Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Prayer Can Kill

Tis guy just got sentenced to 10 years in jail because he prayed people to death. Did he put a curse on them? Nope those don't work. No he cursed them by asking a non-existent sky daddy to save himself and others rater than deal with the situation himself. Oh it's probably important to point out that the situation was that the guy was the pilot of a plane that was going down. He could have aimed for a nearby airport but instead he decided to pray and when the non-existent sky daddy didn't save them it was too late. He and the Co-pilot were convicted of manslaughter. You can argue that this is harsh, he did the best he could and didn't come out on top. The problem is that at the critical moment he gave up, he handed over command and because he panicked people died. I was a pilot at 14, my engine couldn't go out because I didn't have one. But I flew solo at 14 and I knew the one thing you could never do was panic. You have to take control of the situation. I remember the first time I got a little ballsy, probably 15 then, and ventured further than I should have. I really wasn't sure if I was going to make it back to the airport. Did I panic? Did I freak out? No. Was I scared shitless? Absolutely. But I did what I had been trained to do flew at the proper speed, best l/d plus a little because of a head wind, and did a reverse approach because I couldn't make it to the regular one. I had the emergency strip in mind if things got ugly. I was young and inexperienced but when shit happens you deal with it or you die. If you can't handle that don't be a pilot, and if you're a commercial pilot you accept that it's not just you that will die if you fuck up. If that guy who ditched into the Hudson's plane had snapped in two no one would have pressed charges. It still would have been clear that he did everything right. This guy failed at his job, and there are some jobs where you hold other peoples lives in your hands doing them and must face the consequences if you fail. Again the critical thing here is that at the most important moment in his life he gave up and there will always be consequences for that.

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