Metric systems crashes planes ?! Anna Kooiman mocked for speculating that AsiaAir flight went missing

A Fox News host has drawn the ire of the internet after speculating on air what could have caused the disappearance of AsiaAir Flight QZ8501.

The flight from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore went missing early this morning over the Java Sea, shortly after the pilot asked for a change in altitude due to severe weather.

Fox News co-host Anna Kooiman interviewed former FAA spokesperson Scott Brenner about the search for the missing flight Sunday morning, asking the airline industry insider whether foreign pilots were at a disadvantage since they were trained using the metric system.

'Even when we think about temperature, it's Fahrenheit or Celsius,' Kooiman said. 'It's kilometers or miles. You know, everything about their training could be similar, but different.' 




While the Imperial System may provide a conversion challenge for metric users, it likely was not a problem since the vast majority of the world excluding the U.S. uses the metric system.

Brenner pointed out that the bigger difference was foreign pilots' reliance on auto-pilot, which he says they are often required to switch over to after take-off. This requirement is due to the fact that most crashes are due to pilot error.

He added that he believes 'our U.S. pilots are very well trained' for 'situations like this' because 'they actually fly the aircraft when they're in the cockpit'.

But Kooiman continued to ask Brenner if the difference in measurements were to blame, and if that makes international travel riskier.

'It's not just a difference in the way that we measure things?' Kooiman asked. 'Is it not as safe in that part of the world? Because our viewers may be thinking, "International travel, is it safe? Is it not safe?"'


Brenner reassured Kooiman that air travel is the safest mode of transportation in the world, and there's nothing to fear about international travel specifically.

This line of questioning earned Kooiman some flack on Twitter, where users critiqued her questioning the metric system's relevance in the disappearance.

'Most all media speculation right after an air crash is ludicrous but Anna Kooiman takes the cake,' one user wrote.


Source : Fox News , DailyMail

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