MID AIR CRASH

"Two airplanes collided in mid air and one plunged into an elementary school in Kennydale this afternoon, more news at 11."

Holy cow, the world is ending in my neighborhood! Well according to the local news anyway.

The true story is sad but nowhere near as catastrophic as the KOMO investigative news team made it sound. Two Cessna touched in mid-air and the floatplane was able to land at the Renton Municipal Airport and the other plane immediately lost altitude and plunged nose first into an elementary school. However, here are the key facts missing from the local news headline:

• No children were in the school (because it's 5:45 pm on a SUMMER night)
• The school is in the process of being demolished.
• The airplanes were Cessna's (each carrying two passengers.)
• It looks as though the pilot made a controlled crash into the least dangerous place he could -- except for himself.

Truth be told, the pilot of the downed aircraft did an amazing job of not hitting any of the demolition work crew, or any of the multitude of homes in the area. I wouldn't classify this as a miracle but as either luck or quick thinking on the soon to be dead pilot. My heart does go out to the pilot and passenger's family - but they will never read this - so back to the point of my blog.

LOCAL NEWS IS A JOKE!

The KOMO AM Investigative News reporter on the scene (who is the morning disc jockey who happened to be getting his haircut in the neighborhood) ran over to the scene, jumped the protective yellow tape and started interrupting the emergency aid workers to 'get the story.'

Kent Phillips:"Do you know if the pilot is alive?

EAW: "no, I do not know the status of the pilot.

KP: "You've heard it here first on KOMO news 1000, we know nothing at this point."

Radio Announcer:" Kent, can you tell us what we know so far?"

KP: We know that an airplane has crashed into the kennydale middle school about 15 minutes ago, and there are aid workers, fire, police responding from all over the city of Renton. The state patrol is on scene."

RA: "Kent, can you tell us what the scene looks like?"

KP: "We'll it's a two story building, and the fire truck is red and there are people coming out of their homes."

Uh - HELLO!? The fire truck is RED!!! I think it may have been more important to scope the size of the airplane for the radio audience - was it a jet, passenger plane, or personal aircraft? Is the building on fire? Are they pulling people out of the building? It took KOMO AM 1000 over 10 minutes to finally explain the size of the aircraft and then with little else to go on they interviewed their own helicopter pilot - while he was flying over the crash site.

Radio Announcer: "Quick Commute Charlie, can you tell us what you see?"

QCC: "I see Dead People"

RA: "Seriously, can you tell us who's job it is to keep aircraft from colliding in mid air like this?"

QCC: "It is the pilot's job. (really, so we can't sue the city or anybody?) Each pilot has to keep an eye on everything in their path... Ah NUTS, I just hit King 5 Kenny... I'm going down, I'm going down.. Ahhhhhhhhh."

KP: "This is Kent Phillips on the scene of yet another catastrophic mid air collision that happened in the exact same spot at the first collision. This appears to be the most dangerous section of airspace in the entire world right now. The scene is chaotic, another fire truck has pulled onto scene, and it is a lovely candy cherry color - the fire personnel are dressed in heavy yellow suits, which must be hot - it's hot today, did anyone notice that? I'm so thankful I'm in shorts. Live from the scene, I'm Kent Phillips. More news at 11."

Uh, whatever!