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I saw the headline earlier, and my first thought was "I hope he was the pilot, because that would be a fitting way to go for a legend." Not only was he the pilo
by bicx 2y ago
I saw the headline earlier, and my first thought was "I hope he was the pilot, because that would be a fitting way to go for a legend." Not only was he the pilot, but he was flying solo at 90 years old.
- schiffern 2y agoWhat a legend indeed. Godspeed, Bill. :salute:
- jrootabega 2y ago[flagged]
- sillysaurusx 2y agoDoes a solo plane crash have a statistically smaller chance of hurting anybody else?
- KennyBlanken 2y agoCrashes are most common on takeoff and landing, and that means you're over populated areas. GA and military crashes that kill people on the ground happen all the time. Used to happen all the time at airshows, too - until airshows adopted very strict rules around planes never having a trajectory that heads towards the audience. But that's all beside the point. A 90 year old has no business flying a fighter jet, and I don't care if he was a former astronaut or not. He certainly didn't have any business doing so alone. Reaction time goes down dramatically with age and nothing can be done about that. Mental capacity diminishes, too; mistakes skyrocket, which is why we have so many elderly people ramming their cars into convenience stores and such. Health risks like a stroke, especially in an aircraft that can generate high g's.The body's tolerance for heat and cold goes down. It was incredibly selfish of him to keep flying.
- knodi123 2y ago> flying a fighter jet It was a military trainer propellor plane. But your point stands. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beechcraft_T-34_Mentor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beechcraft_T-34_Mentor
- pfannkuchen 2y agoThe area where he crashed is quite rural at least AFAIK (and I don’t just mean the water).
- knodi123 2y agomost plane crashes are at takeoff or landing, which means it's not as simple as calculating how populated their flight path is.... but yes, it's pretty rare to be smooshed by a plane.
- TylerE 2y agoHe was flying aerobatics over a lake (or possible bay, etc) at low altitude on a summer day. Higher risk.
- jrootabega 2y agoI don't think it matters. Too much risk of a crash, hurting multiple people, one person, damaging property, triggering emergency response, is reckless.
- avalys 2y agoThat’s how I plan to go out.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- tzfld 2y agoI hate this reasoning. Why is this a fitting way to die? What would be a fitting way to go for a cook or an athlete then?
- nurettin 2y agoMaybe doing what they like the most, and taking all the risk/responsibility that comes with it.
- larodi 2y agoBecause an unfitting way to die is to be stuffed with tubes, half conscious in a bed, shitting your pants uncontrollably. The perspective of dying lying helpless in a hospital or care house is not very appealing to people who had an active life.
- ojosilva 2y agoDying in a last scream of fear, angst and struggle regretting a thousand things that may have gone wrong or maybe were just your fault, without having the chance to tell your loved ones how much you love them, and being remembered not only by the incredible flights where no one had gone before, but finally and uttermost by the one that ended your life which will be replayed endlessly in the internets. Not sure what would be fitting to be honest.
- lordnacho 2y agoI'm going to visit someone who is having it worse, in my opinion. He's slowly deteriorating from Alzheimers. He won't acknowledge it and has become seriously grumpy. He used to know everyone in his town. He was a good guy. Now, everyone thinks he's an asshole. Everyone who didn't meet him before he started this decline has had a terrible time with him. He curses all the time. Last week, he forgot to shut off the gas and was found unconscious by the fire department. Now, he will be in a care home against his wishes until the inevitable. This is not the first incident where police had to be phoned, either. So he's gone from a week liked, active member of the community to being the grumpy old guy that the authorities have to be phoned about in just a couple of years. I'm going to go see him for a final farewell later this month, I hope he recognises me.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- INTPenis 2y ago[flagged]
- nvarsj 2y agoThe guy was a legend - flew fighter jets, was a test pilot, and then an astronaut. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt - I'm sure he knew exactly what he was doing.
- mycologos 2y agoI mean, he certainly would have known exactly what he was doing at some point in his life, but skills and judgement do degrade with age.
- TechDebtDevin 2y agoAnd the obvious degradation of the body's capabilities and its potential failure points (potentially increased by traveling 300mph at 10,000 ft). Commenter is right, 90 year olds shouldn't be driving cars let alone flying. Incredibly irresponsible. Also there's really nothing that cool or heroic about dedicating your life to testing and operating flying death machines on behalf of a military. Get a grip.
- sethammons 2y agoGet outta here with this ageist crap. I've know several 90+ year olds who are fully capable of independence and driving. My grandma was one of them. Hell, I watched a 93 year old deadlift 450lbs. While the likelihood of some 90 year old being too old for something is high, that means less when looking at an individual.
- lotsofpulp 2y agoAnd 10 to 12 year olds can drive too. I wonder why governments of developed countries ban them from driving outright. Most places don’t even let 14 to 15 year olds drive.
- lkdfjlkdfjlg 2y ago> I hope he was the pilot Which was how Gagarin died btw. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Yuri_Gagarin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Yuri_Gagarin
- Wistar 2y agoHe was flying a vintage T-34 Mentor, a pretty bad-ass craft. https://wingsmuseum.org/exhibits/beechcraft-t-34-mentor/ https://wingsmuseum.org/exhibits/beechcraft-t-34-mentor/