Darwin Awards
Posted: Thu 28 Jun 2007 5:19 pm
Call Of Nature
(9 October 2001, Switzerland) An 85-year-old pilot answering an insistent call to urinate, was killed by his own helicopter after he landed on a mountainous clearance near Steckborn. He had stepped away from the Ecureuil AS350B3 Helicopter and was "in the act" when the craft took off, knocking the pilot from the promontory.
What happened?
The pilot had left the autopilot engaged! He overrode it manually, and temporarily, before he stepped out, but after twenty seconds, the autopilot took control of the helicopter again. It was not equipped with devices to determine the location of the pilot, and whether the aircraft was, in fact, on the ground. To maintain course and airspeed, it moved the stick to the front and right. As luck would have it, to the front and right was where the ex-pilot choose to do his business.
The passenger managed to call help, and land safely. The pilot died from his injuries about a year later.
Electronic Fireworks
(1 January 2007, Netherlands) The first Darwin Award of 2007 goes to Serge Sluijters, 36, who thought it reasonable to hover over an illegal professional firework and light the electronic ignition with an open flame. But this was not a traditional wick; it was a device designed for precision timing. The flame triggered an immediate launch, and the fireworks catapulted upwards, killing our amateur pyrotechnician en route to a spectacular burst across the night sky.
Serge had purchased the firework legally in Belgium, but then transported it illegally into the Netherlands. His father disputed the notion that Serge was careless, characterizing his son as a man who gave due consideration to his acts. A witness told reporters, "His face disappeared. If someone has no face left, you know it's serious."
Every year, another idiot gets nominated for a Darwin Award for this same reason. Please, readers, keep your itchy fingers off the triggers of these dangerous fireworks!
A Prop-er Job
(Broome, Australia) When you work as a diver on a pearl farm, there are many ways to "buy the farm." Mitchell Ether was my head diver for a couple of years. Known as Sharky, he was a can-do guy, not afraid to take risks to get the job done. He was a loose gun in a company of cowboys, and he seemed destined to make an original exit.
One example happened in Roebuck Bay. He miscalculated the amount of fuel needed for the air compressor, which pumps air to the divers below. Instead of following standard procedure, bringing everyone up and refuelling during a surface interval, he surfaced alone mid-dive to top up the fuel tank while the compressor was still running.
The deck was unsteady, and naturally he spilled some petrol. The compressor had been running for hours. Its red-hot exhaust ignited the spilled fuel, and the flames followed the fuel into the half-filled tank.
The dive boat was brand-new, and worth $200,000 fully kitted out for the pearl farm, including an oxygen bottle for resuscitations. The resulting mushroom cloud explosion from the oxy bottle startled observers all the way back in town, 5 kilometres away.
Luckily Sharky jumped back into the water before the big explosion, and he and his crew were picked up by another dive boat.
Despite this incident, Sharky was promoted to skipper of one of the larger vessels. He still found excuses to don the old dive gear, however. One such excuse was when a mooring rope tangled around the boat's propellor. Instead of asking an outfitted diver's assistance, Sharky chucked on his dive gear, started the compressor, clipped on his dive hose, and jumped off the back of the boat. But he neglected to take the boat out of gear...
The spinning prop soon entangled his dive hose and started reeling him in. His "lifeline" pulled him through the prop, and he died on the way to hospital. Sharky didn't have any children (that he knew of) but he did have a wicked sense of humour. I hope he forgives me for submitting him for a Darwin Award! He died doing what he always did... having a go.
PS The film's funny as well
(9 October 2001, Switzerland) An 85-year-old pilot answering an insistent call to urinate, was killed by his own helicopter after he landed on a mountainous clearance near Steckborn. He had stepped away from the Ecureuil AS350B3 Helicopter and was "in the act" when the craft took off, knocking the pilot from the promontory.
What happened?
The pilot had left the autopilot engaged! He overrode it manually, and temporarily, before he stepped out, but after twenty seconds, the autopilot took control of the helicopter again. It was not equipped with devices to determine the location of the pilot, and whether the aircraft was, in fact, on the ground. To maintain course and airspeed, it moved the stick to the front and right. As luck would have it, to the front and right was where the ex-pilot choose to do his business.
The passenger managed to call help, and land safely. The pilot died from his injuries about a year later.
Electronic Fireworks
(1 January 2007, Netherlands) The first Darwin Award of 2007 goes to Serge Sluijters, 36, who thought it reasonable to hover over an illegal professional firework and light the electronic ignition with an open flame. But this was not a traditional wick; it was a device designed for precision timing. The flame triggered an immediate launch, and the fireworks catapulted upwards, killing our amateur pyrotechnician en route to a spectacular burst across the night sky.
Serge had purchased the firework legally in Belgium, but then transported it illegally into the Netherlands. His father disputed the notion that Serge was careless, characterizing his son as a man who gave due consideration to his acts. A witness told reporters, "His face disappeared. If someone has no face left, you know it's serious."
Every year, another idiot gets nominated for a Darwin Award for this same reason. Please, readers, keep your itchy fingers off the triggers of these dangerous fireworks!
A Prop-er Job
(Broome, Australia) When you work as a diver on a pearl farm, there are many ways to "buy the farm." Mitchell Ether was my head diver for a couple of years. Known as Sharky, he was a can-do guy, not afraid to take risks to get the job done. He was a loose gun in a company of cowboys, and he seemed destined to make an original exit.
One example happened in Roebuck Bay. He miscalculated the amount of fuel needed for the air compressor, which pumps air to the divers below. Instead of following standard procedure, bringing everyone up and refuelling during a surface interval, he surfaced alone mid-dive to top up the fuel tank while the compressor was still running.
The deck was unsteady, and naturally he spilled some petrol. The compressor had been running for hours. Its red-hot exhaust ignited the spilled fuel, and the flames followed the fuel into the half-filled tank.
The dive boat was brand-new, and worth $200,000 fully kitted out for the pearl farm, including an oxygen bottle for resuscitations. The resulting mushroom cloud explosion from the oxy bottle startled observers all the way back in town, 5 kilometres away.
Luckily Sharky jumped back into the water before the big explosion, and he and his crew were picked up by another dive boat.
Despite this incident, Sharky was promoted to skipper of one of the larger vessels. He still found excuses to don the old dive gear, however. One such excuse was when a mooring rope tangled around the boat's propellor. Instead of asking an outfitted diver's assistance, Sharky chucked on his dive gear, started the compressor, clipped on his dive hose, and jumped off the back of the boat. But he neglected to take the boat out of gear...
The spinning prop soon entangled his dive hose and started reeling him in. His "lifeline" pulled him through the prop, and he died on the way to hospital. Sharky didn't have any children (that he knew of) but he did have a wicked sense of humour. I hope he forgives me for submitting him for a Darwin Award! He died doing what he always did... having a go.
PS The film's funny as well
