can take control and notify someone if the pilot becomes incapacitated and a more advanced autopilot that can land in any weather conditions a pilot can. >

And in 20 years they'll deny any responsibility for the people who end up with cancer as a result of this shit show. >

Republicans will and refuse any help, just like with 9/11 responders.  Never forget? ya right.... >

God bless Jon Stewart for being a thorn in their sides all these years. >

Swear this was a movie >

What a weird movie… >

It was but it was hilarious at the same time >

I certainly laughed a lot, but my wife and I were like “what the fuck is going on?” through the whole movie. Haha. I loved how they’d just be having a normal conversation when serious shit is going down. >

You’re just living in the simulation still. >

I hope as many people as possible can evacuate, as much as it sucks to do so for various reasons, the chemical they are worried about is a nightmare one. >

Damn and they just had all those stock buybacks too. Welp time to nationalize the rail roads! >

Past time. >

Is this not the plot to White Noise staring Adam
Driver? >

Don't worry, everything will be just fine. The wind will blow it the other direction. >

Updated headline:

Ohio authorities plan “controlled release” of toxic material >

They are planning to prevent the cars from exploding by putting explosives on them and blowing holes in them to let the chemicals out. >

Who needs a clean watershed >

They just fired up the new Shell cracker
Plant just over the border in Darlington too,
And it’s already getting fines for illegal waste disposal,  and don’t forget all the unregulated fracking!! This whole area is so fucked already it’s nuts >

The Shell plant is in Monaca, about 15 miles away but yeah it's all cancer alley, always has been. >

It’s effing vinyl chloride and the sheriff thinks a toxic gas cloud was released?
Here’s FEMA daily ops briefing:
2023-02-06 FEMA Daily Ops Briefing >

I saw the plume of smoke from a couple miles away. Very thick, dark smoke that eerily lingered in the clouds until nightfall. Concerned for family that lives over the border of PA in the expected wind path. >

You should watch the movie white noise. It’s definitely more like a plume though. >

The township next to my hometown in PA is included in the evacuation radius. People I knew from high school who still live in the area had to leave. I’m glad I didn’t stay in the area because that gas and smoke is getting blown eastward, where my childhood home is. I worry what it’s going to do to people a decade or two down the road. >

Are you talking about Chippewa township? That's where I grew up, too. I live in Unity township now which is on the other side of East Palestine that the crash happened. That smoke was dark as fck and lingered up in the clouds until evening. My parents live right down the road from Blackhawk high school. >

Well hello, fellow Blackhawk alumnus. 😊 I was speaking more of Darlington, but I grew up very close to Chippewa, and still have family in that area. >

What a great event to meet new friends! I graduated in 09. We'll have to plan a 5 year toxic smoke cloud reunion. >

Ha! You were in the same grad class as my brother. 🎵It’s a small world after all 🎶 >

Oh my! It really is a small world lol I'm curious now who your brother is, I remember most of my class, might have a yearbook photo of him from middle school >

The Five Fifteen from Duluth
Oh my it just derailed
Toxic waste is spillin’
The conductor’s been impaled
A benzene cloud is risin’
And the whole town’s startin’ to cough
cough cough cough cough
Within a matter of day-ees
All of our skin will fall off!
-From MST3K: The Girl in Lover’s Lane >

don't worry, guys. the cult of ayn rand that runs the Ohio GOP has assured us the free market will take care of this. >

“Just move”- Ben Shapiro >

Just one small problem Ben, who's going to buy all the houses? Fucking toxic chemical man? >

Look up vinyl chloride >

From Cancer.gov;
Vinyl chloride exposure is associated with an increased risk of a rare form of liver cancer (hepatic angiosarcoma), as well as primary liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma), brain and lung cancers, lymphoma, and leukemia.
In other references, it can lead to damage to the nervous system, changes in the immune system, miscarriage, birth defects, and sperm damage.
Pretty nasty line up of consequences there. >

Man, this is probably gonna make a great Well There's Your Problem episode, and that's pretty fucking awful. >

At least the God Damned News