Cessna Aircraft Safety Standdown 2013

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Mike was a guest speaker today at the Cessna Aircraft Company 2013 Safety Standdown at the National Aviation Training Center in Wichita, Kansas. In his presentation, CSI: Meteorology-One Man's Quest to Save Lives, Mike describes the scientific innovation that solved the mysterious thunderstorm crashes that were responsible for bringing down jumbo jets in the 70's and 80's. Between the 1950 and 1994, downbursts were the #1 cause of commercial airline crashes.

Only after Delta 191 crashed at DFW in 1985, did aviation and meteorologists finally embrace the concept of a microburst as a significant contributing factor in all these airline crashes. After the mystery was solved, Mike was instrumental in helping write the Wind Shear Training Aid that taught pilots how to stay safely out of downbursts. As a result we have gone almost 20 years with out an accident which means 19 potential crashes did not occur and over 2400 lives have been saved as a result of this discovery.



Mike tells the story from his book WARNINGS: The True Story of How Science Tamed the Weather about the courageous scientist, Dr. Ted Fujita, who along with Mike, makes everyone who flies today much safer.

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