Humanities desk
< March 14	<< Feb \| March \| Apr >>	March 16 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Humanities Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

March 15

tv documentary about plane crash forensic investigation

Some decades back (1980s?) there were several plane crashes over a period of years, that had some common characteristics and so there was a long-running investigation aimed at figuring out if their causes could be related. They made a TV documentary about it. It turned out that all the crashed planes were using a specific part that broke at high temperatures or something like that. I saw the docu a few years ago and (because of the current 737 MAX events) tried to find its name with web searches, but had no luck. Anyone know which one I mean? Thanks. 173.228.123.166 (talk) 09:02, 15 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

That sounds like what happened to United Airlines Flight 232, but only one plane crashed of the three affected by this defect (a faulty Titanium alloy engine part that slowly deteriorated at high temperature, ultimately resulting in catastrophic engine failure). Someguy1221 (talk) 09:16, 15 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

It looks like you mean the series of crashes happened in the 1980s, but in case you mean earlier accidents, three de Havilland Comets crashed in 1952-54. Analysis revealed metal fatigue, which was not fully understood in airframes at the time, around a window pressing. The Comet article explains the investigation at length. Akld guy (talk) 09:48, 15 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I'm thinking you mean the two crashes of United Airlines Flight 585 in Colorado in 1991 and USAir Flight 427 in Pennsylvania in 1994, and a non-fatal incident to Eastwind Airlines Flight 517 in Virginia. These were all caused by a defect in the Boeing 737: the servomechanism that controlled the rudder could very occasionally jam and force the rudder to one side. Only after the third incident was it understood that the defect was temperature-related. If this is it, the TV documentary you saw may have been a 2007 episode of Mayday (which is known by other titles in the US) that covered the whole series of incidents. --76.69.46.228 (talk) 11:02, 15 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! I think 76.69.46.228 has identified the incidents (there were several more too, see Boeing 737 rudder issues). Someone also recently posted this series of images[1] to Hacker News. I don't know the original source of those images. It looks like the Mayday episode is on Youtube (v=DwQPSUBvNhk) so I've watched some parts and will watch the rest soon. Thanks for the other responses as well. Wikipedia Reference Desk comes through again! 173.228.123.166 (talk) 14:29, 15 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The Mule (2018 film)

In this film, Eastwood is a war veteran of some sort, and I just found a source that says with some confidence that it was Korea: [2]. Can someone tell me how this was stated/shown in the film? Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 09:09, 15 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Per The Mule (2018 film) he was a ww2 vet. 173.228.123.166 (talk) 09:15, 15 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The Slate article that you linked to also mentions that the person who the film is based on - Leo Sharp - is a WWII vet. MarnetteD|Talk 09:18, 15 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry for the wrong wikilink, now fixed. WP is usergenerated and can say all kinds of things. Leo Sharp was a WWII vet, this is not in dispute. But my question remains, how/when did the film say/show/indicate that Earl Stone/Eastwood was a Korea veteran? Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 09:33, 15 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

There are a bunch of reviews and clips on youtube[3]. I looked at the studio trailer and another clip and neither said Korean War. One of the clips showed him saying he'd been in combat but didn't say which war. This says WWII (can't believe edit filter won't let me save the string WW 2 without the space) but it's not part of the official trailer itself. 173.228.123.166 (talk) 10:12, 15 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

- IMDB says "Korean War veteran" - but IMDB is not considered a reliable source - Epinoia (talk) 23:44, 15 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

We (or at least me) have missed the part of the Slate article where they mention that they changed the war that the film character is a veteran of from WWII to Korea. I think GGS is asking when (and how) the film plot mentions that the character is a Korean War vet. Hopefully someone who has seen the film can provide the info requested. MarnetteD|Talk 23:53, 15 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Spot on, MarnetteD. Slate states outright "yeah, they changed this", but I'm after the primary evidence, so to speak. Personally I had the other impression after watching the film some weeks ago, there's a scene where Clint mocks someone by comparing them to Hitler. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 10:04, 16 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

If you're trying to closely study the movie, it's probably worth watching the different youtube videos about it (not just the trailers). The info you want might show up there, and there's sure to be other good stuff as well. 173.228.123.166 (talk) 06:30, 17 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]