Viable

An accident report has just been released by the UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB). From that and the eyewitness accounts, here's what transpired at 3:35pm on Nov. 19, 2010:

A Cessna aircraft approaching Birmingham Airport in thick fog struck a 50' flight-guiding antenna. The plane made a hard landing near the runway and caught fire. A man playing golf nearby described, "As it was coming to land it was on fire and as as it approached the runway it looked like it was leaning to one side slightly. Then, once it hit the runway there were sort of flames alongside the runway then it broke into a big fireball." First responders were on the scene within 3 minutes and extinguished the flames. There were no passengers on board. The captain was trapped in his seat and forced to use his fire extinguisher and oxygen mask. Suffering serious injuries to his chest, abdomen, and pelvis, he was treated at the scene and flown to the hospital. He had been helped to extricate himself by the pilot of the helicopter, who was commended for his presence of mind: “The Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance pilot bravely entered the burning wreckage, using his aviation and technical knowledge to locate and cut the fuel supply to the engine." The co-pilot, suffering back pain and flash burns, was able to extricate himself and was transported by ambulance.

Here's what makes this accident - which closed the airport for hours - especially notable: the pilot and co-pilot had just collected a donor liver at Belfast Aldergrove Airport and were transporting it to Birmingham. The organ came through unscathed. It was successfully recovered from the Cessna, taken under police escort to Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and successfully transplanted into a patient on the "super urgent" list. Transplant surgeon Simon Bramhall explained, "Patients on this list only have a matter of days to survive, so in this particular instance it was crucially important that the donor liver was used and has functioned successfully." The hospital released a statement that the patient was stable after a 4-hour operation, and praised the crew and rescuers: "The transplant team would like to thank the pilot of the light aircraft and his colleague for their bravery. Our thoughts are with the individuals and their families. The team would also like to thank the quick-thinking of the fire and rescue teams at the scene who saved the organ."

Sources: Belfast Telegraph, Birmingham Mail, Guardian, SkyNews, Star, Telegraph

Follow-ups

Views from space 1/11/09 An incredible photograph that shows an avalanche on Mars!

Recent feral children 1/10/09 "Cambodian jungle girl" Rochom P'ngieng, who spent 18 years in the jungle before being found and returned to her family in 2007, has begun to speak again.

Follow-ups 1/9/09 In a follow-up to a follow-up, I linked to a story about a chicken in a sweater. Apparently, it's not the only chicken to be sporting clothing.

Hit and (unsuccessful) run 1/6/09 A 23-year-old woman inTokyo struck and killed an 80-year-old pedestrian, then drove 8km home with the woman's body lodged in her windshield.

Follow-ups 1/4/09 In this set of follow-ups, I linked to a story about a dog whose strangled tongue had swollen to several times normal size. Here is a story about a dog learning to cope after getting its tongue stuck in a paper shredder.

2009 in review 12/31/09 While USA Today suggests that the word "tweet" be tossed, the American Dialect Society has voted it the 2009 Word of the Year.

Eye news 11/21/09 Recent news articles about special effects contact lenses and prisoners tattooing the whites of their eyes sent me searching for weird contact lenses: cat eyes, spirals, fire, Hello Kitty, and extra-wide for that anime look (pictured). And if those aren't strange enough, here are some that offer eye jewelry.

Alligator urban legends 11/14/09 Some photos of Nile crocodiles hatching from their eggs.

Circus animals on the lam 11/13/09 The hippo at a private zoo in Montenegro has escaped in a flood.

Library of Human Imagination 11/9/09 Another wealthy man, Scott Jones, has been able to outfit the house of his dreams - including this spiral stair slide!

Fatal coyote attack 11/2/09 Two boys in British Columbia, Canada, were saved from cougar attacks - one by his dog and the other by his Mom. By the way, the cougar, puma, and mountain lion are all the same animal.

Happy Halloween! 10/31/09 My Mom pointed out an article in a magazine about the town of Collinsville, Connecticut, where we lived in the late 1970s/early 1980s. Who knew that after I moved away, a huge Halloween tradition would begin?! I found lots of other celebrations of my favorite holiday on the web: Greenwich Village, New York; Meadville, Media, and Nazareth, Pennsylvania; Little Five Points, Georgia; Anoka, Minnesota; Toms River, New Jersey; Morris Cove, Connecticut; North Halsted, Illinois; West Hollywood, California; Bonner Springs, Kansas; Wellfleet, Massachusetts; Rutland, Vermont; Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Key West, Florida; and Georgetown in Washington, D.C. Good to see so much spirit out there!

Shackleton 10/28/09 Here is a fascinating look inside the hut used by British explorer Robert F. Scott on his Antarctic expedition.

The Mary Rose 10/15/09 A 1925 Bugatti that spent 73 years at the bottom of a Swiss lake has been raised and auctioned.

World's heaviest insects 8/28/09 CBS Sunday Morning featured the insect art of Christopher Marley.

Femur scepter 7/18/09 Scientists in Italy have developed a way of turning rattan wood into bone that is almost identical to the human tissue.

Hazards of hail 6/16/09 A woman in Lakeland, Florida, has kept a "pet snowball" in her freezer for 33 years!

"Seven Pounds" 6/14/09 A man fishing off the side of huge ship off north Queensland, Australia, was stung by a jellyfish that was carried up 25M by a spray of water. A woman in Buffalo, New York, had to make the agonizing decision of who to donate her kidney to - her brother or her sister.

Oldtimer 6/6/09 Miep Gies, the Dutch woman who hid Anne Frank and her family for 2 years and saved the teenager's diary, has died at the age of 100. Dorothy Geeben, America's oldest active mayor, has died at the age of 102. Joe Rollino, famous Coney Island strongman, was struck and killed by a car at 104. Frank Knight, a Maine centenarian, has to cut down a 240-year-old tree that he has been nursing for 50 years.

Elusive animals 6/4/09 An invertebrate zoologist in South Carolina has determined that the green sea slug produces enough chlorophyll to be considered both an animal and a plant. Scientists have found that killer whales in the North Atlantic are in the process of splitting into 2 different species. A nocturnal cricket that pollinates orchids has been discovered on an island in the Indian Ocean. A new and very large (14cm) spider has been found in Israel. And a new species of bird has been discovered in the Borneo rainforest (it's rather nondescript, so I almost didn't include it, but I like the phrase "snacking on mistletoe").

Whales, articulated and dismantled 5/28/09 In this post, I linked to a time-lapse video of the installation of a humpback whale skeleton at the Museum of Osteology. Here is a time-lapse video of an army of ants reducing a lizard to bone.

Vultures 5/4/09 The house and lawn of a woman in Ridgeway, Virginia, have been besieged by a flock of 30-35 hostile vultures.

Bears in the news 4/24/09 A bear of mythical proportions is terrorizing the inhabitants of Incline Village, California. After a bear ravaged his plane in Alaska, a charter pilot patched it up with duct tape and plastic sheeting and flew it home.

Rediscovery of ancient Egypt 4/19/09 A massive statue of an Egyptian pharoah has been found in the Sudan - further south than any other.

Tree tales 4/14/09 There has been a trend on the coast of Poole, Dorset, U.K.: gouging the trunks of trees that block the view so that they will die.

Fossil fuels 3/25/09 Coal in Xuan Wei county of Yunnan province, China, has been linked to the area's highest incidence of cancer in non-smokers.

Snow ropes 1/27/09 In this post were snow photos taken by my brother-in-law in Seattle. Here is a photo my Uncle Chuck took recently in Illinois showing the Mississippi River frozen over. Here are some pictures of snow bales taken in Yeovil, Somerset, U.K., recently. Speaking of snow and ice, a Canadian man was forced to take down this great snow fort that he made for his kids.

First U.S. face transplant! 12/17/08 A Swedish teenager does not need a face transplant after a devastating skin disease (caution), because her own face grew back. Meanwhile, a woman from Belgium has a new windpipe - transplanted from a cadaver and first implanted in her arm to grow new blood vessels.

Fatal tiger mauling 10/28/08 A 66-year-old Canadian man who kept exotic cats has been mauled to death by his tiger.

Follow-ups

Whales, articulated and dismantled My first follower Angie linked me to her ex-husband Grant's website because he wrote the score for a documentary about humpback whales. And Megan forwarded this link from Monday about the disposal of a dead whale on a Delaware beach (they harvested the skull and buried the body).
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The house that May (re)built Follower Kent writes, "I loved the post about May Savidge. I have an ongoing interest in the amazing things that people can accomplish when they are devoted to a cause over a long period of time." He also suggests I consider allowing comments on the site - I may at some point, but until I do, readers are welcome to e-mail me!
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The art of David Teniers the Younger After seeing my post on Teniers' monkey paintings, my Mom pointed out that it was fashionable to upholster Chippendale couches in monkey print fabric, and I found an example here.
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Giraffe evolution Shortly after this post, an anecdote about the remarkable memory of giraffes appeared in the news.

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Face transplant A second face transplant has already been performed in the U.S., on a 59-year-old man who was disfigured in an accident in a Boston subway station.

Autotomy If the video of the wriggling detached lizard tail gave you the creeps, this newly posted video of a Chinese speed-cooking contest will really make your skin crawl!
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Robo-animals Here's another story about an animal outfitted with a customized prosthetic - this time a turtle now named "Tonka" for obvious reasons!
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Seahorses and sea dragons Scientists have pieced together how seahorses evolved to swim standing up. In another story, a seahorse has been saved after being dropped 3 miles inland by a seagull.
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Poisonous plants Friends Megan and Erin pointed out this article about a garden of poisonous plants cultivated by the author of a new book.

Disturbingly young parents DNA tests have proven that 12-year-old Alfie Patten did not impregnate his girlfriend Chantelle Stedman. Instead, her baby Maisie was fathered by a boy who was 14 at the time.
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Killer chimpanzees Two new developments in the mauling of Charla Nash: 1) Stamford, Conn., police have confirmed the presence of Xanax in the animal's system before the attack, and 2) A judge has frozen $10 million in assets belonging to the chimp's owner, since the Nash family is suing her for $50 million.
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Frank Buckland Researchers have decoded the genetic mutations responsible for the rare condition of "bearded lady" Julia Pastrana, who is mentioned and pictured in this post.

First U.S. face transplant!

The Cleveland Clinic announced yesterday that reconstructive surgeon Dr. Maria Siemionow had performed the first face transplant in the U.S. a couple of weeks ago. The patient's name, age, and photo have not been released, although there is a press conference scheduled for today. The first face transplant was performed in France in 2005 on a woman who had been attacked by a dog. The face of a man attacked by a bear was repaired in China in 2006. And a third transplant was done in France last year on a man disfigured by neurofibromatosis. As these photos show, a transplanted face improves the appearance dramatically, but does not transfer the donor's look to the recipient - the family would not recognize the face of their deceased loved one on the street!