Tintin Forums

Tintinologist.org Forums / Official Tintin books /

Tintin in Tibet: Problem with the plane crash...?

harishankar
Member
#1 · Posted: 19 Jun 2007 17:17
Hi,

As I understand Chang's plan of travel: He first flies from Hong Kong to India and then to Nepal to meet his father's cousin. So far so good. There's obviously no direct flight to Nepal from elsewhere. So he travels from Patna to Katmandu.

How does that plane end up crashing deep in Tibetan region? Nepal is a neighbouring country of India and nowhere does the plane need to fly over Tibet.

Here is a map of India to have a good idea of what I'm talking about.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/india/images/IndiaMap_tou rism.gif

Is there any reason how Hergé came to make such an obvious mistake?
Ranko
Member
#2 · Posted: 19 Jun 2007 20:25
I don't believe it was a mistake by Hergé. Remember we are talking about an aircraft that, by todays standards, had rather primitive equipment.

I don't believe they would have had weather radar thus allowing them the luxury of flying around the storm. Nor could they have flown above it. (it was a violent storm, remember) Violent storms like that can reach upwards of 40,000 feet. Given the DC-3's ceiling of 24,000 feet, they would have been right in the thick of it.
Given the ferocity of the storm, it is reasonable to suspect that they were blown significantly off course. These planes only had rudimentary navigation equipment. They basically had a set of radio beacons on the ground that an aircraft tuned to and flew in the direction of the signal. No GPS here.

My guess is the pilots had absolutely no idea where they were and were not getting adequate information from what instruments they did have.

Unfortunately, this occurrence has been the cause of a few tradgedies in the aviation industry.
harishankar
Member
#3 · Posted: 20 Jun 2007 03:40
Hmm... but according to the story the crash site was way, way off course and far to the north of Katmandu which is the destination. The journey was from Patna which is from the South.

The expedition undertaken by Tintin, Haddock and Tharkey proves the distance between the two points. What you are saying is that they missed Katmandu so as to get lost in the storm. They must have actually flown above and beyond Katmandu and then crossed the Nepal border to get to the snowy mountainous regions of Tibet. Why couldn't they have landed in Katmandu? The storm wasn't actually happening over Katmandu, was it? A little confusing.

It's probably too thin an explanation. However, it seems the best at the moment. Thanks, Ranko for your thoughts.
Ranko
Member
#4 · Posted: 20 Jun 2007 16:43
No problem, harishankar.

You have raised an interesting question. (Well, to an avaition nut like me, anyway!)

I wonder if any other members have got some thoughts on this?
harishankar
Member
#5 · Posted: 20 Jun 2007 17:52
Ranko, I actually didn't notice this for a long, long time. Tintin is so convincing that I usually miss details like these. Only reading it recently and checking a map to make doubly sure, I realized how far off course the location of the crash was from any point in the actual route.

It had to be one heck of a storm to have driven them to the desolate, snow-capped mountain in Tibet! Katmandu is not even close to the Tibet border according to current maps.

I thought somebody would have already posted a topic on this. On retrospect it seems very obvious.

However, none of this detracts from the actual story which is a gem, but I thought it would be interesting to discuss this.
jockosjungle
Member
#6 · Posted: 20 Jun 2007 17:55
Interesting topic, I'm not sure that aviation was so primitive that they wouldn't know what country they are flying in.

I think you'll find that flying though took on many stop overs and they would fly zig zag from airport to airport (look at Indiana Jones flying map).

I've never really thought about it enough to look at a map. I imagine Herge would have done though he was a stickler for details.
harishankar
Member
#7 · Posted: 20 Jun 2007 18:02
jockosjungle
I think you'll find that flying though took on many stop overs and they would fly zig zag from airport to airport (look at Indiana Jones flying map).

I actually thought of that possibility, but Patna to Katmandu is almost a straight North-South line. Any flight with multiple stops would have stopped first at Katmandu before proceeding northward to Tibet.

But it's interesting to speculate... :-)
tregenza
Member
#8 · Posted: 20 Jun 2007 21:47
I've just put together a Google maps of (almost all) Tintin's adventures. Here are the markers for Tintin in Tibet:

Dead link removed - Moderator, 14/01/2017

Here is a link to show all the markers:

Dead link removed - Moderator, 14/01/2017

Chris

Please be sure to familiarize yourself with the Forum Posting Guidelines.

Disclaimer: Tintinologist.org assumes no responsibility for any content you post to the forums/web site. Staff reserve the right to remove any submitted content which they deem in breach of Tintinologist.org's Terms of Use. If you spot anything on Tintinologist.org that you think is inappropriate, please alert the moderation team. Sometimes things slip through, but we will always act swiftly to remove unauthorised material.

Reply

 Forgot password
Please log in to post. No account? Create one!