ark@alice.UUCP (Andrew Koenig) (11/22/84)
Ah yes: the National Transportation Safety Board was considered for a doublespeak award for "calling an airplane crash 'controlled flight into terrain.'" This is absurd! The NTSB is the organization that has responsibility, among other things, for determining the cause of airplane accidents. When you are determining the cause of an accident, it is important to classify the various types of accidents that can occur. Thus the NTSB uses "controlled flight into terrain" to mean an airplane crash in which the airplane was under control until it hit the ground. These are usually due to the pilot not knowing where the ground was, for any of a variety of reasons (altimeter set wrong, didn't read the charts, incorrect charts, bad instructions from controller, ice on the wings, etc.) Other types of crashes include "uncontrolled flight into terrain," "mid-air collision," "in-flight breakup," and so on. Do not mistake legitimate technical terminology for doublespeak!