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

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ups.com...
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.

Of this I have no doubt.
To feel these things when connected to the death of a loved one dying of old
age or a health issue is absolutely normal, and in fact expected.
Your scenarios however exist outside the flight test community, and as such
I see no connection between what you have said and the context of my
remarks.
I can only speak about my community from my experience within that
community. I make no effort to speak outside that reference and for anyone
else.
Dudley Henriques

"B A R R Y" wrote

I see it as the fact that the deceased was *living* as he or she
wished!

He or she wasn't sitting on the couch in front of the TV, waiting for
the reaper.

Right.

I hurt myself, sometimes often. I hit my finger, or cut myself, or pull a
muscle, or whatever.

It happens because I am always doing something - building something, fixing
something.

If you do those things, there is a chance that you will get hurt, more so
than sitting at a desk, or on the couch.

Same goes with flying. If you do enough of it, the chances that you will
die doing it, go up. So do it, and bad results be damned, I say.

Note, I don't need a statistics lesson/discussion. I am talking about the
accumulated risk over a lifetime.
--
Jim in NC

"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 think the sentiment means different things to different people. However,
I'm in agreement in Gene and Barry. It's not so much that you want the
thing you love to kill you, but that the (an) alternative is to die having
not done the thing you love. When I hear the sentiment, I don't interpret
it so much as "well at least he was right in the middle of doing something
he loved when he was killed" as I interpret it as "yes, the thing he loved
killed him, but at least he took the risk and did what he loved".

Relative risks aside, I do lots of things on daily basis that could get me
killed, and in just as traumatic or potentially painful a way as an airplane
accident could. Believe me, if I've got to die that way, I'd rather do it
in my airplane than trying to get to some meeting while driving down the
highway.

Pete

Then there's this. If you do fly into something at 150 kts, you won't
have much time to worry, fear, or feel pain. I was in a thunderstorm in
WY a long time ago in a Mooney. Big downdraft, no visibility at all.
The time from first instant I'd have seen a mountain in the windscreen
until I was pate on rocks would have been fractional seconds, not even
enough time so say "Oh ****."

In terms of ways to go, that would not have been too bad, except for
the "pilot error" ephitet.

personally, I fully intend on dying of very old age, in my sleep,
and NOT in any airplane or any other vehicle.

personally, I fully intend on dying of very old age, in my sleep,
and NOT in any airplane or any other vehicle.

....And your passengers are grateful!

Ducking!

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Perhaps a better way to express our feelings is that "at least he was able
to do what he loved until his last minute with us."

I've thought about the "dying doing something he loved" phrase, too. I
agree with some of the underlying principles, but also see that it is a way
to sugarcoat a tragedy.

"Bob Noel" wrote in message
...
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

"Bob Noel" wrote in message
...
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.


And you'll still die.

("Blanche Cohen" wrote)
personally, I fully intend on dying of very old age, in my sleep, and NOT
in any airplane or any other vehicle.


Agreed ...except change sleep to bed. :-)


Nelson Montblockefeller

Fine insight Dudley. To me its a little different in the test pilot
world than GA. For the most part, the things that kill us are things
we can control. In the test pilot world, theres a large area of
unknowns that can kill a pilot. Skill allows the pilot to address the
unknowns, but luck certainly helps as well. In the flying that most of
us on the NG do, the most likely cause of the accident is us. Quite
frankly, I don't want my legacy to be that I was foolish enough to fly
with empty tanks, into a level 5, etc. For the most part, the things
that kill us are lessons that were learned years ago. Do we really
another stall/spin accident to tell us that stall training is
important? Are death contributes little to the knowledge base of
aviation safety.

I enjoy flying, but if I'm going to die doing something I really enjoy,
I'd rather it be in bed with a supermodel.