Aviation Fatalities: "he died doing something he loved..."

I saw a similar sentiment posted in relation to Scott Crossfield's
fatel accident. I'm not sure I really get it...we're all going to die,
but do you really want to die doing something you love?

I see this often. Perhaps it's a way for grieving families to come to
term with their loss. But really, of all the ways to die, doing
something I loved would be the last way I'd want go go. old age,
disease and cancer are bad, but dying from a blunt force trauma, third
degree burns, etc. is certainly no picnic.

I've seen posts alluding to a preference to meet their maker via
aircraft. I for one certainly would not want to have my death
associated with a loss of additional life or property, a black mark on
aviation, legal battles regarding liability, and questions regarding my
piloting abilities.

So for those of you who'd prefer to start your ascension to the gates
of heaven with a bit a head start, why break an airplane in the
process?

"So for those of you who'd prefer to start your ascension to the gates
of heaven with a bit a head start, why break an airplane in the
process?"

Hell, I wouldn't want anyone playing with my toy, especially after all
the time and money put into it! Seriously though, after all the hours
and time he's put into aviation, you can't help but think that he'd
somehow come to peace with the fact that he would soon die, and that
there was a chance it would happen while in the air. It probably is a
way of dealing with grief; however, its comforting to know that a loved
one was doing something he/ she loved in the moments up to their death.

A couple of years ago a TV "News Magazine" show featured a skydiver who
survived a double malfunction (I think it was a main/reserve entanglement).
He had time to contemplate his quandry before impact and he did mention
that being faced with the prospect of "dying while doing something he loved"
was not all that it was cracked up to be.
,Tony P.


"Brad" wrote in message
oups.com...
I saw a similar sentiment posted in relation to Scott Crossfield's
fatel accident. I'm not sure I really get it...we're all going to die,
but do you really want to die doing something you love?

I see this often. Perhaps it's a way for grieving families to come to
term with their loss. But really, of all the ways to die, doing
something I loved would be the last way I'd want go go. old age,
disease and cancer are bad, but dying from a blunt force trauma, third
degree burns, etc. is certainly no picnic.

I've seen posts alluding to a preference to meet their maker via
aircraft. I for one certainly would not want to have my death
associated with a loss of additional life or property, a black mark on
aviation, legal battles regarding liability, and questions regarding my
piloting abilities.

So for those of you who'd prefer to start your ascension to the gates
of heaven with a bit a head start, why break an airplane in the
process?

I've been a professional pilot all my life operating in the most dangerous
area of aviation; experimental, prototype, and demonstration flying. I've
seen enough death to fill volumes. I've attended funerals of friend and foe
alike, and I know something about this issue.
The sentiments you hear and see spoken and written after the death of a
pilot such as the ones you are referring to here are sentiments usually
expressed by those outside the inner circle of the pilot gone south.
Those of us who live in these professions seldom feel our mortality. The
thought of dying is something most of us just don't get into all that much.
When one of us cashes it in, we feel remorse just like anyone else, but if
the absolute truth be known and expressed, what many of us are really
thinking about are what caused it to happen, and what we can do to avoid it
happening to us.
It's a very practical world in the venues we live and die in, and there
isn't much room or time for expressions like, "he died doing what he
believed in", and "at least he died doing what he loved".
These are sentiments that help those who make them feel better, for whatever
reasons they have for making them. This doesn't mean that these sentiments
are phony. Some are, but for the most part, they are expressed by sincere
people. They just don't know that much about how many of us in the flight
test and demonstration communities feel about these things.
Let me tell you something about our world.
If I had a catastrophic structural failure in my airplane while doing a
demonstration and ended up at the bottom of a ten foot hole in front of
twenty thousand people, my last conscious thought before impact would be the
same involuntary "Oh ****" that everybody else makes in that last second of
life. (Trust me, most of my friends are test pilots and race car drivers,
and we all feel the same way about these things.)
Then after I was gone, the fans would all go home and express the kind of
sentiment you're talking about, but my peers would express their sadness in
another way. They usually just shut up and keep the touchy feely stuff to
themselves. Instead, each would immediately start analyzing what went wrong
or what I might have done wrong and adjust to protect themselves from the
same fate.
It might not be as "warm" as most would like, but that's the way it is in
our community. It's also the best way. If I went in, I'd damn sure want my
death to mean something, and helping the next pilot down the line avoid what
happened to me would be sentiment enough.
My good friend Dick Schram is a good example. Dick died doing his world
famous comedy act in a borrowed J3 at Reading many years ago. His son was
with the Blue Angels as their PA officer and was narrating his
demonstration. I was standing next to him on the podium.
The stick came out in Dick's hand on the back side of a loop and he went
straight in. The Cub had been used for a photo shoot the day before and the
stick cotter pin hadn't been replaced in the back seat mount. Dick
apparently missed it in his preflight.
Dick Schram lives on in the many flight safety lectures I and others in our
community who lecture on the importance of preflight inspections have made
since he died.
I'm here to tell you that Dick Schram would have wanted to be remembered in
this manner and not as someone who "died doing what he loved to do".
I've just given you a look into my world. I hope it helps you understand
these things a bit better.
Dudley Henriques


"Brad" wrote in message
oups.com...
I saw a similar sentiment posted in relation to Scott Crossfield's
fatel accident. I'm not sure I really get it...we're all going to die,
but do you really want to die doing something you love?

I see this often. Perhaps it's a way for grieving families to come to
term with their loss. But really, of all the ways to die, doing
something I loved would be the last way I'd want go go. old age,
disease and cancer are bad, but dying from a blunt force trauma, third
degree burns, etc. is certainly no picnic.

I've seen posts alluding to a preference to meet their maker via
aircraft. I for one certainly would not want to have my death
associated with a loss of additional life or property, a black mark on
aviation, legal battles regarding liability, and questions regarding my
piloting abilities.

So for those of you who'd prefer to start your ascension to the gates
of heaven with a bit a head start, why break an airplane in the
process?

I second Dudley's theory that Scott was not alive at the moment of impact.
My best guess is that the aircraft was on autopilot when Scott died, the
autopilot has no knowledge of where thunderstorms are without human
guidance, and the aircraft simply flew itself into a cell where it was
literally torn apart. My best guess is that Scott never felt a thing and
that the aircraft would have impacted the earth somewhere else when it ran
out of fuel.

And yes, Dudley, it is quite a simple medical procedure to tell whether a
person was dead prior to the aircraft impact with the earth. Mostly it is
an examination of the lungs to see what materials were in the air when the
person stops breathing. Dust from the dirt of impact? Water from the rain?
Soot from the burning fuel? Clean from 11000 foot air?

Jim


"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message
ink.net...

The point isn't so much "dying while doing something you love", but if
you do, it indicates that you lived your life doing something you
loved. That's a good thing. Like you, I don't want to leave a black
mark on aviation.
--
Gene Seibel
Tales of Flight - http://pad39a.com/gene/tales.html
Because I fly, I envy no one.

RST Engineering wrote

I second Dudley's theory that Scott was not alive at the moment of
impact. My best guess is that the aircraft was on autopilot when Scott
died, the autopilot has no knowledge of where thunderstorms are
without human guidance, and the aircraft simply flew itself into a
cell where it was literally torn apart.

Yeah...but... the FAA accident report states that ATC had just cleared
him to deviate around weather.

Bob Moore

"RST Engineering" wrote in message
.. .
I second Dudley's theory that Scott was not alive at the moment of impact.
Actually, I don't really have a "theory" per se. I do however, have an
interest in viewing the post mortem report; call it a "hunch" more than a
"theory". It's far too early for anyone, least of all me, to be forming
theories on the cause of this accident.
I'm a firm believer in letting investigations run their course. There are
all too many times when the obvious ends up not being the cause of a crash
at all, but rather something that reveals itself during the post accident
investigation.
I just have a "feeling" about Crossfield based on the way he thought about
and acted about aviation safety issues all through his life. I could be
totally off base, but seeing that post mortem report has at least piqued my
interest if nothing else.
Dudley Henriques

In article .com,
"Brad" wrote:

I saw a similar sentiment posted in relation to Scott Crossfield's
fatel accident. I'm not sure I really get it...we're all going to die,
but do you really want to die doing something you love?

it might just beat giving up the thing you love in order to live.

--
Bob Noel
Looking for a sig the
lawyers will hate

The sentiments you hear and see spoken and written after the death of a
pilot such as the ones you are referring to here are sentiments usually
expressed by those outside the inner circle of the pilot gone south.

I've got a slightly different "take" on this matter.

I am a firm believer in "dying while doing something we love" as being
the preferred way to meet our demise. I believe this sentiment is
expressed NOT by those who are ignorant of the pain of "blunt force
trauma," but rather it is held by those of us who have witnessed
friends and loved ones die of old age, infirmity, or one of the
"wasting" illnesses (I.E.: cancer; tuberculosis; emphesema, Lou
Gehrig's Disease, etc.)

I, for one, spent the last 15 minutes of my mother's life holding her
hand, watching her gasp for breath after agonizing breath. (And this
only after many days of ever-increasing, unrelenting discomfort
beforehand.) I also knew a man who died a long, cruel death, trapped
inside a body that no longer functioned. And finally, my father died a
long, slow death from cancer. This once proud man ended his days
incontinent, and as unhappy as any living being can be.

I can guarantee you, 100%, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they all
would MUCH rather have died while doing something they loved.

Bottom line: A plane crash may suck, but we all end up facing that
wall, someday -- and there are far worse ways to go. Godspeed, Scott
Crossfield.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"