some girl got head trauma at sxm

[Urwumpe]

Word is Darwin left early and went elsewhere. She should recover fully and has lawyers lined up for legal proceedings.

Well, if there are stupid people in the world, there also have to be stupid lawyers.

After all, harming yourself deliberately is not something you can blame others for.

 

[Keatah]

St. Maarten is like a spotter's paradise. The pilots know that. The beachgoers know that. The pilots wave and make faces to the patrons, daring them to take the heat. They probably have some game going to see how many they can blow away.

It's pretty funny, they had this one fat chick there that lost her hat and she got seriously stomping mad. She reported it to the local constabulary. Took her towel for a ride too. I wish I had my camera going..

But, look at the first video again.. What of the BF? he sorta left her hanging there..??

 

[jedidia]

Maybe they should just clear the "escape route" of waist-high walls? Nah, guess there soon wouldn't be any sand on the beach anymore...

 

[C3PO]

Are you really arguing about removing warning signs? Really?

This is the fence they were hanging on to.


Signs only "work" on people that are sensible enough to not need any signs.

 

[Evil_Onyx]

After watching that video, looking at the charts for [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Juliana_International_Airport"]TNCM[/ame] and looking around on google maps, i would say that the aircraft did nothing unusual for departing that runway. The woman on the other hand, stood in the jet blast of a Jet engine spooling up to take-off trust which is just stupid...

 

[Zeehond]

Judging from aerial imagery of the airport, there is an area of the runway marked with white chevrons. Blast pads or stopways (which are prohibited for use) are marked with yellow chevrons.

http://g.co/maps/9nbfj

Looks like the plane used the area with the yellow chevrons. In other videos of the same place, the jet blast seems a lot less severe.

 

[webtek]

All I have to say is that no matter what, pilot error or no pilot error, it wasn't very smart to stand behind an A320 taking off.:facepalm:

 

[Screamer7]

Can't they install a deflector that alter the jet blast up and away from the people who want to risk their life? There will be always people who want to "try" something.
Obviously it should be secured to the ground and of material that does not rip off from the barricade and causing deadly projectiles.
Money spend on this could save peoples from injury and even death.

 

[TMac3000]

Common sense could save people from injury and death without the need to spend more money

 

[Andy44]

I stood at the top of Yosemite Falls, looking over the edge of a cliff. If I am stupid I will fall at least 2000 ft to my death, and after bouncing I may fall a little farther. There were people up there with children, the water was roaring and there were patches of snow on the rocks, whcih were slippery and sloping off into the abyss in some places. It was one of the coolest and most dangerous things I'd ever seen, and there were no fences, walls, or even signs there to keep people from falling to their deaths.

Thank goodness. I don't need a government nanny to tell me that stupidity causes pain or death, and I live a freer, happier life for it. Some people can't handle simple self-reliance and demonstrate poor judgement; no need to let them ruin it for the rest of us.

 

[Xyon]

I'm a little surprised to see everyone dive in to call her stupid. Did nobody else see the person holding on with her run away seconds before she lost her capacity to hold on to the fence?

Yes, perhaps not the most intelligent thing to be doing in the first place, but, my money's on her injury being down to her friend there, rather than her. She was doing alright until he scarpered.

:2cents:

 

[Hielor]

I'm a little surprised to see everyone dive in to call her stupid. Did nobody else see the person holding on with her run away seconds before she lost her capacity to hold on to the fence?

Yes, perhaps not the most intelligent thing to be doing in the first place, but, my money's on her injury being down to her friend there, rather than her. She was doing alright until he scarpered.

:2cents:

Did she lose her hold? Or did she let go to follow him?

 

[Linguofreak]

Judging from aerial imagery of the airport, there is an area of the runway marked with white chevrons. Blast pads or stopways (which are prohibited for use) are marked with yellow chevrons.

Time will tell, certainly, but I highly doubt they did anything out of the ordinary.

The chevrons look pretty yellow to me, both in the Google imagery and in the video itself. Also, note in the video that the tail of the plane is visible around 0:20, in a shot looking straight down the fence.

From the video, I'm certain the plane taxied on the blast pad, and pretty sure the engine run-up was performed there too.

Considering that the gal was standing right in front of a guard rail marked "JET BLAST - DO NOT STAND - DANGER", I'm not sure the pilot can really be held responsible for her injuries (it's not even necessary to call her stupid. One can assume she weighed the risk and found it worth taking. But she's stupid if she thinks she can sue over it, and any court will be stupid to let her win).

However, whether the pilot can be held responsible for her injuries or not, the video *does* show that he violated the "do not taxi on blast pads" rule, and probably should be held responsible for that (for one thing, blast pads are not guaranteed to be built to the same weight-bearing standard as the rest of the runway, so it's possible that he damaged the blast pad, though there doesn't seem to be any evidence of that in the video).

But, look at the first video again.. What of the BF? he sorta left her hanging there..??

I'm not sure we can say for certain that he wasn't blown free himself.

 

[Hielor]

The chevrons look pretty yellow to me, both in the Google imagery and in the video itself. Also, note in the video that the tail of the plane is visible around 0:20, in a shot looking straight down the fence.

From the video, I'm certain the plane taxied on the blast pad, and pretty sure the engine run-up was performed there too.

The Bing maps images show them as white, but a random smattering of other youtube clips that have them more clearly visible show them as yellow. :shrug:

However, whether the pilot can be held responsible for her injuries or not, the video *does* show that he violated the "do not taxi on blast pads" rule, and probably should be held responsible for that (for one thing, blast pads are not guaranteed to be built to the same weight-bearing standard as the rest of the runway, so it's possible that he damaged the blast pad, though there doesn't seem to be any evidence of that in the video).

The highly scientific "random sampling" of a few other videos does seem to show this plane being a lot closer to the fence than others are, so there might be a case here.

 

[jedidia]

All in all, such stuff happens. It's certainly not especially smart to hang on to a fence and see if you can ride the jet, but it seems to be a rather popular passtime at that beach, and if I were a bit younger i might just try it myself.

You do risky things for fun when you're young. It's not especially inteligent, but it's... well... fun.

What I don't understand is the sueing part. I did something dangerous, I took my chances, probably had my fun a few times, and on an unlucky day I get what I always knew I could get. It sucks, but it wouldn't have been as much fun without that possibility around in the first place.

Going into legal action afterwards seems a really, really whiny thing to do. It's just not consequent. It would be like if I had sued the guy who gave me his used high-performance skateboard race-wheels, which I wanted for a darn long time, and the first thing I did after mounting them was breaking my arm and tearing my face off. Seriously, what fault is that of his? That he didn't warn me that the new wheels were "realy, really, REALLY fast"? I knew that, that's why I wanted them.

 

[Screamer7]

I think this is why they do not erect walls and blast deflectors at St. Maartens.
[ame="http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=818_1256685740"]http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=818_1256685740[/ame]

 

[Urwumpe]

I think this is why they do not erect walls and blast deflectors at St. Maartens.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=818_1256685740

A ski jump could be useful. :lol:

 

[TMac3000]

I love ski-jump carriers:thumbup: It's too bad the U.S. never developed one.

 

[Ghostrider]

I love ski-jump carriers:thumbup: It's too bad the U.S. never developed one.

Why should they have to? They've got them steam catapults.

 

[TMac3000]

Steam cats are more powerful, that's true:yes:
But ski-jump carriers just look so cool. And everybody knows men and women fight better when their equipment looks cool