Man jumps to his death from Stearman

[TonyC]

Rest in pieces?

Rest in Pieces.

That was real sensitive - - very appropriate after raggin' on the guy for not making the same decisions you might have made in the same situation.

Terminal illness causes a tremendous amount of stress, and it's quite possible that this gentleman's faculty of judgment was somewhat impaired. You have characterized him as selfish and irresponsible, when it's quite possible that his motive was exactly the opposite: pure selfLESSness. (We'll never know, though, will we?)

Rather than endure, and cause his family to endure, a long battle with an ugly disease and rack up tremendous medical bills, he may have seen this as a quick way to put an end to it. He dies quickly, they pick up his body (I doubt he envisioned an encounter with a power line - what are the odds?), they bury him (they were going to have to bury him anyway) and they spend the money that's left behind rather than pay the hospitals and doctors. In that respect, his actions would remove a heavy burden from the loved ones he left behind. AND, he would depart this life doing something fun and exciting.

Shoot, he might have even seen farther than that - - he might have envisioned his estate suing the pilot, or the airplane manufacturer, or the seatbelt manufacturer, et al, for the wrongful death of himself and wind up making money for his estate. Again, this thought process could hardly be characterized as "selfish and irresponsible."

Again, I repeat, we have no way of knowing what his thoughts and motives were at the time he leapt. Let's not be so quick, then, to judge those motives. I am pretty certain he did not intend to dismember himself on a powerline and decorate someone's patio. Beyond that, we just cannot know. Apart from that incredible feat, none of us would have probably ever heard about the incident. He would have gone quietly and quickly.

Rest in peace.

 

[LJDRVR]

Yeah, I just couldn't resist that pun....

You are of course correct, I fell victim to the ol' look at the situation from only your prospective trap, something I'm usually pretty good at avoiding. Of course that's what happens when you start typing without first engaging in some critical thought, which seems to be a pastime that many of us on this board seem to enjoy.

The sadest thing about this tragedy is that the victim didn't turn to his family for help. Maybe he did, we'll never know.

At any rate Tony, thanks for pointing out the nuances and possibilities to me, I however, stand by my first paragraph of mindless, sarcastic plaintiff's lawyer bashing.

 

[Flic1]

'A suicidal 88-year-old man on a flight chartered by his son as a birthday present jumped to his death from a biplane despite efforts by the pilot to restrain him, authorities said. '


So does that make each half 44??

 

[7B2]

"I think that was Dad's idea, to go out in a flash of glory," said Robert Frost, who had helped his father arrange the chartered flight on a biplane similar to the ones the elder Frost flew in World War II.

The man just wanted to choose his last flight himself.

 

[pilot125]

Now, if he jumped from the a/c at a height of about 300 ft. or so, he really wouldn't have hit that power line going 120+ mph..........I would guess that maybe he reached half that speed........maybe?

Anyway, from what I've heard, pain signals from your brain travel about 120-130 mph, so if your killed while falling/traveling at speeds greater than that, you die instantly (and without pain). But this guy probably hit those power lines quite a bit slower, so you would probably expect him to feel some kind of pain even for a millisecond/instant.

I think I had heard that on some special about 9/11 and how those poor people who had jumped off the WTC picked up enough speed on the way down as to cause a pain-free death.

Kind of a stupid post, I guess, but interesting--in a sick, perverted way. Anyone, including skydivers, have any knowledge of the matter to confirm or contradict what I had heard?

 

[FN FAL]

Kind of a stupid post, I guess, but interesting--in a sick, perverted way. Anyone, including skydivers, have any knowledge of the matter to confirm or contradict what I had heard?

I had to go back up and read the article again, since I missed the part about his exit altitude. He had to have been going pretty fast by then. I doubt he made it all the way to terminal velocity, but he was probably pretty close.

As far as whether or not any skydivers felt pain when they suffered impact after hitting the ground at terminal, survey says...

I do know this much and not to change the subject, but most skydiving deaths do not occur because of double malfunctions or hitting the ground at terminal because of a chute failure or failure to initiate deployment. Which is a good thing.

It is sad, this story, but I think as you find people living longer in this age of better medicine and better lifestyles, you will see stories similar to this one increase. This suicide only made the papers because it happened out of an airplane and was sure to get readers to read it. Meanwhile, elderly people commiting suicide is not going to make any headlines.

Here's another thing you are bound to see an increase in besides just regular older people commiting suicide. Since prisons have quadrupled their populations since the 80's and prison costs have soared, you have this problem of convicts getting pushed out of prisons before their sentances are served because of their age and their cost to keep incarcerated. So they release this population of the prisons earlier...washing their hands of the geriatric prison population.

Someone who would have died of natural causes serving out their prison term gets thrust out into free society early...only to find no job, no house, no income and only by commiting a nice juicy crime such as bank robbery, molestation or murder, will they get themselves back into a nice cozy penal institution, where the assisted living home is free.

Looking at what is going on in the economy with the shifting of manufacturing jobs and tech jobs overseas, the forcasted bankruptcy of the Social Security system, the graying of the generation of people that were robbed of everything they had in retirements by this economic down turn of 9/11 and the Enrons of this country...I see more elderly suicide by the middle class and I see a increase in suicide and crimes commited by early release elderly convicts seen as too expensive to keep in incarceration.

 

[Morning Wood]

No doubt the snake lawyers will find a way to sue Boeing, the power company, the seatbelt manufacturer, the pilot, and every other 'deep pocket' they can find. Doesn't help that it happened in Kalifornia.

No doubt George W. Bush's fault too.

 

[bigs024]

I guess Frost on the wings really is a bad thing.