About Those Serial Numbers
One of the arguments that the Deniers like to use is that supposedly every single part of every single airplane has a serial number that identifies exactly which plane it came from. That is to say that that the planes uses for American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, while essentially identical, would have different serial numbers on each of their parts.
But here's an article from Australian which reveals that this is another one of the Deniers' myths.
An elderly man with a heart condition was shocked when a bolt from a Boeing jet flying overhead plunged through the roof of his Sydney home.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority later confirmed the 10cm bolt came from a Boeing jet either landing or taking off from Sydney airport this morning.
CASA will now try to find out which aircraft the bolt fell from.
CASA officials obtained the serial number from the bolt once firemen arrived at the scene.
"It is an aircraft bolt manufactured in America," CASA spokesman Peter Gibson said.
"It is used on a number of different types of Boeing aircraft and used in a number of locations including the wing flaps.
"The next question is what plane does it come from and that's not quite as easy."
More discussion of the serial numbers at the JREF forums, where the Australian story was first pointed out to me.
posted by Pat @ 7:50 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
It's not really a myth. It'll take them a while to track the part because things aren't kept as neat and accessible as the twoofers say, but if it's an important part they will be able to track it through the chain and indentify it to an aircraft. It is true that just about all key parts have serial numbers and that it is possible (eventually, if you really wanna) to match the part to a plane.
What's not true is that the NTSB matches every part to every crash. If United says they have a plane missing and that it's flight 123, a Boeing 737 and the NTSB finds the wreckage of a Boeing 737 and the relatives of the passengers and crew notice that their loved ones are missing, that's pretty much the "identification" that the NTSB does. They only track parts when it might be relevant to the investigation. In the case of the terrorist attacks, it is not thought that there were any mechanical failures so no one would bother to track any of the parts.
Who hasn't seen articles about "blue ice" from leaky aircraft waste tanks falling on someone's lawn? That doesn't have serial numbers, either.
Well, it does have "number two" in it.
and why would the government keep track of airline parts?
Didn't you see South Park? The government knows everything, EVERYTHING!!! (insert evil maniacal laugh here)
There's a good thread on JREF about the part serial numbers, BTW. Apologies for crossposting, but it covers a lot of ground relevant to this discussion.
Here is a question. If every single part had a serial number (unlikely), how many intact parts do you think they found? Isnt it entirely likely that many parts that were found, were "parts" of plane parts (a piece of a wing for example) that may have not had the SN printed on it.
Also, where is the proof that the investigation did not catalogue plane part serial numers...please link me so I may read.
TAM
Money! Beautiful money!
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