Is Ep. 13 a Homage to the real Walter White midair disaster ?
Is Ep. 13 a Homage to the real Walter White midair disaster ?
In the last 30 years (i.e. 1979 - 2009) how many civilian midair collision , involving two planes, do you think have occurred in the continental U.S. ? Only One ! It involved an Aeromexico commercial jet and a private Piper prop plane.
And how did this incident occur ? An inexperienced Air Traffic Controller became distracted and did not notice the Piper prop plane.
And what was the name of the distracted Traffic Controller that caused the accident ? WALTER WHITE !
Similarities between Ep. 13 and real crash of Aeromexico 498:
(1) In the ABQ episode and the 489 collision who do we hold partially responsible ?
-- In both cases a man named Walter White.
(2)In both cases what is the mitigating cause of the crash ? Air Traffic Controller that was distracted and, for certain reasons, still required supervision.
(3)What time of day the collisions occur ?
--The ABQ collision seems to occur late in the morning i.e. aerial pictures show short shadows so sun is almost directly overhead. So this is probably late morning or early afternoon.
--The 489 collision occurred shortly before noon.
(4) What does the transcript of the different collisions look like ?
ABQ:
(plane call letter) + "descend to one zero thousand"
Two more lines of misc. chatter
Emergency tone fills controllers ears and radar screen shows visual warning
Real 489
(plane call letter) + "is leaving one zero thousand"
Two more lines of misc. chatter
Sound of LAX ATIS starts
(5) What kind of area did planes eventually end up ? Suburban , single dwellings area of town. One in a suburban area population 51000 the other population 510000.
(6) From a distance what do the two crash sites look like ?
ABQ: Walt's pool in the foreground, with debris all about with 2 large columns of dark smoke in the background.
Real 489: Pictures ( see links ) shows two houses in foreground with pools and then in the background debris and two columns of dark smoke.
(7) Were their references or inferences to bears in both incidents?
ABQ: A pink bear falls from the ski
489: A piper plane heading to Bear Lake falls from the ski.
Is it reasonable to assume people in the film industry would be exposed to information about the real crash ?
The collision happened over LA
The LA community of Cerritos has a public statue memorial to the event
A documentary of the event has been was created in 2007 and has been aired on public television several times.
Sources:
(Stats on US Collisions) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-air_collision
(Crash Pic and details ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerom%C3%A9xico_Flight_498
(Radio Transcript ) http://www.pilotfriend.com/disasters/crash/videos/08.31.86.htm
(documentary Vid clip) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSL9gSe2XMg
- (2)
OMG, I found this article before about this crash, and you're right! It can't be a coincidence that the mid-air collision had to do with a Walter White! The other similarities are scary too! I'll bet a million dollars that this real-life incident was the inspiration for the crash in the show!
Hi James26 :
Yes, there seems to be a heck of allot of similarities ! There's only one midair collision in 30 years and the ATC is Walter White ! The part that really spooked me was to read the similarities in the transcript and then looking at the birds-eye view of both the ABQ and 489 ! Have you compared the two pics ?
These matches were found very quickly ... I'm still looking at both to nail down such things as ; time of year, time of day , Types of planes involved , number of passengers , source and destinations .... etc.
So I'm hoping some other BB viewers will take up the challenge and see what similarities they can find ;-)
If it’s not a coincidence then which came first ? When Vince named his character Walter White did he do so already aware of the collision ? Or was it that after Naming the character, Walter White, then one of the writers in season 2 said.. “ hey wasn’t there a Walter White that caused and air disaster” …. Lets include that in the story line !
I love the show "Breaking Bad" and wish to see more good
shows. Look forward to Sunday at 10:00 p.m. to see the show
on our TV.
Walt White and Jesse are the perfect combination and they
never step out of character.
I could ramble on-and-on about the excellent writing and
acting on the show, however space is limited.
Am a very conservative grandmother of 70 yrs. and do not like
shows about drugs and violence. This show is totally unpre-
dictable as to what will happen next and keeps everyone interested. When will you continue this series with the same
actors.
I love the show "Breaking Bad" and wish to see more good
shows. Look forward to Sunday at 10:00 p.m. to see the show
on our TV.
Walt White and Jesse are the perfect combination and they
never step out of character.
I could ramble on-and-on about the excellent writing and
acting on the show, however space is limited.
Am a very conservative grandmother of 70 yrs. and do not like
shows about drugs and violence. This show is totally unpre-
dictable as to what will happen next and keeps everyone interested. When will you continue this series with the same
actors.
Nimrod-Yeah, I thought the same thing. Vince probably named the character first, and then maybe between seasons 1 and 2 he found out about that plance crash. There was also another Walter White who I think was the leader of the NAACP. I should look up more facts about that plane crash too. If there were 167 people killed in it, then that definitely proves the connection!!!
same-More proof of how great a show BB is if a conservative grandmother is watching it, lol. I love that the show appeals to all different ages and backgrounds! :)
Deaths in the real disaster were 3 in piper , 64 in jet and 15 on the ground for a total of 82 . So , James, are you saying that there were 167 killed in the ABQ episode ?? I don't remember that part .
They didn't say it on the show, but on Breaking Bad's Twitter page, it said "Breaking Bad is killing 167 people!" And that was on the day the episode aired, so I'm assuming that's how many people died in the crash. Hmm, let's see...82 times two is 164...then you add three to get 167. Maybe I'm analyzing it too much, lol!
Jeez, I just looked at the picture of the real plane crash on Wikipedia, and I'll be damned if those pools in the foreground don't look EXACTLY like Walter's pool!!! All they need is a pink teddy bear floating in them...
Hi James26:
Yes I saw the picture pretty after I started digging and it was then I started to really wonder if this was a homage or not. Let's face it the writers love to hide things in scenes (i.e. the pink bear in the motel scene) and multiple tip-of-the had to old westerns etc. In other words the writers have a predisposition for this sort of thing.
So some info. is floating around on numbers killed heh ? So have you come across any on types of planes involved i.e. Passenger Jets vs. private prop planes ? I'm thinking if I watch the ATC radar screen carefully enough I might be able to pick up a bit more intel ... what do you think ?
Okay - so putting aside all the comparisons cause it seems like they probably did use the real event as story.... but what I think is if so... that's kind of screwed up of the writers to do so..for the victims and the inexperienced controller deemed the cause .... picking apart a real tradegy and making the pieces story lines of a fictitious entertainment show.
Well...whatever.. I don't really care... just sounded a bit wrong and figured that's what I'd write about.
Also, if anything I believe the show would be trying to express a message about blame. In the actual event...blame was equally placed upon not only Walter but the pilot of the smaller, private plane.. I don't have time to research the event but inexperience should technically place a bit of blame on superiors.
The show - it truly wasn't Walter's fault... the death would have occurred whether or not he made that bs random visit. It was the fault of the young, dumb tweakers.
Not sure what exactly they would be trying to express - if anything - except it'd be about the placing and distribution of blame.
Hello skim Milk:
I think you make some very interesting points. Yes the plane crashes have lot's of blame to go around... as I said in my intro Walter White was seen partially to blame.
Should BrBa be using such events out of the real world ? I'm not sure they did... I'm just posing the question. However I do know there are several popular shows out there that do use true disasters and/or criminal cases to make an hour show of entertainment i.e. Mayday and First Gen. Law & Order to name 2.
You've indicated in the show Walter cannot be blamed for "the death" as it "would have occurred whether he made " .. "the random visit". If you talking about Janes death I would disagree ... he caused her to roll to her back and then did nothing about it. In fact in an interview Vince and Bryan both expressed feeling that Walt is partially responsible for her death.
Was the Character Walter partially responsible for the air disaster ? Many would say yes ... in fact Vince called it the butter fly effect of Walt allowing Jane to die.
I thought I read in one of Bryan's interviews his chemistry teacher was named Walter White .
I wonder if we have any Walter Whites who offed a lawyer or their wife's.
Walter White (1893-1955)
A native of Atlanta, Walter White served as chief secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1929 to 1955.
He's going to be working for Gus real soon and for quite some time.
http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-747
no more all wearing black
Walter White was in a red jumpsuit and shackles
"Of course he killed her. Take her up there, feed her some pills, give her booze,
then have his way with her."
no wonder skylar's mad
Today, prosecutors charged White with five felonies, including child abuse. They confirmed reports of a suicide-pact.
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=350601
Walter White has been identified as one of two men who robbed the victim, then shot him to death in the Kensington section of Philadelphia.
Season 3 episode 4 "Philadelphia" ;)
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=6088544
Damn, there's a lot of Walter Whites, and a lot of them have negative connotations! I guess it was a good name to give the character. But what does his middle name "Hartwell" mean?
Nimrod-I haven't found any other info yet, but let's keep looking! I bet there's more connections! :)
Yes I’m sure there are lot’s of Walter Whites out there. But that’s not the starting point of the question at hand. The starting point is that the midair crash in Ep. 313 has many similarities to the only midair crash that has happen in the US in the last thirty years. And with all these similarities, including the involvement of a “Walter White” in both situations, can it be attributed to coincidence or by design.
As the similarities between the ABQ and real midair crisis ( the only one in 30 years ) it becomes harder and harder to believe it be just coincidence.
They more than likely designed it that way. I think it's pretty clever!
This is awesome information! I don't think I ever heard of this crash. Way too ironic for it *not* to be tied into the episode.
I smell X-Files!
TWO MORE SIMILARITIES
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From reading Bschott’s post “ An Aviation geek’s take on the mid-air collision I’m seeing more “matches” between the real 489 and the ABQ midair collisions ;
• Both collisions involved one large Jet liner and one small plane
• In both collisions the ATC involved was the approach ATC
I'd love to get Bschott to take at look at this thread and get his/her opinion on the similarities
1979 - San Diego, a PSA B-727 collided with a smaller civilian plane on approach to Lindbergh field. No survivors, wasted a few Houses in an area known as North Park just east of the San Diego Zoo.