Staten Island ferry crash
 

Good thing I didn't goto work today. Although, I don't take the ferry. It's all over the news right now. The ferry was coming into the St. George (Staten Island) terminal from South Ferry (NYC), and hit the side pillars of the dock, which ripped the boat apart on the sides. They estimated as many as 15 people dead, 34 injured, along with people missing limbs. They had to be moving pretty fast, man. I've taken the ferry many times, and when it comes to the dock, it "bumps" the walls so it can line up correctly with the docking bay, but nothing like this.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Northeast/10 ... index.html

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20031015_2117.html

The NYT reported that the pilot fled home and tried to shoot himself with a pellet gun and was now in police custody.

With a pellet gun? What a fucking idiot.

[quote="Low spark":89b02] tried to shoot himself with a pellet gun[/quote:89b02]



oOo: oOo: oOo: oOo: oOo: oOo: oOo: oOo: oOo: stupid:

That sucks.....How big are those ferries, generally?

big. That one that crashed was about 22 years old, and had 2 decks for passengers, but the new ones have 3. I couldn't believe the pics on the news, it looked like he rammed right into the damn thing, man, it ripped apart the whole damn side. Crazy shit.

Id say they can hold probably 1,000 people per deck, maybe more. They're probably about 200ft long. (estimate)

tahst gootta suck.

[quote="Bazooka_Joe":69acc]big. That one that crashed was about 22 years old, and had 2 decks for passengers, but the new ones have 3. I couldn't believe the pics on the news, it looked like he rammed right into the damn thing, man, it ripped apart the whole damn side. Crazy shit.

Id say they can hold probably 1,000 people per deck, maybe more. They're probably about 200ft long. (estimate)[/quote:69acc]

That's fairly big.

I want to see the pictures of the people with the severed limbs.

New York is having a really bad run at the moment :P
I mean, first there's September 11, then that Plane's engine falling off and crashing, and the refinery that went up, now this...

How's morale over there? It must be taking a hammering, surely?

[quote="Captain Wilkins":a0813]New York is having a really bad run at the moment :P
I mean, first there's September 11, then that Plane's engine falling off and crashing, and the refinery that went up, now this...

How's morale over there? It must be taking a hammering, surely?[/quote:a0813]

I tell you what, I'm still watching the World at War DVD set, and I just got done with the second DVD. the second one has a one-hour section all on arial bombing, and ends with the attacks on Britian using the VX rocket. The video for that reminded me so much of Sept. 11th, with people tracking the rockets with their cameras from flight to explosion, and the aftermath. I felt such sorrow for those people, as from Sept. 11th I knew what it was like to be attacked on your homeland like that.

anywho, the morale is fine, IMO. Ferry service is working again as of 5AM this morning, and I dunno what the deal is with that pier.

On the lighter side, I passed by Ground Zero (as I do every morning), and saw they put a large peice of the structure up. When I first saw it, it almost looked like the front of a stage for a concert or something. It's on the corner of Vesey and Church street. I'll see if I can find a pic.

http://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/gro ... index.html

That's the best I can do right now. I'll bring my digital camera to work tomm, and take a pic of what I was talking about. I was quite amazed, as this wasn't there two days ago, and it's fairly large.

Good to see you chaps are keeping your chins up. Still, i suppose New York/ New Yorkers don't get the sort of reputation they have for being tough for no reason. I only thank...well...the Athiest equivalent of God (Laetitia Casta, perhaps?) that Melbourne hasn't had to suffer similar hardships. Can't imagine the sort of feeling that gives you.

So, yeah, I'm not really going anywhere with this, just keep up the good work!

I guess a lot of the steel beams were made in my hometown here in Wisconsin. I guess they're pretty huge.

[quote="3/3 Marine":cd8cd]I guess a lot of the steel beams were made in my hometown here in Wisconsin. I guess they're pretty huge.[/quote:cd8cd]
[offtopic] The largest steel "I-beam" you can get is a W44x285. It's 44" tall, 12" wide and weighs 285 pounds/foot of length. [/offtopic]

What a mess. I've heard a couple of theories so far: 1. he fell sleep because of his heart medication and 2. drugs/alcohol (of course). He was obviously distraught over it since he went home immediately after and tried to commit suicide... which seems a bit drastic if, in fact, it was an accident.