The flight to Rome on US Airways features an in-seat monitor with a real-time GPS map.
I noticed something very odd listed on it: "Titanic: 1912."
That's right — in addition to dots representing the cities over which you are flying, US Airways also helpfully shows passengers the precise location of the world's most famous maritime disaster (1,517 deaths).
But it's no anomaly — the airline also has points on its map for "Hollandia: 1743" and "Egypt: 1922."
276 passengers died when the Dutch East India Company's ship the Hollandia wrecked off the Isles of Scilly. After being torpedoed by a U-230, the SS Egypt sank off Ushant, Brittany. 86 perished.
Why does US Airways include shipwrecks on their airline GPS maps? Do they think the message Hey, you could just as easily die on a boat too! somehow soothes skittish airplane passengers?
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That GPS map of the US Airways looks interesting. I think they just include those shipwreck sites to counter the boredom of the passengers. It might keep some paranoid ones awake and alert.
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