Morning, y’all! Wintry mix and rain are arriving in metro Atlanta right about now. No snow accumulation is expected, but roads might get a tad slippery — so drive safe out there.
Or, you know, find an excuse to cozy up with that laptop at home.
FLIGHT OR FRIGHT?
Credit: Chris Young/AP
Credit: Chris Young/AP
The aviation industry has seen some … turbulence over the past year or so.
A mid-flight door departure on a Boeing plane rightly raised red flags in early 2024 — and, fair or not, kicked off a monthslong melee of news stories highlighting any issue that arose on any flight anywhere.
Our beloved Delta Air Lines basically shut down for several days because of a technology outage, then had one plane clip another at ATL.
The tragic collision of an American Airlines flight and an Army helicopter in Washington claimed 67 lives, including those of two native Georgians. Several other frightening events popped up before a Delta regional jet crashed and landed bottom-up at one of Toronto’s airports Monday.
“It was just a very forceful event where all of a sudden everything just kind of went sideways,” one of the survivors said later. “And then, next thing I know is, kind of a blink, and I’m upside-down, still strapped in.”
✈️ Survivors describe evacuating from upside-down plane
✈️ Seat belts, crew, firefighters key to saving lives
Wild, scary stuff.
There are legitimate concerns to be had about air travel and safety measures and staffing woes at the Federal Aviation Administration. More folks are getting fired, too. So I’m not here to lecture anybody one way or another.
But I want to know how you’re feeling.
Will you think twice before booking your next flight? Or does the fact that the Washington tragedy was the U.S.‘s first major crash since 2009 make you feel better?
Highway driving is generally responsible for more than 95% of transportation-related deaths in a given year, according to U.S. Department of Transportation data. Even among what’s left, death via large commercial airline is exceptionally rare.
“Aircraft manufacturers are held to very, very high standards, and this is the reason: that we see people actually walking away from a horrific crash like this,” Capt. Ross Aimer, a retired United Airlines pilot and CEO of Aero Consulting Experts, told the AJC.
Which is a nice thing to hear. But is it still enough?
Send an email with your thoughts to amatl@ajc.com and a reporter may follow up for a future story.
ATLANTA UPROAR
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Demonstrators gathered outside the Atlanta headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday to protest the recent firing of about 1,300 workers.
Those dismissed included an incoming class of fast-response disease detectives that regularly deploy across the country.
“We’ve felt under attack or not fully supported in the past, but nothing like this,” one current CDC employee told the AJC.
That person and a fired worker both spoke with reporters anonymously for fear of being targeted.
“If you want, like Gov. Kemp said, to reduce the government, fine,” the fired worker said. “ … But to be cruel and just cut people with no kind of regard for what you’re actually cutting, what’s the point in that other than to cause trauma among people?"
✉️ Elsewhere in the federal government: Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced plans to step down.
NICKEL AND DIMED
AJC columnist Nedra Rhone weighed in on the Trump administration’s efforts to scrap the penny (you may have missed the executive order he issued on Super Bowl Sunday).
She’s cool with it.
The one-cent coin costs almost four cents to make. Lots of politicians have attempted to force some change over the years. And as Nedra points out, only 16% of American transactions involved cash at all in 2024.
🪙 “The only downside I see to letting go of the penny is the nostalgia that must go with it,” she wrote.
IVF IMBROGLIO
Credit: Courtesy of Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise
Credit: Courtesy of Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise
Here’s a new, fairly terrifying twist to the in vitro fertilization discourse
According to a lawsuit filed Tuesday, a South Carolina-based clinic implanted Savannah resident Krystena Murray with the wrong embryo. And Murray knew because she’s a white woman — who gave birth to a Black boy.
🗣️ “My first thought is, ‘He’s beautiful.' My second thought was, ‘What happened?’” she told the AJC.
SPEED CAMERA CLAPBACK
Yesterday, I wrote about a new piece of state legislation that would, if adopted, outlaw automated speed cameras in school zones.
I also asked for y’all’s thoughts — and received a few dozen emails. These two sum things up pretty well:
🥰 Payson in Decatur: “The school zone speed cameras have been a godsend for us because my daughter walks to school, along with a bunch of her classmates, next to a busy thoroughfare.”
😠 John in Gwinnett County: “I understand using cameras when signalized and when it is reasonable to expect kids to be out and about, but an unsignaled midday speed camera has nothing to do with child safety and has everything to do with a cash grab.”
NEWS BITES
Care home failed to check on 89-year-old who wandered away and died
Just awful. And part of an ongoing AJC investigation.
Soda wars: Coke launches prebiotic ‘Simply Pop’
It’s juice-based with … extra fiber. Yum?
Why hasn’t Five Points renovation started? Neither MARTA nor the city can say
Honestly, that sounds about right.
ON THIS DATE
Feb. 19, 2001
Steve Hummer — one of my favorite AJC sports writers ever — penned a front-page tribute to NASCAR icon Dale Earnhardt Sr., who died the previous day in a crash at the Daytona 500.
“Well, now there is no tiptoeing around the awful possibilities that follow these men from February to November,” he wrote. “The wiliest, toughest son-of-a-buck any of them will ever know was killed in his car. Heaven help them all, for even the man who always seemed too cussed stubborn to die could not get out alive.”
Credit: File photo
Credit: File photo
ONE MORE THING
Have you ever agreed to take your kid to his drum lessons at 2:30 on a Tuesday afternoon, because school’s out and other kids canceled and the teacher wants to end his day early? And then your kid gets out of the car before you and strolls straight through an ankle-deep patch of wet cement?
So your kid plays drums in his sock feet while you skedaddle to spray off his shoes before they turn into a mob movie prop?
No? Just me?
Thanks for reading to the very bottom of A.M. ATL. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact us at amatl@ajc.com.
Until next time.
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