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Boss charters helicopter to find employees in tree over crocodile-infested river
- cyberferret 8y agoHappened in my neck of the woods (oh, OK, swamp). In the absence of flares, use a fire extinguisher to signal the rescue helicopter. Nice end result.
- achow 8y agoMakes me think that there is potential of repurposing military smokescreen technology for emergency gear.
- ThePadawan 8y agoIn a very 2019 move, military smokescreen has in fact been repurposed for the civilian market... for social media use: https://www.google.com/search?q=photorealistic+smoke+effect https://www.google.com/search?q=photorealistic+smoke+effect
- gotocake 8y agoThey’re also heavily used in paintball and airsoft, and some other quasi-combat games. The best ones I’ve used are sold by a company called Enola Gay, and they advertise simultaneously to photographers (as you said) and paintball/airsoft users. They’re really fun, ring-pull devices and produce a truly impressive amount of smoke for minutes at a time. The first time I used one I giggled like a kid.
- chrisseaton 8y agoThey’ve always been available to civilians as smoke markers.
- saiya-jin 8y agoSingle-use flares/smoke generators are nice if you are sure you will be spotted during that specific fly-through by rescue team. If not, you need to pack some amount with you. You need to be sure they don't 'expire' and don't get wet. What about some emergency signal mirrors with pinhole? It can be plastic so nearly indestructible, weights few grams, basically credit-card size, cost nothing, due to pinhole you can point the sun reflection pretty precisely towards rescuers and it doesn't run out. Drawback is obviously inefficiency without direct sunlight, but this is something I carry on every camping trip and I don't even think about it anymore.
- cyberferret 8y agoThat is cool if you are in fairly open high country. But these guys had climbed into the canopy of a tree, so both the sunlight, and the reflected light from the mirror could have been blocked by foliage. Smoke (or a flare) was about the only thing that could move above the treeline and be visible to an aircraft.
- cm2187 8y agoSeems simpler to have some sort of radio beacon.
- supermatt 8y agoWhich would you recommend? Id happily carry a credit card sized radio beacon in addition to my emergency reflector.
- Santosh83 8y agoInfest is not the right word to use for animals in their natural habitat. In wilderness, it is humans who can be considered to be infesting...
- benj111 8y agoRotting meat infested with maggots. Wood infested with woodworm. Infest has negative connotations, in the sense that it isn't something good. It doesn't indicate unnaturalness though.
- dmos62 8y agoThat's the parent's point, isn't? It's normal, i.e. not bad, that there's lots of alligators there; and calling it infested, in other words, implying that we'd prefer that they not be there, is disturbing in its human-centricity.
- de_watcher 8y ago> and calling it infested, in other words, implying that we'd prefer that they not be there It's bad from the point of view of the monkeys that were infesting the trees above the river.
- arvidkahl 8y agoExactly! Both examples, the "infestations" of meat and wood, are quite human-centric as they describe value loss of what humans would consider "useful material". Even though they are both relevant parts of a cyclical ecosystem.
- nkrisc 8y agoAnd for the guys stuck in the trees, the presence of crocodiles in the water minimized the value of the water as a "useful material" for use as a means of transport out of where they were.
- benj111 8y ago
- crocigator 8y agoAm I the only one with cognitive dissonence about the "South Alligator River" being described as "crocodile-infested", which is in Australia (a country with absolutely no alligators). (edit typo)
- stephen_g 8y agoAccording to Wikipedia, "They were explored by Lieutenant Phillip Parker King in 1820, who named them in the mistaken belief that the crocodiles in the estuaries were alligators." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alligator_Rivers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alligator_Rivers
- cyberferret 8y agoIt's a known colloquial quirk that is accepted by locals. (A bit like how Greenland isn't really green, and Iceland isn't really all ice (Apparently named so by the ancient vikings to confuse potential enemy invaders)).
- pvaldes 8y agoI would prefer alligators over saltwater crocodiles. Alligators attack if feel treatened or for territorial purposes. Saltwater see humans as prey and go for them actively if they are enough close.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- js2 8y agoNot being familiar with the area, I had a couple questions I’ve hypothesized answers for. Why didn’t they drink the river water if they were dehydrated? It was probably too salty. This river is close to the sea. Why didn’t they swim to high ground instead of climbing a tree? Unless crocodiles are particularly aggressive, I don’t think they likely feared being attacked. More likely they either could not swim, or high ground is much too far away to reach, this being a swamp. (I’m from Florida - gators rarely attack humans.)
- honkycat 8y ago> Why didn't they drink the river water River could be salt water. A lot of river water contains bacteria that will give you severe diarrhea, so drinking the river water will actually further dehydrate you. > Why didn't they swim The river MAY be going too fast to safely swim as well.
- nickthemagicman 8y agoSwim <-> Crocodiles.
- js2 8y agoI think salt is the more likely explanation. If I were dying of dehydration I'd risk the GI distress.
- sizzzzlerz 8y agoAussie crocs are notoriously aggressive. The salt water croc, which infests these waters, can grow upwards of 20+ feet. It doesn't really matter how far from land these guys were nor how deep the water, it's pretty unlikely they'd survive a swim. This situation is the stuff of nightmares.
- js2 8y agoThis sounds like a much harsher environment than the Florida everglades then.