Tonight's aviation-mishap report

I have not yet seen, but I heard many admiring previews of, a PBS Frontline show tonight (just minutes from now, on the East Coast) about last year's Colgan crash in Buffalo and the related problems of low-budget regional airlines. If you miss it, as I will in real time today, it will be available online starting tomorrow here. It is narrated by Miles O'Brien, known to the world as a long-time CNN figure and to me as a fellow pilot of Cirrus airplanes.

On the more positive side of recent aviation news, in case you have not yet heard enough about "Captain Sully" and the remarkable safe landing last summer of US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson, this site, by Exosphere3D in Denver, has some equally remarkable recreations of the event. My favorite is the one below (best viewed in full-screen), matching all the comment of all the controllers involved with a moving map of the plane, birds, etc. But there are lots more at the site:

Reader Michael Stoogenke, a geospatial analyst (who is not part of Exosphere3D), says this about the representations:

"Given the sophistication of the simulation, it's easy to overlook an important point -- the level of detail in the background mapping is very sophisticated. ExoSphere3D probably acquired the maps, aerial photos, and 3D buildings in the public domain or for relatively low cost. This type of thing would not have been possible 10 years ago (3-5 years for the 3D buildings). If the crash occurred between 2000 and 2007, ExoSphere3D  would have had to dole out thousands of dollars to obtain this level of detail in their sims. In the age of Google Earth, we now take this for granted. Indeed, we've come to expect it."