From: phil@eecs.nwu.edu (William LeFebvre)
Subject: Re: Hinckley Crash
Organization: EECS Department, Northwestern University
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 22:21:31 GMT

Since you chose to bring this up in a public forum rather than
keeping it to private e-mail, I feel compelled to respond to you
"in public".

In article <65478@cup.portal.com>, Eric_J_Rainbolt@cup.portal.com writes:
|> In an above article posted about the Hinckley airport crash
|> of a Twin Beech, Mr. LeFebvre made a comment that implied a skydiver
|> would be out of line labeling this as an aviation accident rather than
|> a skydiving accident.

Since you didn't quote it, let's see what I REALLY said:

   And the skydivers are defending their avocation with statements like
   "this was a plane crash---not a skydiving accident."  But I guess I
   can't blame them, given the bloodthirsty media.  :-(

I think you are reading an implication in to my statement that just 
isn't there.  I will correct what I said:  only ONE skydiver was quoted
as saying what I quoted.  The first sentence in that two sentence quote
is a FACT: plain, pure, and simple (except for the plural on the word
"skydivers").  The second is a statement of my opinion, which is "I
can't blame them...."  Is this out of line?

|> I disagree with this statement.  Planes sometime crash and there is
|> nothing that the pilot, nor the passengers can do about it.

I disagree with THIS statement.  There is ALWAYS something that a
pilot can try to do to save the passengers.  The second the pilot gives
up, everybody's (likely) dead.  He (she) should be trying things all
the way to the bitter end.  I REFUSE to believe that there is "nothing"
I can do to prevent a crash.

My statement quoted above was lamenting the fact that this skydiver
in particular had to resort to distancing herself from aviation in
order to keep a good face on her own avocation.  Does not skydiving put
extra demands on the pilot, giving a jump trip more risks than the
average GA plane trip?

If my statement implied something else, then I apologize.  It
was unintentional.

|> Is it that big of a deal
|> to accept the fact that there are hundreds of jump planes around
|> the country, making thousands upon thousands of jump loads year 
|> and once in a while, one of these planes has a malfunction, and
|> people die.

Not for me and not for you.  But apparently it is for Joe TV Viewer
and for the sensationalistic media.  They aren't going to report on
the thousands of successful trips made every year.  They are going
to report (and extensively) on the ONE that failed.

|> What difference does it make if we label the victims passengers
|> or skydivers.  In fact, I think the FAR's describing sport
|> parachuting list the people as passengers.  The people aren't
|> skydiving until they exit the aircraft.  They just use an airplane
|> to get from point A to point B, much like anyone else.

This is just simply not true.  Skydivers are explicitly waived from
the requirement to be seated and belted on takeoff and landing(!)
You can pile 10 skydivers in to a plane that would normally only
have 6 passenger seats.  It is clear that the FARs regard skydivers 
as "special" passengers.

As I said to Mr. Rainbolt in private mail, I do not wish to get in
to a "skydiver versus pilot" flame fest.  I feel very sorry for
what happened at Hinckley, and I am deeply saddened by it.  I now
regret adding that paragraph, for I did not intend any animosity by
it.  (This all comes back to the "you can't say anything on the net
without getting flamed" discussion I started about a month ago...).
PEOPLE were lost, whether they be divers, pilots, passengers,
photographers, whatever.  If I'm mad at anyone, it's the stupid local
media who turned it in to a circus and another excuse to blast something
I dearly love.

On all the national news I watched and listened to, the story was given
one or two sentences, perhaps 30 seconds.  But the local TV media made
it their lead story spending 10 to 20 mintues---that's 33 to 66 percent
of their total news program---doing live reports, interviewing witnesses,
one station found one member of the skydiving club who said that plane
had had many problems in the past (gee I wonder how deep they had to dig
to find him...), running home video tape, talking with the fire department,
other jumpers, relatives, etc, etc, ad infinitum ad nauseum.  Gak!

		William LeFebvre
		Computing Facilities Manager and Analyst
		Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
		Northwestern University
		<phil@eecs.nwu.edu>