Fox News Host Asks: Did The Metric System Bring Down AirAsia Flight QZ8501

Since AirAsia Flight QZ8501 went missing, there have been no shortage of explanations, recriminations, and conspiracies floated, but Fox News host Anna Kooiman’s speculation on Fox & Friends, wondering if the disappearance of the flight could be attributed to the metric system, could well take the cake.

Kooiman was speaking with former FAA spokesperson Scott Brenner on the possibility that something in the training processes of assorted foreign pilots could be leading to disappeared flights. Kooiman’s pondering whether the “real reason” Flight QZ8501 had disappeared didn’t take too long to go off course itself, and the Fox News host quickly found herself wondering if it had something to do with the “different way other countries train their pilots.”

“Even when we think about temperature, it’s Fahrenheit or Celsius,” Kooiman said. “It’s kilometers or miles. You know, everything about their training could be similar, but different.”

As Raw Story points out, Brenner wasn’t exactly encouraging of Kooiman’s assertion that the metric system could be the root cause of the plane’s disappearance.

“[A] lot of crashes are due to pilot error,” Brenner said. “So, if you try and eliminate any potential risk, you try and eliminate the pilot’s ability to make incorrect inputs into the aircraft.”

Kooiman, though, wasn’t ready to let the metric system off the hook in the case of the missing AirAsia flight.

“It’s not just a difference in the way that we measure things?” she asked. “Is it not as safe in that part of the world? Because our viewers may be thinking, ‘International travel, is it safe? Is it not safe?'”

Brenner countered that air travel was safe, even in countries that use the metric system.

“It’s the safest mode of travel you can have. But just on training,” Brenner continued, “I believe our U.S. pilots are very well trained… They also actually fly the aircraft when they’re up in the cockpit versus, a lot of times as soon as those wheels are up, a lot of times folks are required, foreign pilots are required to hit that autopilot almost until wheels come back down again.”