Something in the Air

A friend has recently been trying to convice us to take a tourist flight on one of those Lake Union float planes. No, he hasn't done it, but he's encouraging us, apparently in the spirit of the canary in the mineshaft. "Come on, do it. It's only $50," he says, while unbeknownst to him it's actually $80. For fifty, maybe. For eighty, maybe not.

And then the last few days happened. Is there something about the Blue Angels being in the sky that hexes day-to-day air traffic of the area or are there just loads of rubber-necking pilots overhead right now? First was the collision yesterday of a float plane and a Cessna over the 405 that unfortunately killed the two Cessna passengers.

From the P-I:

"It appeared the little Cessna was making a little circle. It wasn't that far up. It must have been taking off. They always take off and circle Kennydale," Blundred said.

"What I saw was the little plane clip the seaplane, not very much, only a little. And then it just went straight down. Boom. I mean, straight down," Blundred said.

The Cessna went straight down, we mean straight down, into Kennydale Elementary School where no one on the ground was hurt. Regular airplanes ditch into water so float planes ditch into, you guessed it, grass. The crippled float plane stayed in flight after the collision and was able to get to a field at Renton Municpal airport and land.

Then, in less exciting (and certainly less lethal) news from the Bureau of Planes Dropping From the Sky, a family from Oregon had to set down in Lake Washington this morning after their engine quit on the way to Boeing Field. Their aircraft sank shortly after touching down and man, woman and boy were plucked from the water by a pleasure boat.

Alright, hopefully the Blue Angels (of Death) will be off to their next summertime jamboree by the time we scrape together our disposable $80 for the sightseeing flight.