The Final Bow

I'm trying to think of a public figure sudden death which could compare and can only think of, maybe, Kurt Cobain or Marilyn Monroe. Reggie was pretty alarming, but he wasn't the international figure of Bryant stature. It really is the most shocking death I can remember in my lifetime.

 

I guess because I am not a basketball fan much less an NBA fan that this death has not affected me, really, at all.

But I understand that to a lot of people he was a very big deal, and any death this young is horrible.

 

My wife said Princess Diana.

Michael Jackson was up there too. Social media just hadn't become as major yet.

 

Jackson was a good one. I had forgotten. He was probably bigger, perhaps the biggest of any sudden celebrity deaths.

 

I honestly think if Princess Di is killed like that when twitter was around, it would break the internet. She was a really, really big deal.

 

I distinctively remember making fun of my wife because she was so upset when Princess Di was killed. It was a pretty damn big deal even without social media.

 

Norris some friends and I were texting about it this morning and for most it's the parent/child relationship, putting ourselves in that position. Though we dont fly around in helicopters, we still get in cars and planes with our kids for sports or other events, and though sickness and death happen daily, we are numb to it. This shook some people awake. Dont know how long it will last but imo it's been more of that thought process and being hit by perspective vs his basketball accolades.
Maybe people hugged some people yesterday who haven't been hugged in awhile. I Dont know. People look for answers and then God is understandably questioned.
My only answer is sometimes shit happens and we have no control. Other times, decisions we make have consequences and it appears deciding to fly on a blinding fog yesterday was a bad decision.

For anyone familiar with flying, I'm reading where the pilot said he was going up to get above the fog as his last communication. How easy would it be to get disoriented with where you are and flat out just go the wrong way and hit a hill?

 

It's very easy to get spatial disorientation when the visibility is poor. I'm sure he was flying instruments with his head in the cockpit with no visual cues. I think I read somewhere that the Sheriff's department had grounded all of their rotary wing platforms due to low visibility/dense fog. Depending on his speed, you can get into trouble really quick.

 

From what I understand, flying by instruments takes some serious training because your inner ear and eyesight will be telling you that you are going down and your instruments will say you are going up and you will trust your inner ear over the instruments and crash. Much like the JFKjr crash, this sounds like someone was in over their head and made a tragic mistake.

 

Easy now, we don’t know this.

That pilot could have made no errors, fought valiantly to save it - and he died just the same, too.

 

I dont know anything about it. We are just discussing. Witnesses said they didn't hear an engine problem and other flights had been grounded so it's a fair assumption.

 

Speculate all y’all want, but I’d at least give fair consideration to the fact that there are about a million parts that could have failed and caused that crash, before I jumped to assuming that it most likely resulted from the dead pilot‘s error / incompetence / negligence.

That cat died, too. That’s my point.

 

I feel ya. Its just dialogue. Fact is though, flights were grounded and I'm confident there were questions about visualization prior to takeoff. This was preventable, whatever the reason for the crash.

 

There's no way in hell I can put any stock in witnesses' ability to "hear" an engine problem of a crashing helicopter. And even if they absolutely could, it could be any number of other mechanical issues causing it to crash.

 

His last contact was him saying he couldnt see and was going up. So the heli engine or something failed or he lost where he was. People have the ability to make their own assumptions. Or choose not to make any.

 

Psshh. Ssmiff is a doctor/helicopter expert/head coch guru/friend to at least one black person. You don’t know shit compared to him.

 

2.5 black people

 

Like I said. At least 1.

 

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