CNN Wanted To Rent A 777 For Their Missing Plane Coverage
CNN initially sought to rent a real 777 airplane for its coverage, but found it impossible. Individual airlines were also reluctant to make their simulators available. So CNN arranged time with the company uFly, from Mississauga, Ontario, near the Toronto airport, which has a simulator that is the same model of the plane lost in Asia.
Savidge, who had been vacationing in Australia when the plane went missing on March 8, was sent to Canada for one day on March 14 and returned home for the weekend. The response to his reports was so positive, CNN sent him back on March 17, and he's been there since. Other media organizations have sought to use the simulator but CNN blocks them by keeping it booked (the company won't say how much this is costing).
Instead of creating graphics, Savidge said it's valuable to show what instruments like the transponder that are talked about in news reports actually look like and where they are located in relation to a pilot.
Mostly, they use the machine to simulate what might happen under certain scenarios. This week, he asked Casado off-air to show what might happen to a 777 if it ran out of fuel. It proved horrific: lights flashed, alarms sounded, the nose pointed skyward while gravity pulled the plane down. It fell backward toward the ocean.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/cnns-savidge-not-ready-bust-out-cockpit
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