The Portland science teacher who found the door plug that flew off an Alaska Airlines plane spoke about his crucial discovery and even explained the physics behind the object’s fall from 16,000 feet.
Bob Sauer, 64, who teaches at the private Catlin Gabel school, was previously identified only by his first name after locating the door plug of the ill-fated Boeing 737 MAX 9 two days after Friday’s explosion.
The physics professor decided to grab a flashlight and search his yard Sunday night after his ex-wife called him to inform him that authorities believed the gate may have landed in the area, The Oregonian reported.
“It still didn’t seem very likely to me,” Sauer told NBC News Monday night.
He shined his light on some trees he and his children had planted about 20 years ago in the West Haven-Sylvan neighborhood and noticed a white object that he quickly realized was the “missing piece of the plane.”
”It was definitely an airplane part. It had the same curvature as the fuselage and it had a window,” Sauer told The Oregonian of the 65-pound object, which did not appear to have hit the ground hard.
As a physics professor, he wondered if a tree had softened the landing of the heavy door, which miraculously did not hit anyone or cause property damage.
The door stopper landed in the Sauer trees after falling 16,000 feet. National Transportation Safety Board/AFP via Getty Images
Sauer quickly alerted the National Transportation Safety Board about his chance find as the agency held a news conference, where Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy shared the good news.
“We’re so glad Bob found this,” he said, using only his first name. “Let’s pick it up and make sure we start analyzing it.”
On Monday morning, NTSB officials who arrived to inspect the door were ecstatic to find it in one piece and took it to Sauer’s front yard, where they took photographs.
This photo released by the National Transportation Safety Board shows the door plug on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 on Monday. AP The team explained that the door did not fall directly into Sauer’s yard. AP
The crew told him that the door had not fallen from the plane just above.
He explained that air resistance, wind speed and the speed of the plane influenced the landing location.
When Sauer arrived at school later in the morning for his astronomy class, several students and teachers were already waiting in anticipation to ask, “Are you Bob?”
Plastic sheeting covers an area of the fuselage of Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 N704AL aircraft outside a hangar at Portland International Airport. Getty Images A woman named Diane Flaherty found an airplane headrest in her Oregon backyard. AP The missing plug at the door of the Alaska Airlines flight. ZUMAPRESS.com
He spent the first part of the class discussing the physics involved in falling, including reaching terminal velocity, the maximum speed an object can reach when falling, according to the outlet.
“When something falls through the air, it will reach a final velocity,” he told The Oregonian. “The door went through the tree, so it didn’t leave any indentations or anything on the ground.”
Sauer, who has taught physics, astronomy, geology and chemistry at Catlin Gabel for 23 years, showed off the NTSB “Special Operations” patch and a board member medallion he received for his efforts.
Homendy said the NTSB offered to send officials to Sauer’s class for a presentation on how the agency conducts such investigations to improve safety.
“If it wasn’t finals week, I would have tried to address that,” he told NBC News after lamenting that he was falling behind in his students’ grades.
But he told The Oregonian that he was definitely “curious about what really happened that caused this,” referring to the incident that left a gaping hole in the plane’s fuselage and threatened the safety of all 177 people on board.
Meanwhile, he signs his notes and emails: “The Bob, finder of lost airplane parts.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn