Plane hanging in overhad power line

[Cthulhu]

Can you imagine what that poor guy had to listen to for three hours?

shamus

The guy's 65 years old right? Probably been married for at least 30 years. My guess is he's been hearing it for a Hell of a lot longer than just 3 hours. In fact, ever think that maybe this wasn't an accident at all? Think about it... after years of nagging, you look up one day and have an epiphany:

"Hmmm... Power lines... Wife... Hmmmm....

[texasmom]

Did it say it took the power company more than two hours to determine which stops they were supposed to turn off to stop the electricity to that set of lines?  That seems like an extraordinarily excessive amount of time.  Good thing for that guy & his wife that the plane was stuck well enough not to have dropped off during that amount of time. *whew!*

[Cthulhu]

Hey Mom,
You remember a hot air baloonist a few years back, I think it was here in Texas, who got caught up in high tension lines? That went very badly, but I believe the occupants survived. In all candor, this couple in Germany was extremely lucky.

As far as shutting down the power, it has to be sequenced very carefully when this much electricity is involved. Failing to do so can cause cascading failures throughout the grid. You'd think this would take top priority, but if the power was being supplied to infrastructure items like communications, traffic lights, etc., they might want to think about it awhile before actually pulling the plug. Just a guess.

[CAP1]

Hey Mom,
You remember a hot air baloonist a few years back, I think it was here in Texas, who got caught up in high tension lines? That went very badly, but I believe the occupants survived. In all candor, this couple in Germany was extremely lucky.

As far as shutting down the power, it has to be sequenced very carefully when this much electricity is involved. Failing to do so can cause cascading failures throughout the grid. You'd think this would take top priority, but if the power was being supplied to infrastructure items like communications, traffic lights, etc., they might want to think about it awhile before actually pulling the plug. Just a guess.

agreed......if they simply flipped a switch to stop power flow........well, imagine a fast flowing river. now drop a dam in place....the water stops suddenly, and spikes. electricity would do the same thing. bad bad things would happen then

[Denholm]

Wow, quite a miracle that they got out of that one.

[Cthulhu]

agreed......if they simply flipped a switch to stop power flow........well, imagine a fast flowing river. now drop a dam in place....the water stops suddenly, and spikes. electricity would do the same thing. bad bad things would happen then

When you flip the switch, "turn off the electron pump", isn't there a short transient period where the current "rebounds" and wreaks all kinds of havoc?

[CAP1]

When you flip the switch, "turn off the electron pump", isn't there a short transient period where the current "rebounds" and wreaks all kinds of havoc?

ya........even a 12V electrical system on an average car can spike to over 300V for a split second, if you disconnect the battery.

like i said..imagine a wall of fast flowing water suddenl hitting an immovable object.....it's going to backwash, spike, and do lots of very bad things.

[texasmom]

Yeah, you're probably right. The extent of my knowledge regarding electricity is limited to the flipping of the switch on my wall. 

[CAP1]

Yeah, you're probably right. The extent of my knowledge regarding electricity is limited to the flipping of the switch on my wall. 

i wasn't trying to be critical.........

[texasmom]

I didn't take it that way. 

[Cthulhu]

i wasn't trying to be critical.........

Me neither Mom. We luv ya.

[crockett]

Squeakers listen up...

This is exactlly why you don't drop your hook while landing on a runway..

[Cthulhu]

Squeakers listen up...

This is exactlly why you don't drop your hook while landing on a runway..

You know many AF fighters have tailhooks for emergency landing and aborted take-offs.

[texasmom]

Me neither Mom. We luv ya.

  Thanks~ I really was being serious about the extent of my knowledge regarding electricity though.  It's easy for me to expect instant action on the part of the electric company if I don't have any knowledge about what it takes to shut down power lines.

[CAP1]

I didn't take it that way. 

i'm glad. i sometimes come off as being that way unintentionally......