A Pilot’s Final Flight, a Rocket’s Abort, and a Robot at the UN

On 11 October 1999, Air Botswana pilot Chris Phatswe took off without authorisation in a grounded ATR 42, circled Gaborone’s main airport whilst expressing grievances over his employment and illness, then crashed into two other grounded aircraft, destroying the airline’s entire fleet in a single act. The same date in 2018 saw Soyuz MS-10 abort two minutes after launch when a booster failed to separate, marking the first in-flight abort for a Soyuz mission in 35 years; cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Nick Hague landed safely on the Kazakh steppe. In 1976, the US Congress posthumously promoted George Washington to General of the Armies, ensuring he would hold permanent seniority over all other American officers, past, present and future. And in 2017, Sophia, a humanoid robot developed by Hanson Robotics, appeared at the United Nations in New York before being granted Saudi Arabian citizenship, becoming the first robot to hold national citizenship anywhere in the world. Four moments where human decisions, engineering systems and symbolic gestures met the eleventh of October with consequences both tragic and strange.

Chapters

• Intro Clara introduces the episode with a reflection on stories where the facts become increasingly difficult to reconcile with human behaviour, setting up the eleventh of October as a date marked by dramatic and deeply personal aviation incidents.
• The Pilot Who Flew It Anyway On 11 October 1999, Air Botswana pilot Chris Phatswe, in the midst of a labour dispute and having been diagnosed with a serious illness, took off without authorisation in a grounded ATR 42 from Gaborone’s main airport. He circled whilst communicating his grievances to air traffic control, then deliberately crashed into two other grounded ATR 42s, destroying all three aircraft and wiping out the airline’s operational capacity. Phatswe was the only fatality. The airline suspended all services and took years to recover.
• Soyuz MS-10: The Rocket That Changed Its Mind On 11 October 2018, a Soyuz rocket carrying Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and American astronaut Nick Hague aborted approximately two minutes after launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome when a booster failed to separate correctly. The abort system activated, separating the descent module and allowing both crew members to land safely on the Kazakh steppe. It was the first in-flight abort for a Soyuz mission in 35 years.
• George Washington Gets a Promotion On 11 October 1976, during America’s Bicentennial, Congress posthumously promoted George Washington to General of the Armies of the United States, with the specific stipulation that he holds seniority over all other officers, past, present and future. The act ensured that no one, including five-star generals from the Second World War, could technically outrank the founding general.
• Sophia at the UN On 11 October 2017, Sophia, a humanoid robot developed by Hanson Robotics, appeared at the United Nations in New York during an event on sustainable development. Shortly afterwards, Saudi Arabia granted Sophia citizenship, making her the first robot to hold national citizenship anywhere in the world, despite widespread technical criticism that her AI capabilities were largely scripted performance rather than genuine general intelligence.
• Outro Clara closes by reflecting on the eleventh of October as a date marked by tragedy, engineering, symbolic gestures and human decisions that reveal both absurdity and humanity.

Links

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Botswana_ATR_42_crash
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_MS-10
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_of_the_Armies
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_(robot)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Seretse_Khama_International_Airport
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATR_42
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baikonur_Cosmodrome