Lessons learned from the Oregon tragedy

karl gruber wrote:

But how did he end up in the river?

Looking for a drink?


For sure, I'd have walked down the road.

Until you became delirious from hypothermia... At that point, you don't
know what you might do.


Matt

On Sat, 09 Dec 2006 19:41:10 -0800, in ,
karl gruber wrote:
But how did he end up in the river?

Maybe he figured that following the water would be the smoothest
course... At the very least, it guarantees that you are decreasing in
altitude... Unless the waterway goes underground, eventually he would end
up on the coast at the very worst... Maybe he figured that he would find
one of the camps along the river where the kayakers put in at...

For sure, I'd have walked down the road.

The problem was, he was definitely lost... At that point, he probably
wasn't sure which way would get him out of there... Yeah, maybe going back
the way he came would have helped for a bit, but soon he would be at yet
another logging road intersection and he might not know where to go from
there... He screwed up... Darwin didn't quite win since he at least had a
chance to pass on his genes...

karl gruber wrote:
But how did he end up in the river?

It could've simply been covered over and he fell in.

But some reports said that tracks showed a bear might've chased him
into the river.

Kev

"Montblack" wrote in message ...
: ("john smith" wrote)
: Mr Kim's death resulting from his decision to attempt to walk out of an
: area he was unfamiliar with after becoming stranded, raises some thought
: provoking questions for aviators.
:
:
: One of his problems was thinking he was 'here,' when in fact he was
: ...there.
:
: Many of his subsequent decisions were based on that first wrong premise.
:
:
: Montblack
:
:

And his body was found, what, about 1 mile from where the car got stuck? Certainly didn't get far....

"Blueskies" wrote in message
. net...
And his body was found, what, about 1 mile from where the car got stuck?
Certainly didn't get far....

One miles straight-line. He had traveled approximately 10 miles total, and
the straight-line route back to the car from where he was not walkable.
You'd need climbing equipment to navigate it, even on a nice summer day.

I have taught my kids how to use the VHF handheld and a high chart to call
airliners. I actually used this once when camped out in my seaplane. The
weather came in and we couldn't get out for two extra days.

It was no big deal because we were VERY well equipped and I needed to use up
the survival food anyway. But I called a passing airliner I heard on
frequency. I asked the pilot to please give my wife a call and tell her we
were OK and that there would be a delay. He did and we flew out two days
later.

Karl
"Curator" N185KG
Lake Isabelle

Montblack writes:

One of his problems was thinking he was 'here,' when in fact he was
...there.

Many of his subsequent decisions were based on that first wrong premise.

Nevertheless, his decisions were basically sound. He stayed with the
vehicle for days, waiting for rescue, which is exactly what he should
have done (and that saved his family). After a week, he quite
logically assumed that maybe nobody was coming, and in desperation he
decided to try to find help. He pretty much did things right, but he
was unlucky (and also somewhat unprepared, although he presumably had
no plans to go somewhere where he might get stranded).

The question that lingers in my mind is: Was the lock on the gate
already broken before the Kims passed through, or did they cut it so
that they could go through?

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

What confuses me about this incident is how did he get in that
situation to start with. Stay on travelled roads and it would not
have been a problem. Then, could he not travel back on the road to a
more travelled one?

Ron Lee

(Ron Lee) wrote:

What confuses me about this incident is how did he get in that
situation to start with. Stay on travelled roads and it would not
have been a problem. Then, could he not travel back on the road to a
more travelled one?

He missed the road he originally wanted to take to get from the interstate
to the coast, and saw an alternative on his map. To many people, roads are
simply lines on the map, and he probably didn't realize that it was not
very fast, wasn't paved, and climbed over a remote mountain pass.

He drove as far as he could along the road, and when he realized he
couldn't get over the pass because of snow, he turned around to retrace his
route back to the main road. He got lost, however, on the way back (it was
after dark, and snowing heavily) and mistakenly drove 15 miles up a logging
road that was normally closed for the winter. At 02:00 he stopped for the
night, but found he was snowed in the next morning.

john smith wrote:
Mr Kim's death resulting from his decision to attempt to walk out of an
area he was unfamiliar with after becoming stranded, raises some thought
provoking questions for aviators.
In years past, this forum has carried several threads on surviving a
crash in a remote area. I behooves us all to review our personal
preparations for off airport landings in areas over which we will be
flying.

I snowmobile as well as fly, and I think in general, adventurous people
like myself that do a lot of outdoor activities like flying and
snowmobiling just know about and take basic survival with them and know
the dangers of the mountains or even the outdoors.

But you get a typical person who isn't much of an outdoorsman, who for
the most part lives in the city where there is no shortage of resources
and most don't even give basis survival equipment a second (let alone
first) thought when traveling. They get in their car and go.

It is a very tragic story. I was following it on the news hoping that
they would find him alive.

I feel so sad for him family