I shouldn't be alive

[Dave Siciliano]

Have any of you seen episodes of this? I had the flu this weekend and probably watched too much TV. Watched three episodes and think the name if this should be changed.

I watched a group of four guys in a Mooney go down in the Gulf on the way to Baja; didn't get the raft out or didn't have one. (I was flipping back to a football game.).

A Twin Cessna on a charter flight flies over the desert in Africa and loses the left engine. Pilot says no problemo but finds he can't maintain altitude. Crashes in the desert. Two passengers are hurt pretty bad. No ELT, no survival gear, no water, later find they were way off course; so, large rescue effort wasn't successful. Pilot was killed four years later in another flying accident.

Last one, two brothers go hiking through canyons and soon find they won't be able to complete the circular trip before dark; so, they don't turn back: they press on faster. Each gets dunked in the water when it's near freezing; one breaks his leg. The other goes for help and winds up walking through canyons at night with a little head lamp. Finally gets cold, builds a fire falls asleep and wakes up with his clothes on fire. I won't bore you with the rest. Misses an exit from the canyon at night because he can't see and lost or didn't take the map.

I couldn't watch any more. What do you folks think of this program? Is it just me saying: why are you doing things this way?

Best,

Dave

 

[mikea]

Sounds like it's a chronicle of Darwin's frustration.

 

[Richard]

The Mooney down in Baja was because the idiot pilot pressed on into a Tstrm and made equally boneheaded decisions following that. I can't say about the others but they sound liked unprepared idiots. So unless you are an idiot, Dave, I don't think this stuff includes you. BTW: I don't think you are an idiot, far from it.

 

[Armageddon Aviator]

Accidents can bite your "derriere" even if you think you're pretty well prepared...

I never fly XC without a failrly extensive amount of survival gear, this, despite the fact that ALL flights in Israel are under ATC supervision (no such thing as VFR here).

Next items on my wish list: 406MHz EPIRB (with built-in GPS), Satellite phone, Nomex survival vest with Mae West...

 

[Richard]

Accidents can bite your "derriere" even if you think you're pretty well prepared...

I never fly XC without a failrly extensive amount of survival gear, this, despite the fact that ALL flights in Israel are under ATC supervision (no such thing as VFR here).

Next items on my wish list: 406MHz EPIRB (with built-in GPS), Satellite phone, Nomex survival vest with Mae West...

That's why they're called accidents. Being unprepared just makes it easier....

BTW: they still call them Mae Wests? I didn't think anyone but the greybeards called them that. Mae Wests were what I used before the new fangled bouyancy compensators came out.

 

[Dave Siciliano]

Well, I was just trying to see what others thought.

Yes, there are accidents, but in these stories, these folks talk through some decisions they made that weren't the decision I would have made. That could make them avoidable to me. But, I didn't want to interject my opinion without hearing from others.

The chartered Cessna drove me nutso.

Best,

Dave

 

[ReverendSlappy]

I happened to catch the second half of the episode with the sailors who wound up in a storm and then in a dinghy in shark-infested water. Of (I think) 5 of them, 2 survived.

I didn't catch the first half, so (as a somewhat novice sailor) I can't speak to whatever poor decisions may have led to their fate. But man... about half-way through the part that I saw, it almost got funny how many awful turns of events befell these folks. Maybe it's just my morbid sense of humor, but the progression of ship got sunk --> abandoned ship --> had no food or water --> hypothermia --> bleeding wound in water --> sharks all about --> drinking salt water --> fetid water in the bottom of the dinghy --> infection and dehydration-driven hysteria --> people jumping off in a daze to feed the sharks --> extreme exhaustion --> seemingly random rescue just got to be a bit much for me to not uncomfortably half-chuckle at. Craziness.

For some unfathomable reason, I'd like to see the aviation-related episodes.