Airborne

Stop being stupid about stuff you don't understand

A friend of a friend lost his life last week. He was a helicopter pilot, employed by a broadcast station in Charlotte, NC. There is no useful information yet available from the NTSB. When there is, it will probably point to mechanical failure. Unlike fixed wing aircraft accidents, which are 80% pilot induced, rotorcraft failures tend to be caused by the truth that a helicopter is just a collection of parts waiting to disassemble.

Because this was an accident that involved broadcast personalities, a lot of digital words have been expended on premature analysis, along these lines:

"Maybe don’t ride in a helicopter? Just sayin"

"It was for his job as a weather forecaster."

"Maybe pick a different occupation 🤷🏼‍♂️"

I can't begin to express how nuclear feral this kind of exchange makes me. I know, I know...it's cheap to be an asshole on Twitter. But I encounter this type of innumerate idiocy in other settings, with people whom I know to be not hostile trollers, just people unfamiliar with the kind of risk analysis I'm used to employing.

Here's the truth, people: every single thing you do in life entails risk. The question isn't "how dangerous"? That is a question that cannot be answered without asking "What is the benefit?" These are questions that no one would ask during the great COVID idiocy. These are questions that no one is willing to address re: carbon mediated climate change. These are questions that no one is willing to ask re: expanded firearms rights. Yes, there is a risk. How much does it cost to mitigate that risk? What is the least-cost method of mitigating the risk?

No one in the public eye is even asking, much less answering, these questions. Until someone does, withhold your consent for anything they ask you to do that makes your life poorer, more irksome, or less enjoyable.