Mugged the wrong gas station

Today I read about a security-guy who where teaching some employees, from a gas station in the northern town of Alta in Norway, about safety and what to do if they ever were held up by anyone.

They had agreed that he would come back to the gas station and the security-guy would stage a robbery while they were at work, so that they could see what it would look and feel like if they ever would come up in a situation like it in the future. I guess a scenario like this would let them know how to react if the real deal was on.

The security-guy came back the day they had agreed upon and rushed in to the gas station shouting with a ski-mask and gun. Trouble was – he had gone to the wrong gas station. After straighting things out with the employees at the other gas station, he then ran off and finished his work at the gas station he was supposed to mug!

Source: Altaposten – “Ranet” feil bensinstasjon (in norwegian).

747 down at Brussels

A 747-200 cargo from Kalitta Air crashed at the end of a runway and split in two while trying to take off Sunday at Brussels airport. Four of the five crew members on board the Boeing 747 were slightly injured and were hospitalized according to CNN¹.

Speculations are as one might expect soaring the different aviation forums on the web, suggesting structural failure or fatigue, or something went very bad after the airplane had an aborted take-off for any reason.

The most probable cause is that the 747 had to abort take-off and ran over the runway hitting a few bumps. The runway it used, RWY20, is 2800 metres long. A required runway length for a 747 like this, with maximum take-off weight is 3200 metres. That leaves little margin for errors. The fuselage would most likely suffer some damage, and would look something like this Kalitta 747 does today.

But then again, this aircraft is also known for having lost one of its four enginges in mid-flight². It was on its way from Orlando to New York when they had to make an emergency landing in Detroit. The engine was later recovered somewhere in Michigan.

Update 19.03.2010: The final report on this accident is now out, click here to download the pdf.

¹. Article, CNN. For more pictures, visit this.

². Kalitta Air 747 lost one engine, Planepictures.