Turbulent Times
In 1987 Placer Development Ltd. of Vancouver, British Columbia, and Dome Mines Limited of Toronto, Ontario merged to form Placer Dome Inc. With corporate offices in Vancouver, the company specialized in the mining of gold and other precious metals. The merger was initiated to form a larger company that would be less vulnerable to takeover, hostile or otherwise. Placer Dome was subsequently purchased by Barrick Gold in the year 2006.
Not long after the merger of Placer and Dome, I was installing accounting, purchasing, human resources, and administrative computer systems at two Placer Dome operations in the Elko region of northern Nevada. The Placer Dome president had selected a representative from each operation to accompany him on a fishing expedition at a resort in the mid-upper coast of British Columbia. I was unexpectedly invited.
During that time, I was required to fly to Vancouver, British Columbia to catch a private float plane to the fishing resort. The flight from Elko to Portland was conducted in a smaller Fairchild prop plane that I likened to flying in a sharpened 2H pencil. As we taxied to the east end of the Elko Regional Airport runway ready for takeoff, dark, ominous clouds could be seen gathering in the west. Intermittent flashes indicated that the threatening clouds were also accompanied by lightning.
I have always had some inherent anxiety about flying, gravity may have had an effect on that, but more so in bad weather, especially when there is no apparent adult beverage service. On this particular trip, the turbulence was, at least to me horrifying. Since I was the only passenger on board, I secretly congratulated anyone that had canceled the same flight that day. Had I not worn my seat belt all the way to Portland, my head would have certainly hit the ceiling of that airplane on more than one occasion.
I suppose I must consider myself fortunate that climate change did not start until the following year, or that turbulence certainly would have been significantly worse.
On December 18, 2022, a flight from Phoenix, Arizona to Honolulu, Hawaii hit intense turbulence. Of the 278 passengers and 10 crew members on board, 36 people were injured, with 11 seriously while 20 were taken to a Honolulu hospital.
Instead of questioning if the passengers had not heeded the oft-declared safety measure to wear seatbelts at all times while seated, CBS and other media took the opportunity, as alarmists always do, to make climate change the culprit in this instance.
After a similar event in 2014, CBS Climate Alarmist in Chief, Scott Pelley declared, “Twenty people were hurt overnight – two seriously – when a South African Airways jetliner hit severe turbulence on its way to Hong Kong. One passenger's head put a hole in the overhead bin on the Airbus A-340. The turbulence happened without warning. Many passengers were sleeping. One British study predicts that this kind of turbulence will increase significantly in the future because of climate change.”
Note that the partisan media never provides data or evidence to support their claims, rather they simply and loudly proclaim the mainstream media narrative. In the most recent case, CBS sought the climate expertise of Taylor Garland, spokesperson for the Association of Flight Attendants, who said, "Severe weather increases chances of turbulence, and due to climate change, these kinds of incidents will only continue to grow”.