Jamaica’s bobsleigh team finally in Sochi – but without equipment

Published time: February 05, 2014 22:22

(FILE) Lascelles Oneil Brown (L) and Winston Alexander Watt of the Jamaica-1 team leap into their sled at the start of heat three of the two-man bobsleigh competition (Reuters / Peter Andrews)

The Jamaican bobsleigh team, who raised money through the internet to go to the Winter Olympics, is finally in Sochi. But here’s yet another hurdle: their luggage and equipment have gone missing.

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“The sled is here,” driver Winston Watts was quoted as saying by Associated Press. “But the blades that we put our heart out to get, the airline maybe left them back in New York. None of us have clothing.”

Watts said that he and brakeman Marvin Dixon flew from their training base in Lake Placid, US, on Monday and were due to take a connecting flight from New York to Moscow.

However, because of bad weather the plane could not land and they had to go to Philadelphia first. When the athletes finally landed in Russia’s, they found out that their luggage was stranded somewhere between JFK airport and Sochi.

Despite the frustrating setback, the team – which has already put in an enormous effort just to be back at the Games – is not going to give up. Watts said that if the equipment did not arrive by Thursday, they would borrow runners, helmets and suits from other teams in order to be able to practice.

“I do have a backup plan,” Watts said trying to be optimistic. “We do have a lot of guys here that want to help us, so I’m excited to see what’s going to be the outcome tomorrow.”

Watts, 46, and brakeman Dixon, 28, will compete in the two-man bob in Sochi after a 12-year absence at the Winter Games.

This latest luggage adventure is not the first obstacle on their way to the 2014 Olympics. After the team qualified for the games, they didn’t have enough money to pay for the trip and needed $ 80,000. In just a few days, they managed to raise even more than was needed, and their Olympic dream took a step closer.

“With the help of our friends, sponsors and Jamaica’s Olympic Association, we’ve raised around $ 148,000 for travel expenses and preparations for the Games and are set to spend it wisely,” Watts said earlier, as quoted in the media.

Watts is a veteran Jamaican driver who took part in the Olympics in Lillehammer in 1994, in Nagano in 1998 and in Salt Lake City in 2002. In Lillehammer, the athlete (back then known as Watt) was part of the Jamaican four-man sled team which came 14th, leaving the American and Russian Olympic squads in their wake. The Jamaican athlete came out of retirement with the aim of taking part in his fourth Olympics.

It was after the 1993 film ‘Cool Runnings’ that Jamaican bobsledders got fans around the globe. The movie was based on a true story about the first Jamaican bobsled team performance at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary.

“We want to go out there and show the world that we are still around, that we are still competitors. You always hear people at events, and over in Europe asking, ‘Hey, where is the Jamaican bobsleigh team’?” Watts said earlier, as quoted by sochi2014.com.

The team, which comes from a tropical island-nation that has never seen snow, drew world-wide attention as an example of human endeavor and devotion to a goal.

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Jamaica’s bobsleigh team finally in Sochi – but without equipment

Munduruku People Kick Miners Off Land, Seize Equipment

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Munduruku People Kick Miners Off Land, Seize Equipment

Equipment manufacturers sue NH over auto dealer bailout

By Grant Bosse | New Hampshire Watchdog

CONCORD, N.H. — A group of equipment manufacturers has filed a lawsuit against a new law giving local franchises special treatment, and is asking the court to block the law’s requirements.

The companies claim the provisions of SB 126, known as the “Auto Dealers Bill of Rights”, impair the ability of manufacturers to enter into contracts with local franchises, and are unconstitutional under state and federal law.

John Deere, AgCo and Case New Holland have brought the new suit in the Northern District of Hillsborough County Superior Court.

Like all states, New Hampshire has long prohibited automobile manufacturers from selling cars directly to the public, which greatly increases the value of local car dealer franchises.

New Hampshire’s “Auto Dealers Bill of Rights” also places limits on what the factory can require of local dealers. This year, dealers fought for and won broad extensions of those provisions, including limits on how often car companies can require local dealers to remodel their showrooms.

Broad bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate also expanded the law to cover farm and other equipment dealers not previously covered under the motor vehicle statute. Gov. Maggie Hassan signed SB 126 into law in June.

Read the complete story at New Hampshire Watchdog

Please, feel free to “steal our stuff”! Just remember to credit Watchdog.org. Find out more

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Equipment manufacturers sue NH over auto dealer bailout

Pilots in Asiana crash relied on automatic equipment for airspeed

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Investigator in Charge Bill English (R) and Chairman Deborah Hersman discuss the progress of the Asiana Airlines flight 214 investigation in San Francisco, California in this picture provided by NTSB on July 9, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/NTSB/Handout via Reuters

By Gerry Shih

SAN FRANCISCO | Tue Jul 9, 2013 10:47pm EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The pilots aboard the Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 that crashed in San Francisco relied on automatic equipment – an auto-throttle system – to maintain airspeed and did not realize the plane was flying too slowly until it was just 200 feet above the ground, the head of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said on Tuesday.

In her third detailed briefing on Saturday’s crash that killed two Chinese passengers and injured more than 180 other people, NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman also said two flight attendants were ejected from the plane after its tail hit a seawall in front of the runway and was torn off. Both were found injured but alive on the side of the runway.

Hersman said many questions remained about the incident. The South Korean airline’s flight crew members were not tested for drugs or alcohol after the crash, a requirement for pilots of U.S.-based carriers involved in accidents, she said.

The accounts given to investigators by the pilots, as relayed by Hersman, confirmed information from the plane’s flight data recorder that showed the plane was traveling 25 percent below its target airspeed as it came in for landing.

While she has declined to speculate on the cause of the crash, much of the information released by the NTSB suggests pilot error as a main focus of the investigation.

The pilot in charge of landing the plane on Saturday was in training on the 777 and was roughly halfway through the process, while seated next to him was a co-pilot on his first flight as an instructor. Both were experienced pilots, although they had not flown together before, Hersman said.

“At about 500 feet, he realized that they were low,” Hersman told reporters, referring to the instructor pilot’s account of the failed last-second attempts to avoid Saturday’s disaster. “Between 500 and 200 feet, they had a lateral deviation and they were low. They were trying to correct at that point.”

Referring to the instructor pilot, she said it was not until 200 feet that “he recognized the auto-throttles were not maintaining speed” and tried to abort the landing. Hersman had previously said that the plane had been at an altitude of 200 feet 16 seconds before crashing.

Three of the four pilots on board were in the cabin during the landing, although only two could see the runway, Hersman said, citing the interviews by investigators with the crew.

Hersman said an examination of the wreckage showed that the auto-throttle was “armed,” but it was not clear if it had been properly engaged or had somehow failed before the plane slowed to a near-stall and hit the ground. “We need to understand a little better” how the auto-throttle is used, she said.

“They had set speed at 137 knots (158 mph), and he assumed that the auto-throttles were maintaining speed,” Hersman said of the instructor pilot.

She noted that the pilots were responsible for maintaining airspeed.

“We have a flying pilot and two other pilots in the cockpit and they have a monitoring function,” she said. “One of the critical things that needs to be monitored on an approach to landing is speed. So we need to understand what was going on in the cockpit and also what was going on with the aircraft.”

‘RAMPANT SPECULATION’

The world’s largest pilots union rebuked the NTSB for its handling of the crash investigation, saying the agency had released too much information too quickly, which could lead to wrong conclusions and compromise safety.

Releasing data from the flight’s black boxes without full investigative information for context “has fueled rampant speculation” about the cause of the crash, the Air Line Pilots Association International said in a statement.

Hersman rejected the criticism. “We work for the traveling public,” she said. “We feel it is important to show our work.”

Aviation consultant Hans Weber, the president of TECOP International, Inc., said the accident may revive a long-running debate over whether pilots’ increasing reliance on automated flight systems has taken a toll on their “hand-flying” skills.

Maintaining proper airspeed and altitude is “the most basic responsibility of the pilot, like breathing in and out,” Weber said. But it could be the case, he added, that “pilots are paying attention to the computer rather than paying attention to the fundamentals.”

Hersman did not comment on whether anyone in addition to the two flight attendants was ejected from the plane, though the two teenage Chinese students who died were found outside the aircraft. One of them may have been run over by an emergency vehicle, San Francisco fire department officials have said, but the local coroner has not yet released autopsy results showing the cause of death.

Asiana Airlines Chief Executive Yoon Young-doo arrived in San Francisco on Tuesday to meet with U.S. investigators, Asiana staff and survivors of the crash.

Hersman also confirmed witness accounts that at least one emergency escape chute had deployed inside the aircraft, trapping a flight attendant. The pilot who was sitting in the cabin worked to free her, Hersman said.

“I saw a leg sticking out between the slide and the wall. It kept moving,” passenger Eugene Rah said in an interview on Monday. He said he and a man he believed was a crew member struggled to free her, adding: “He was asking me if I had anything sharp, but these days nobody can be on board with anything sharp.”

She was eventually freed and hospitalized with serious injuries, Rah said.

(Additional reporting by Kristina Cooke and Alwyn Scott; Writing by Jonathan Weber, Editing by Peter Henderson and Will Dunham)

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Reuters: Top News

Pilots in Asiana crash relied on automatic equipment for airspeed