Stowaway found dead after falling from British Airways plane

Groundpounder said:
I would have gotten a part time job, and saved my money for a ticket. Or gotten a credit card and put the ticket on there. They give credit cards to just about anyone these days.
Click to expand...

Is this sarcasm?

I really hope it is. I really hope people don't seriously think this is how the third world works.

I'd be interested to see how many have been to these places and especially how many have lived there. It's not America or Europe.
 
MikeD said:
Some Dustoff pilots transfer over from Cobra/Apache.
Click to expand...


Not by choice. :D I haven't met any gun bunnies who go fly the bandaid.

Now, I could see Dustoff pilots trying to transfer to Cav/Atk because they finally decide they've had it with flying around with a red/white bullseye on their butts and want to shoot back.
 
jwp_145 said:
There are many instances of a passenger falling out of a plane at altitude and surviving. I was just watching an episode of Mayday (Air Crash Investigation) and a lady fell 3km after a midair and lived.
Click to expand...


That's right. The fall doesn't kill them. ;)

Seriously though, folks who survive those events are the exceptions.
 
FM_Weasel said:
No no, there's no reversal here. What you said was messed up, full stop. I don't need to pretend to lack basic empathy to point out how screwed up your attitude is. You even put "victim" in quotes in your "apology." You've got some things to sort out.
Click to expand...
I guess my original post should have included "IMHO"....that seems to be the best way to state things here.

AND, I wasn't trying to reverse what I stated necessarily, just the crass manner in which it was interpreted. I do have both sympathy and empathy for people and those situations that deserve it. I don't believe that this guy is a victim; I think we all use that particular word to protect ourselves from offending someone in this "politically correct" country we live in. [case in point] I see the word "victim" used by the media to describe WAY to many situations.

By definition: VICTIM -
noun
noun: victim; plural noun: victims
  1. a person harmed, injured, or killed as a result of a crime, accident, or other event or action.
    synonyms: sufferer, injured party, casualty;More
    fatality, loss;
    loser
    "a victim of crime"
    • a person who is tricked or duped.
      "the victim of a hoax"
Now you can read this and believe that definition #1 meets the criteria because this clearly falls into the "or other event" portion. This guy is a "victim" of the forces of gravity but outside of that, he made a really poor decision that resulted in his death.

That having been stated, I see NO difference in what happened here than I find an ANY of the numerous situations you can see here:( http://www.darwinawards.com ).

I've seen a lot of serious injuries, death and dead people; not all would I consider "victims". Some were and some were "victims" of circumstance however, not all are a result of someone being "victimized".
 
Last edited:
Nark said:
Other then the fact she was Czech, and fell from 11,000 meters, what isn't true?
Click to expand...

She doesn't hold the record for the longest free fall without a parachute.

She does hold the record for the longest free fall without a parachute where the person survived.
 
fholbert said:
She doesn't hold the record for the longest free fall without a parachute.

She does hold the record for the longest free fall without a parachute where the person survived.
Click to expand...
The implication was survival.

d3a5e302c5cfe0e4388e06c880ea95ec.jpg
 
Listen kids.
When a stove is hot, you don't put your hand on it.
You don't run with scissors.
If you stowaway in the gear of a 747, your probably going to die.

Why are we required to have sympathy for these Darwin Award winners?

Get off your high and mighty horse. People die every day for doing stupid things. This is a prime example.

Life isn't precious. It's a commodity.
 
Nark said:
Listen kids.
When a stove is hot, you don't put your hand on it.
You don't run with scissors.
If you stowaway in the gear of a 747, your probably going to die.

Why are we required to have sympathy for these Darwin Award winners?

Get off your high and mighty horse. People die every day for doing stupid things. This is a prime example.

Life isn't precious. It's a commodity.
Click to expand...

As Jerry Seinfeld has said recently about not wanting to play colleges anymore, some people are just itching to be offended about anything and everything nowadays.
 
Nark said:
Life isn't precious. It's a commodity.
Click to expand...
This is just sad and depressing. When did we start viewing human beings as something to be traded or bought and sold or owned? Sorry, I can't subscribe to this kind of mindset. All humans have something of value, to some degree, to offer and their lives are far more important than some commercial "commodity" or object. When did we start to devalue people and subsequently in order to have this mindset, deny the humanity in ourselves?

We rail against employers treating their employees like so much chaff who are merely there for their disposal to make them a profit and then turn around and do the same thing to those people who we perceive as having a lessor value than ourselves. Nice.

We pretend to abhor human trafficking and slavery, those who are oppressed and denied human rights while mocking those who do not have the same education, experience, opportunity and resources as we do. Hypocritical at least. Damning at it's worse.

Let's then just destroy the last fibers of kindness, sympathy, empathy, understanding and caring while we are at it then.

Our lives are all that really matters in this life. It's not the things that make one satisfied or happy, it is the human connection to the lives of others and the ability to care about others and have them care for you that matters.
 
Last edited:
It doesn't "devalue" human life to acknowledge that someone who makes a decision to take an enormous risk has to accept the consequences when that risk doesn't pay off. Even an ignorant twit with no education at all knows that an airplane hurtles through the air at incredible speeds and incredible altitudes, so the idea that someone jumps on the landing gear of an airplane about to takeoff without understanding the incredible risk that he's accepting is laughable.
 
There are those who may be so desperate to escape their circumstances, so hopeless and without realistic resources, that they are willing to try almost anything to do so and perhaps in that mindset, make what we would deem unwise decisions to do so. This does not necessarily and automatically make them an "ignorant twit" who deserves to die or deserves to be mocked. Millions of people throughout history have taken all sorts of terrible risks (and many of them paid the price with their lives) in order to seek a better existence and flee from their environment.

It's very easy to sit in judgment in our own comfy, educated circumstances and judge those who may have nothing left to lose.

It's far easier to just say 'oh look at that dumbass, what did he expect' instead of trying to understand how he came to such a fateful decision and perhaps have empathy for a life so fraught with serious issues, that we simply allow ourselves not only not to care, but to ridicule him.
 
Last edited:
A Life Aloft said:
When did we start to devalue people and subsequently in order to have this mindset, deny the humanity in ourselves?

Let's then just destroy the last fibers of kindness, sympathy, empathy, understanding and caring while we are at it then.
Click to expand...
For me it was October 5th, 2008 in Al Anbar, Iraq.

Don't confuse my lack of sympathy for some people for a complete lack of compassion.
 
A Life Aloft said:
There are those who may be so desperate to escape their circumstances, so hopeless and without realistic resources, that they are willing to try almost anything to do so and perhaps in that mindset, make what we would deem unwise decisions to do so. This does not necessarily and automatically make them an "ignorant twit" who deserves to die or deserves to be mocked. Millions of people throughout history have taken all sorts of terrible risks (and many of them paid the price with their lives) in order to seek a better existence and flee from their environment.

It's very easy to sit in judgment in our own comfy, educated circumstances and judge those who may have nothing left to lose.

It's far easier to just say 'oh look at that dumbass, what did he expect' instead of trying to understand how he came to such a fateful decision and perhaps have empathy for a life so fraught with serious issues, that we simply allow ourselves not only not to care, but to ridicule him.
Click to expand...

Understanding why someone makes a stupid decision does not then make that decision smart. If you encounter someone without an education who tells you that 2+2=56, your knowledge that he has no education does not make his assertion correct. You simply understand why he doesn't comprehend math. His answer is still incorrect.

Likewise, while I might understand why a person would feel so incredibly desperate as to jump on an airplane landing gear to escape his circumstances, it does not make his decision rational. And it does not make him a "victim."
 
It isn't about being "correct" or necessarily even being "rational". That isn't the point at all. Being a victim of circumstances simply means when one has no control over events or circumstances that are foisted upon them. A person who suffers, who feels that they have no other way out of such a set of circumstances or events, has many limiting factors, and is desperate, may often choose an irrational path that does not endanger others, but doesn't make sense to the rest of us. Some people over time, simply lose their ability to cope. They have just at some point, lost the ability for inner strength and the will power to keep forging ahead. That does not mean that one cannot try to understand them, empathize with them and feel sorry for them. It isn't necessary to deride and ridicule them. THAT is the point.
 
Last edited:
You can feel sorry for someone's circumstances and still not consider them a "victim" when they fall to their death as a result of a decision that they made.
 
I suppose I feel an abstract twinge of sympathy...but what I find really perverse is that this becomes a long, disputatious, finger-pointing conversation. If you're worried about all of the people who are hurt, hungry, desperate, etc, go do something about it. Excoriating strangers on the Internet isn't filling anyone's belly. It probably won't even prevent them from falling out of the gear wells, nor yet even dying when they do so, above fantasists notwithstanding.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top