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Crew of Boeing 757 reports near miss with lawnmower

independent.co.uk — A plane carrying almost 200 passengers had a close shave with a tractor lawnmower as it landed on a foggy night, it was disclosed today. The driver of the sit-on mower did not even notice the Boeing 757 until its wing passed over his head as he cut grass near runways at Dublin Airport.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jul 1, 2009

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  • Ninh, on 07/01/2009, -0/+68At 30,000 feet this would have been even scarier.
  • fluidfoundation, on 07/01/2009, -0/+50Gotta be careful when you're trimming near a landing strip.
  • tbhurst, on 07/01/2009, -3/+40I thought this was going to be an Onion story!
  • borez, on 07/01/2009, -0/+34Not really, it's when the grass is asleep, so no suffering.
  • mac888, on 06/30/2009, -0/+26an odd hour to be trimming the verge, don't you think?
  • AmyVernon, on 07/01/2009, -0/+25And far more interesting.
  • sh1tman, on 07/01/2009, -0/+23Good thing you posted...now everyone knows you got the joke!
  • borez, on 07/01/2009, -0/+22Plane saved from cutting edge technology.
  • BMPOvojvoda, on 07/01/2009, -0/+21Title of story should be "Near merger between John Deere and Boeing announced"
  • OutpostNetwork, on 07/01/2009, -1/+18Now that's cutting it close!
  • DeskFlyer, on 07/01/2009, -0/+17"The mower had no rear lighting or flashing beacon and it was not equipped with any airband radio equipment capable of listening out on the control tower frequency"

    And someone still it would be a good idea for this guy to be out mowing near a runway at 3am in the fog.
  • dieboldcracy, on 07/01/2009, -1/+17it's Ireland. the standard protocol for mowing grass is midnight, a sit down mower, a bottle of Jameson, and a cassette walkman spinnin the Chieftans, at least he was sober enough to be cutting the grass and not the asphalt.
  • borez, on 07/01/2009, -0/+14Reminds me of pilot who ejected and is tumbling towards the ground after a parachute failure when he spots another man coming up through the clouds.

    Pilot: "Mate do you know anything about parachutes?"

    Man: " No, but there again... I'm not too hot on gas cookers either!"



  • ayeroxor, on 07/01/2009, -1/+15Carlin understood why it was called a Near Miss. He was just making fun of the term. But if you think about it, it's obvious that it's called a "near miss" is because of the extreme proximity when the collision was avoided; the term is intended to differentiate between extremely close calls, such as passing within a quarter-mile of each other, and less dangerous but still should-never-happen passes at just under a mile. One is a near miss, the other is just dangerously close - a not-so-near miss.
  • asgardshill, on 07/01/2009, -0/+12No *****. First, what idiot sent him out at 3 AM to mow? Second, what idiot sent him out when they knew they were going to recover an aircraft at that hour and/or didn't recall him when they knew there was an aircraft coming in?
  • Treshnell, on 07/01/2009, -3/+12They should have done what I did. Taught my grass to be emo. It cuts itself, now.
  • Haplin, on 07/01/2009, -0/+7I should be complaining about your miss-informed stereotyping of us Irish but I just can't stop ***** laughing.
  • anexanhume, on 07/01/2009, -0/+6http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNWfqVWC2KI
  • DMin, on 07/01/2009, -0/+6I'm going to guess that the 757 would have won, anyway.
  • inactive, on 07/01/2009, -0/+6Being the safety conscious guy that he is, he probably had on his plugs and muffs.
  • Travelsonic, on 07/01/2009, -1/+7For that? Jeez, I can think of many better reasons to outright block somebody than because theytake to heart a standup comic's words.
  • down4twenty, on 07/01/2009, -0/+5http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-138064290 ...

    did it look like that?
  • fluidfoundation, on 07/01/2009, -0/+4I don't get it.
  • Suzilla, on 07/01/2009, -0/+4Good thing the lawnmower had already landed.

    (Wonder what type rating you need to fly one of those.)
  • walgman, on 07/01/2009, -1/+5Not for an Irishman it isn't. :)
  • ftc08, on 07/01/2009, -1/+5Was he completely deaf? I live near an airport, you can hear them from a mile away easily.
  • LordStryker, on 07/01/2009, -2/+5Lectric shave!
  • sjbdallas, on 07/01/2009, -0/+3He was wearing his Bose Quiet Comfort 2 headphones.
  • naner, on 07/01/2009, -0/+3Versus the 120+ dB roar of his mower and the ear protection he's wearing, no... probably not.
  • BossKey, on 07/01/2009, -0/+3If you live or work near an airport, you don't pay attention to the plane sounds because there's one taking off or landing every minute.
  • sjbdallas, on 07/01/2009, -0/+3"Tower, we're observing an unidentified object at our 6'oclock. Moving at a slow rate of speed, no wings or engines we can observe, and it appears to be throwing off some kind of greenish substance"
  • FeloniusMonkey, on 07/01/2009, -0/+2I regret to say that I expected this to be the case before I read the article.
  • AmazingSteve, on 07/01/2009, -0/+2The wingtip of a 757 is almost 15 feet in the air when it's on the ground. There was no danger of it hitting anything and even if it had, it would have made meat of the mower and it's rider without skipping a beat.
  • UEichen, on 07/01/2009, -4/+6It's not a near miss... It's a near hit!!
  • breckinshire, on 07/01/2009, -0/+2It's surprisingly maneuverable.
  • JulyZerg, on 07/01/2009, -0/+2He's not just a standup comic, he's a god...
  • emjaysea, on 07/01/2009, -0/+2Hey, I've landed at that airport--it's more grass than runway!
  • seanoneil14, on 07/01/2009, -0/+2dugg for LotR
  • LordVance, on 07/01/2009, -0/+2That video is made of pure awesome.
  • inactive, on 07/01/2009, -0/+2Where???
  • lukeduke, on 07/02/2009, -0/+1I really thought this would be from the Onion...since every other poster is saying it
  • solid12345, on 07/01/2009, -0/+1That pilot was a cut above the rest!
  • zbeast, on 07/01/2009, -0/+1Because in the yemen crash, there's nothing new to report.
    They found the plane, they found the black boxes, they found the body's.

    In the case of the french crash.. they got the tail of the plane and 6 bodys.
    There's a lot more story there.

    Besides, the yemen air line was reported as being a cattle car..
    Ban from flight into a few country's because of there poor quality.

  • machine117, on 07/04/2009, -0/+1People don't know George Carlin apparently.
  • Xidewinde, on 07/21/2009, -0/+1What's a mountain goat doing way up here in the clouds?
  • fotoman607, on 07/01/2009, -0/+1When I read the headline I was thinking, "what in the world is a lawnmower doing up in the air".
  • skit4king, on 07/01/2009, -0/+1Whossshhh, over the head... like talking to your girlfriend.
  • inactive, on 07/01/2009, -0/+1why the hell is the news completely ignoring the Yemen airplane crash that killed 100s. yet they spent days covering the french accident. not to mention that in the opening paragraph of an article mentioned: By the way, 66 were french.
  • adriaaan, on 07/01/2009, -0/+1At the speeds which the 757 travel at I'm sure that a lawnmower-collision would be quite devastating.
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