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Ottawa Star The Voice of New Canadians www.OttawaStar.com • January 16, 2014 • Volume 1, Issue 13
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Pilots sometimes fail to take control in mishaps
Ontario court considering Quebec order removing kids from sect
By Joan Lowy, The Associated Press
By Allison Jones, The Canadian Press
Airline pilots too reliant on computers
W
ASHINGTON—Pilots are becoming so reliant on computer systems that do most of the flying in today’s airliners that on the rare occasions when something goes wrong, they’re sometimes unprepared to take control, according to aviation safety experts and government and industry studies. Increasing automation has been a tremendous safety boon to aviation, contributing to historically low accident rates in the U.S. and many parts of the world. But automation has changed the relationship between pilots and planes, presenting new challenges. Pilots today typically use their “stick and rudder’’ flying skills only for brief minutes or even seconds during takeoffs and landings. Mostly, they manage computer systems that can fly planes more precisely and use less fuel than a human pilot can. But humans simply aren’t wired to pay close and continual attention to systems that rarely fail or do something unexpected. “Once you see you’re not needed, you tune out,’’ said Michael Barr, a former Air Force pilot and accident investigator who teaches aviation safety at the University of Southern California. “As long as everything goes OK, we’re along for the ride. We’re a piece of luggage.’’ The National Transportation Safety Board holds a two-day investigative hearing Dec. 1011 on the crash of an Asiana Airlines jet that was flying too low and slow while trying to land at San Francisco International Airport last July. The plane struck a seawall just short of the runway, shearing off its tail and sending the rest of the airliner sliding and turning down the runway before breaking apart and catching fire. Three passengers were killed and scores of others injured. Continued on page 12
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CHATHAM, Ont.—A judge must take into consideration a proposed secular charter in Quebec when ruling whether to enforce a court order that would see children from an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect who left the province returned there to foster care, the group’s lawyer said Jan 10. Members of the Lev Tahor community were under investigation by social services in Quebec late last year for issues including hygiene, children’s health and allegations that the children weren’t learning according to the provincial curriculum. Court has heard that most of the community of about 200 people left their homes in Ste-Agathe-des-Monts in the middle of the night while that investigation was ongoing and settled in Chatham, Ont. Sakshi with a safety device worn as a pendant. Story on Page 2 photo: Robert McKenzie/Safety Labs
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B.C. NDP release list of discrimination to Asian Canadians ahead of apology By Vivian Luk, The Canadian Press
VANCOUVER—In 1876, a motion was put forward in the British Columbia legislature that called on the government to prevent Canada from being flooded with “a Mongolian
population’’ that would ruin B.C.’s working class. Though the federal government disallowed the law, “An Act to Prevent the Immigration of Chinese’’, discussions about opposing the “influx of Orientals’’ and banning employment of
Chinese or Japanese workers continued in the B.C. legislature up until the 1930s. On Jan 8, more than 100 archival records of such government-sanctioned discrimination against Canadians of Chinese, Japanese and South Continued on page 4
Ex-astronaut Hadfield says co operation with China in space a logical step By Peter Rakobowchuk, The Canadian Press
MONTREAL—Retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is calling for more co-operation with China in space and he wants it to be part of any international effort to return to the moon.
And he’s not alone in his thinking. Space experts agree the Chinese can no longer be left out. “I think right now a lot of people see it as kind of crazy to co-operate with the Chinese, but I think it’s the next logical step,” Hadfield recently told The Canadian Press.
China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003 and Hadfield noted the country’s ambitious space program aims to eventually put an astronaut on the moon. On Dec. 15, a Chinese Chang’e 3 rocket landed a rover on the lunar Continued on page 9