Closeup Photos of Space Shuttle Enterprise Hitting a Bridge Abutment

[Gerard]

My photos of the shuttle hitting the bridge were featured on CNN most of the morning. They contacted me yesterday afternoon after seeing my pictures on this forum

Pretty cool (I guess) that CNN is lurking (?) here on this forum!! I believe they contacted Moose also buy not sure if they used his. BTW guys, if I may, how did they contact you? The Private Message
Inbox?

[Cary]

Cool stuff, Vinny. They also used Moose's photo right after yours in this piece:
http://earlystart.blogs.cnn.com/2012...iref=allsearch

I was surprised no one else made it out for sunrise...I was pretty much alone with the camera crews

[moose135]

Thanks for posting the link, Cary! I was watching CNN last night and didn't see anything, and just had the weather on this morning.

Gerard, there is a forum member connected with CNN - I won't mention any names - and he passed along the info to one of their producers. The producer e-mailed me yesterday afternoon, I provided the photos.

[Gerard]

Gerard, there is a forum member connected with CNN - I won't mention any names - and he passed along the info to one of their producers. The producer e-mailed me yesterday afternoon, I provided the photos.

Ah very nice. Thanks.

[TJK]

Congrats on getting the forum and the relevant pieces of photographic work the credit they deserve!

And it was also nice for that sort of publicity to come from something completely unlike that "my crazy obsession" learning channel concept their people floated to you guys.

[NickPeterman]

Congrats on some CNN coverage gentlemen, that is simply fantastic! I hear I may be in NYC later this summer, and may have to pay (see what I did there?) a visit to the Intrepid to see Enterprise in her new home.

[TJK]

Ehhh... I disagree. The Cradle is really run down and extremely out of date (except the IMAX dome). That place needs a major overhaul.

It could definitely use some work, but it does already have facility space already available, all without the use of a practice dome as I'm sure a certain painfully insecure and jealous "friend" of everyone's from TX would be quick to point out. The fact remains though that neither site would generate the tourist volume to negate the outrageousness of the cost that putting her in NYC does, unfortunately, despite the fact that either Long Island location I'm sure would make every effort to make a great home for her. Intrepid's gotten enough $ from me over the years that I won't be dropping more to see the shuttle since I've already seen her today and on three trips down to JFK. But I'm sure she'll get plenty of admiring tourist views marveling at this piece of aviation and space exploratory history and honestly that's probably what matters most.

[Perriwen]

It could definitely use some work, but it does already have facility space already available, all without the use of a practice dome as I'm sure a certain painfully insecure and jealous "friend" of everyone's from TX would be quick to point out.

[Vinny Ohare]

Moose Congrats it was an honor to have your pictures with mine on CNN.

They showed the same clip at least twice starting at 545 am. Around 10 am they switched the segment and only showed my pics and then they cut in and stopped showing our pics once the shuttle was on the move.

[captmjk16]

First off, Congrats on getting the national attention guys, great shots of an unfortunate incident!

BTW, take a look at this pic... the flag on the tug is blowing the other way. So, did the microburst cause the tug to push harder against the wind or was the wind blamed for the pushing in the direction of the pier? hmmm..

I'm thinking they either overcompensated for the wind (rear tug pushing it into the bridge) or just didn't pay attention, also, there's a chance that there was some swirling effect around the bridge/structure of the tug that caused the flag to be pointed a direction different from the prevailing breeze.

Can we all at least agree that Newark sucks ass?

Sure, along with Detroit and Flint, I may like certain elements of my state/hometown, but there's no way to deny that most of Detroit is currently a ****hole!

I just wish I could've just spraypainted over the frame damage on my team's race buggy rather than replacing frame members, I'll have to try the rattle can first next time and hope it passes tech.

[Vinny Ohare]

captmjk16

The wind on the bridge we were standing on came out of no where and you could see the storm behind us and off to the left. That tugboat probably held the shuttle from getting more damaged actually. I would of had the incident on video if the wind didn't move the video camera I had sitting on the ledge. It was a freak thing that all happened at once. My video camera was knocked to the side about 20 seconds before the shuttle hit the bridge. You can see them struggling with the wind. It was the only video I didn't put on youtube. Should I upload it?

[Vinny Ohare]

Here is the video and you can see the flags were all blowing in that direction. I bet that all changed at the same time it hit my camera and sent it to the right. As you can see in the video the camera was pretty steady until the gust came.

[gonzalu]

Vinny, what luck :-( Out of all the times the wind could knock out your camera it had to be at the money shot ... I should have done what you did and have a video cam trained on it too but I was too busy taking pictures. Maybe the Japanese News crew to our right got some close footage.

[captmjk16]

In my experience on the water, tug on that side of the barge seems like more of a potential liability than anything. Going through a narrow passage it makes more sense to be directly in trail to better provide directional control and provide a more narrow profile to the bridge. That said, you guys did a great job of covering it, and I think we can all be thankful that the damage is relatively minor.

If it makes you feel any better I missed the 2010 Matt Hall water touch at the Detroit/Windsor air race with BOTH cameras because I was an idiot while everyone around me ended up with great shots...

[Vinny Ohare]

gonzalu

I had the video camera on the ledge as I was shooting and when the guy next to me saw it wasn't tied down to anything he suggested that I tie it and I did and the wind still moved it. If it wasn't tied down it would have fell off the bridge for sure with that wind and I wouldn't of had the 7 videos. It totally sucks that I didn't get "The money shot" on video but it reaffirms that a wind got to the barge about 10 seconds after it passed by us.

If you were to my left I probably have some pictures of you on my cell phone shots that I took. I am sure there were many people from the board around me but since I am new I had no idea since I don't know everyone or what they look like yet.