Investigation had told us that a TV executive preferred to board his super-powerful speedboat prepared with a glass of wine rather than a kill cord and so killed himself and his 8 year old daughter, as well as mashing up his wife and 4 -year-old son.
And of course when helicopters aren't dropping out of the sky onto Glasgow pubs, they are dropping into the North Sea or killing people in training exercises, or finishing off a few first- aid personnel.
Michael Schumacher was apparently travelling at low speed, before his accident, which is likely to leave him with long-standing brain injury. Or worse.
A 25-year-old skydiver who,on jumping out of the plane was knocked unconscious by one of his teammates. Another deployed his parachute for him and he regained consciousness shortly before he landed.
And of course when helicopters aren't dropping out of the sky onto Glasgow pubs, they are dropping into the North Sea or killing people in training exercises, or finishing off a few first- aid personnel.
Michael Schumacher was apparently travelling at low speed, before his accident, which is likely to leave him with long-standing brain injury. Or worse.
A 25-year-old skydiver who,on jumping out of the plane was knocked unconscious by one of his teammates. Another deployed his parachute for him and he regained consciousness shortly before he landed.
Yesterday, I read a story of a 16-year-old girl surviving a 3000ft fall in a skydiving accident, when her parachute didn't inflate properly.
Maybe it's just as well that she was young and bendy as she is still alive, but this was her first parachute jump and her father jumped just before her. He of course has been all over the news, wondering how it was allowed. But he must know. It was allowed by him.
He realised pretty late in the day that this wasn't one of the nice easy "tandem jumps" where someone else does the hard work for you. (And when he realised, nothing changed).
This was a static line jump.
People who make pressure decisions make them at those moments.
I know. I've made a few.
Wrong decisions are made by having the wrong people in post - the people who shouldn't be making them - some cruise ship captains for example.
These are abilities you'll never detect at interview, never discover on a CV.
Be careful whose hands you put your life in. These are people who probably know how to jump but didn't know how to teach. That's when bad things happen.
I think the point I'm making is things are dangerous.
Not every item on your bucket list is worth the effort.
Maybe it's just as well that she was young and bendy as she is still alive, but this was her first parachute jump and her father jumped just before her. He of course has been all over the news, wondering how it was allowed. But he must know. It was allowed by him.
He realised pretty late in the day that this wasn't one of the nice easy "tandem jumps" where someone else does the hard work for you. (And when he realised, nothing changed).
This was a static line jump.
People who make pressure decisions make them at those moments.
I know. I've made a few.
Wrong decisions are made by having the wrong people in post - the people who shouldn't be making them - some cruise ship captains for example.
These are abilities you'll never detect at interview, never discover on a CV.
In fact, I don't blame the father at all. I think the sort of people who teach parachuting are not likely to be the best teachers, or the easiest people to question, contradict or cross. Any student of their services is obliged to trust them with their lives.
And I'm in the minority of parachute jumpers that you will have met because I have done a static line jump.
Let me tell you the difference.
And I'm in the minority of parachute jumpers that you will have met because I have done a static line jump.
Let me tell you the difference.
Unlike a tandem jump when you hope to land on the soft underbelly of your heroic self-sacrificing instructor should anything go wrong, your chute is activated on jumping but...
1. You jump out of the plane on your own.
2. If something goes wrong, it is not improbable that you might die. (after all, nobody is coming to help)
Over the past 20 years. I have frequently thought back to the afternoon I did this for two reasons. One is that I was using a new camera and misloaded the film cartridge meaning that I have no photos of the event (hmmph!).
Secondly, I've always wondered if I would have pulled my reserve chute had my main chute not opened. I still wonder.
Now, I had done the training which had taken two fairly tedious days - just as the girl in Oklahoma had. I even had a couple of years on her, not that that may count for anything. And I remember the distinct lesson about the reserve chute which was when pushing it away from your tummy, don't let it go through your legs, otherwise you'll get sore bollocks - in itself quite a disincentive to deploy the second chute!
But...
I don't think I had the message fully rammed home about the things that could go wrong and exactly when to perform a number two (as I might have called it had I not thought of it till now). Being reminded that it was very unlikely to be needed is the sort of reassuring message that could cost you your life. Decisions like that come down to seconds, moments.
And I did have problems on the way down. My head was forced forward onto my chest so I couldn't look up to check the canopy. The ropes were twisted. I rotated several times before they untwisted. This seemed to take forever. Eventually I could look up, and mercifully the ground had not yet arrived. But having never jumped out of a plane before (or since), I had no point of reference about how fast the ground was approaching. Frankly, I had enough to think about.
If you can't check your canopy - do you deploy your reserve chute? Would that be enough to risk your life, with two chutes competing for each other, and squeezing the life out of your testicles?
We hadn't covered this option.
And being at only 2000 feet, there wasn't a lot of time to think.
But thankfully the chute was open. Only then could I start to think about steering, which expecting it to be reasonably responsive, took me my remaining minute to discover wasn't very responsive at all.
I landed on the only strip of concrete in the entire field. But a decent falling technique meant I didn't break anything.
I didn't warm to the sort of people who ran the parachuting. I still don't warm to the kind of person who might tell me it was their primary hobby, though I might take the time to advise them to go to a comedy show, read a book or get an interest that might make them interesting.
1. You jump out of the plane on your own.
2. If something goes wrong, it is not improbable that you might die. (after all, nobody is coming to help)
Over the past 20 years. I have frequently thought back to the afternoon I did this for two reasons. One is that I was using a new camera and misloaded the film cartridge meaning that I have no photos of the event (hmmph!).
Secondly, I've always wondered if I would have pulled my reserve chute had my main chute not opened. I still wonder.
Now, I had done the training which had taken two fairly tedious days - just as the girl in Oklahoma had. I even had a couple of years on her, not that that may count for anything. And I remember the distinct lesson about the reserve chute which was when pushing it away from your tummy, don't let it go through your legs, otherwise you'll get sore bollocks - in itself quite a disincentive to deploy the second chute!
But...
I don't think I had the message fully rammed home about the things that could go wrong and exactly when to perform a number two (as I might have called it had I not thought of it till now). Being reminded that it was very unlikely to be needed is the sort of reassuring message that could cost you your life. Decisions like that come down to seconds, moments.
And I did have problems on the way down. My head was forced forward onto my chest so I couldn't look up to check the canopy. The ropes were twisted. I rotated several times before they untwisted. This seemed to take forever. Eventually I could look up, and mercifully the ground had not yet arrived. But having never jumped out of a plane before (or since), I had no point of reference about how fast the ground was approaching. Frankly, I had enough to think about.
If you can't check your canopy - do you deploy your reserve chute? Would that be enough to risk your life, with two chutes competing for each other, and squeezing the life out of your testicles?
We hadn't covered this option.
And being at only 2000 feet, there wasn't a lot of time to think.
But thankfully the chute was open. Only then could I start to think about steering, which expecting it to be reasonably responsive, took me my remaining minute to discover wasn't very responsive at all.
I landed on the only strip of concrete in the entire field. But a decent falling technique meant I didn't break anything.
I didn't warm to the sort of people who ran the parachuting. I still don't warm to the kind of person who might tell me it was their primary hobby, though I might take the time to advise them to go to a comedy show, read a book or get an interest that might make them interesting.
I particularly didn't take to them when I realised after the jump that I had to repack my own chute. It made me wonder who'd packed mine. I'm pretty sure this is standard practice for these lazy people, because I found it a spectacular pain in the neck and myself pretty clueless on how to do it.
Be careful whose hands you put your life in. These are people who probably know how to jump but didn't know how to teach. That's when bad things happen.
I think the point I'm making is things are dangerous.
Not every item on your bucket list is worth the effort.
Experiences are not scalps and they are not stamps. Don't just collect them. Life isn't a checklist and it's not a bucket list.
Choose the ones that can expand you, that nurture you, that grow you.
You can't catch them all.
And there is no reason to think you need to.
No comments:
Post a Comment