Politics And Current Events

[Lemon Berry Lobster]

He ded.

[Morkle]

To Shysters question, was it the Pilot’s ego or the leaderships insistence to fly? Knowing what I know now, I don’t think I ever want to be in a helicopter when it’s foggy.

[DigitalGypsy66]

I read, but couldn't confirm, that it was a 1979 (pre-embargo) Bell helicopter. Why they would have their president flying in a 45 year old helicopter without a secure replacement parts supply chain in place doesn't make much sense. Why not get a Russian or French helicopter?

[shoeshine boy]

I once did a helicopter tour of Maui. never again. the tour was fine and there was nothing wrong with the flight but I have come to see helicopters as death traps. as a pilot friend of mine said, in an engine failure, a helicopter becomes a rock.

[NTP66]

I once did a helicopter tour of Maui. never again. the tour was fine and there was nothing wrong with the flight but I have come to see helicopters as death traps. as a pilot friend of mine said, in an engine failure, a helicopter becomes a rock.

Same, West Maui/Molokai tour, which was incredible, but never again. From a few years ago:

Speaking of eerie, many years ago, Mrs. NTP and I went on a helicopter tour around West Maui and Molokai. Sometime after, a friend of mine was asking for suggestions, and I told her that she should check out this very same tour. She bought tickets, but chickened out the day she was supposed to go. The helicopter crashed on Molokai, killing all on board.

[Gaucho]

oof

[eddy]

Kids and I did a helicopter tour over Pittsburgh, it was awesome, highly recommend. The nice thing about crashing from vehicles in the sky is you'll probably be dead right away so no worries from me.

[shafnutz05]

Kids and I did a helicopter tour over Pittsburgh, it was awesome, highly recommend. The nice thing about crashing from vehicles in the sky is you'll probably be dead right away so no worries from me.

Also a high probability of not dying on impact and burning alive. My family did it once and I'm in the same boat as others, never again.

[eddy]

Kids and I did a helicopter tour over Pittsburgh, it was awesome, highly recommend. The nice thing about crashing from vehicles in the sky is you'll probably be dead right away so no worries from me.

Also a high probability of not dying on impact and burning alive. My family did it once and I'm in the same boat as others, never again.

Well don't tell me that

[count2infinity]

Source of the post Also a high probability of not dying on impact and burning alive. My family did it once and I'm in the same boat as others, never again.

For whatever reason, I read the second sentence as your family crashing and not dying on impact but burning alive (and I thought "well, yeah... of course they would never do that again...") rather than the more obvious reference of them simply flying in a helicopter.

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

I'm in the same boat as others

failed analogy opportunity

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

also I’m guessing that tourist helicopter tours in the US have extreme levels of protocol around them and I can’t imagine the risk of that being much higher than other things. Like off the top of my head I can’t think of a single story of a tourist helicopter crash

the Kobe and Iranian president crashes never would’ve happened in a tour setting because they never would’ve taken off


this feels like a confirmation bias kind of thing. I bet cars are generally more unsafe than helicopter tours but no one is going to question going into a car

[NTP66]

A tour helicopter in Kauai had a hard landing a few weeks ago. Insane video of it from the chopper. Everyone survived.

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

just learned about “autorotation” aka a heli landing after the engine goes out

[Shyster]

I would imagine there might have been a lot of "get-there-itis" pressure when it's the president of the country in the back of the aircraft. If so, the same sort of situation was a factor in the 2010 Smolensk air disaster that killed the president of Poland.

[dodint]

And, Kobe.

[Shyster]

I also agree with DG that it seems crazy that a country that's trying to have its own space program, to develop nuclear power (or maybe nuclear weapons), is building all sorts of advanced drone weapons (that it's selling to Russia), is trying to develop domestic fighter jets, etc. is flying its VIPs around on a pre-embargo 1979 Bell helicopter. I'd bet, for example, that China could have been per$uaded to $ell Iran some of its Changhe Z-18s, which is a modern medium-transport helicopter that has a glass cockpit and features like terrain-following radar that, you know, help the pilot to not plow into a mountain in low-visibility conditions.

[Troy Loney]

“Amidst inflation”

[count2infinity]

I feel like this is that bicycle stick meme.... "raise prices to the point that people can't afford it" *crash* "stupid inflation!!!"

[NTP66]

That's precisely what's happening.

[Shyster]

A reminder: corporations do not cause inflation. Government monetary policy causes inflation, specifically the creation of new money from thin air. As Milton Friedman said, "Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon, in the sense that it is and can be produced only by a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output.” In other words, inflation comes from printing too much money. Increases in prices are only an effect of inflation. What is actually happening is that each new dollar is worth less than the one before it, and price increases result because the purchasing power of each dollar is going down.

[tifosi77]

Kids and I did a helicopter tour over Pittsburgh, it was awesome, highly recommend. The nice thing about crashing from vehicles in the sky is you'll probably be dead right away so no worries from me.

Except for the amount of time it takes you to fall. You'd be very much alive during that part.

(Edit: And I'd include in that the time spent in zero/zero weather in cases where the pilot helicopters you straight into a mountainside they couldn't see)

[Kaiser]

A reminder: corporations do not cause inflation.

No, but they are greedy, and have no problem raising the price from $5 to $10, then "lowering" it so $8 doesn't seem so bad.

[Shyster]

Everyone wants the highest price for their goods and services. Would you turn down an offered raise because you don't want to be "greedy"? Would you sell your house for less than the market value because because you don't want to be "greedy"? Of course not.

Corporations certainly raise prices, and often those price increases are based on nothing more than "because we can." But those are price increases, not inflation.

[CBear3]

Cost of living and inflation are not the same thing...
But we often measure "inflation" by looking at things that are more appropriately described as good necessary to live.