Boy Killed by Helicopter, Headphones at Fault

[NiGHTS]

You can't make this stuff (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080515.LHEADPHONES15/TPStory/National) up. Just a reminder, turn your headphones down.

[Your Amish Daddy]

You see? It's stuff just like that...That **** right there..Is why I'm glad I've got an IQ higher than brick of cheese. Canada lets any dumb shmuck drive an airborne vehicle, and another prime reason why I ain't flyin' nowhere!

I mean yeah it sucks that the guy got pwn'd by a BF2 rammer for reals, but you got to admit and I hope I speak for everyone when I say that none of us are THAT stupid. I'm probably gonna get in trouble for this too; but that's natural selection at work.

[bothered]

I wonder if they'd let me drive one, or is it pilot? Probably not.
I don't see why he's stupid either, just living his life and got involved in a accident is all I see. All tragic but accidents happen all the time. The people who want everybody to turn them off while crossing the road are the ones who want to wrap us all in cotton wool. Almost everything we do carries some risk, it's called life, doesn't make us stupid.

[Gargoyle]

The article has three sentences on perhaps the most spectacularly random death I've ever heard of, and then goes into the same old drivel on headphone volume. Grr.

[Harudath]

tragic death.. But did he have to bring his iPod with him to get the fricking mail? I'm sure he could survived without his iPod for 3 minutes (ba-dum-tssshhhh)


EDIT: Did anyone else notice the brilliantly placed advert? A guy was killed by a falling helicopter while getting his mail, accompanied by a small banner saying "Get it delivered daily to your inbox". I rofled :tongue:

[Gate28]

I think the problem is the fact that the helicopter was crashing into the ground in the first place, not that the kid was wearing headphones. he prolly wouldnt have time to run since hits a helicopter and helicopters go fast.

[Harudath]

You can hear helicopters from a long way away, you can hear when something is wrong from a long way away, if he hadn't had the headphones in he'd have survived, it's pretty much certain but you do have a good point- Helicopters shouldn't be falling out of the sky :tongue:

[TBonZ]

Canada lets any dumb shmuck drive an airborne vehicle, and another prime reason why I ain't flyin' nowhere!

I mean yeah it sucks that the guy got pwn'd by a BF2 rammer for reals, but you got to admit and I hope I speak for everyone when I say that none of us are THAT stupid. I'm probably gonna get in trouble for this too; but that's natural selection at work.

I can't even begin to state at how stupid your comments are. :rolleyes2

Edit - The included quote is not what I replied to originally...

[NiGHTS]

/me facepalms

Well at least Gargoyle is on the right page.

[Kwitko]

OMGWTF one person in last eleventybillion years died from headphone-related accident. Let's make a law!!! What was that? Eleventybillion died from drunk driving? Nah, we don't want to make those laws stricter, we might piss off the alcohol and car lobbies.

[UPSLynx]

The article has three sentences on perhaps the most spectacularly random death I've ever heard of, and then goes into the same old drivel on headphone volume. Grr.

QFT. I quit reading after one paragraph into "NO HEADPHONES LAW KTHXBYE"

How loud was this dude listening to? I mean, crap. Seriously?

[CB]

I agree with this being helicopter's fault, not kid-with-ipod's fault.

If I want to walkout to my own mailbox accompanied by blasting music, I should be able to do that, and expect nothing to fall on me from the sky.

Would he have been able to get out of the way if he hadn't had his iPod? maybe.

Does that make him an idiot for having his iPod on? no.

It's a freak accident.

Now, if he was in the road, or on some train tracks or on a heli-pad when he got smashed by some vehicle, that would be more his fault, but the poor guy was just getting his mail...

[Harudath]

but the poor guy was just getting his mail...

At 80 decibels? :tongue:

[Buddy J]

http://www.dose.ca/news/story.html?id=c383a33e-d8ef-41af-9733-4c7f21f5772c

A better story on the incident.

Living next to a helicopter pad where medflight and police helicopters practice touch-n-gos all the time, I can attest to the noise they make. It's quite loud. He'd have to have amazing headphones to drown out the noise. Then again, most crashing aircraft are pretty quiet until they hit the ground.

[_k_]

lulz all around, and a tear, then a smile cause one less apple product in the world.

[Jokke]

The article also mentions he might have had his hood over his head. Let's make a law against hoods too! Also, Prime said it quite nicely, he'd have to have some incredibly good earbuds (NOT HEADPHONES) to block out the noise.

[Nightwolf]

At 80 decibels? :tongue:

Why not?

[Harudath]

The article also mentions he might have had his hood over his head. Let's make a law against hoods too! Also, Prime said it quite nicely, he'd have to have some incredibly good earbuds (NOT HEADPHONES) to block out the noise.

Serious problem with hoods in eeengerlund >.<

[Winfrey]

Article title should be: "Boy killed by Death; God blamed for making weird **** happen."

[UPSWeezer]

Well even if he didnt have the headphones on, he still couldve been hit by the out-of-control helicopter crashing from the sky. What are the odds...

[primesuspect]

1:1, apparently.

[airbornflght]

Why not?

That's the average noise level in my room. I blame klipsch, maybe we should outlaw those too. A jet might crash into my house.

[Gnome Queen]

I agree with what most people here have said, I do want to say that I agree with the person in the article who said that seeing people with headphones on on bikes is pretty scary-seriously, could you do without your music for five freakin minutes? I see people doing that on my campus all the time, and I think it's so stupid.

[UPSWeezer]

Why is it stupid?

[airbornflght]

Yeh. Sure people should be aware of their surroundings. But I also shouldn't have to be that worried about some motorist ramming me from behind or a heli falling on me.

[Harudath]

Who leaves their house with their hood up?

[UPSWeezer]

Here's what i think happened...

It's raining in a quiet little town. Suddenly, lightning strikes. A helicopter passing over the town was struck!!! A young man was out to get his newspaper. It's raining so he has his hood up. The crashing copter comes over his house....

EDIT/ It happened so fast, he had no time to jump out of the way. It is a crashing copter. I imagine it's going to be coming down fast

[primesuspect]

I wear my hood up quite a bit, Haru.

Haven't been struck by a crashing helicopter yet though.

[Harudath]

If it was raining hard enough for me to have my hood up I wouldn't have brought my MP3 player to accompany me on the treachorous journey from the front door, to the fabled and long sought after mail box. Sure helicopters shouldn't be falling out of the sky, but if you're dumb enough to get hit by a large, noisy, multi million dollar metal bird falling from the sky then meh.

[primesuspect]

omg are we losing sight of what happened here?

How is the poor kid STUPID? A ****ING HELICOPTER FELL ON HIM

Just imagine for a minute that the helicopter was dead. No engine. I don't think you'd have time to move out of the way if a helicopter was hurtling towards you at however-man-miles-per-hour, whether you could hear it or not.

[_k_]

I am going with Prime, for once, on this one. The height that most ROFLCOPTERs fly at is pretty darn low and when it gets to the point the pilot realizes he is going to crash they are going to really freakin' close. Also I know a guy who went down in one and he assured us that copters have gliding abilities equal to sperm whale. I think this debate also falls into the realm of how people get hit buy cars or people in cars hit things, usually you just don't see **it.

[primesuspect]

I think people are envisioning the scenario to be some sort of hollywood action movie, like this ninja kid sees a helicopter hurtling towards him and he does some ninja flip **** and rolls out of the way just in time.

The sad reality is the poor kid is dead in a COMPLETELY freakish accident, and headphones had not a single goddamned thing to do with it. Have a heart, people.

[Thrax]

I expect all of you to dodge a 4000 pound hunk of metal falling from the sky at more than 100 feet per second. Good luck not being an "Idiot."

[primesuspect]

My point exactly. ^5

[airbornflght]

I expect all of you to dodge a 4000 pound hunk of metal falling from the sky at more than 100 feet per second. Good luck not being an "Idiot."

I could do it.:wink:

[UPSWeezer]

I couldn't. Really though, it probably all happened in a few seconds. Not of enough time to do much but s*** yourself.

[RyderOCZ]

I could do it.:wink:Yes, but you can do anything, we already know that. ;)

[bothered]

I expect all of you to dodge a 4000 pound hunk of metal falling from the sky at more than 100 feet per second. Good luck not being an "Idiot."

I would like to add a disclaimer. I live quite close to Manchester airport. If a 747 or whatever crashes on my house then I'd like you all to believe I didn't have the stereo on that loud.
And I apologise in advance for being an idiot just in case the TV was turned up.

[Harudath]

I see your point, but the kid was wearing headphones designed to mute the somewhat muffled 120 decibels of 747 turbine to go and get his mail. The report says that the helicopter was functioning, and had a last minute problem. It also says it was hovering about 20-30 metres up before it fell, I don't know about you but if I were able to hear it I'd stop to look at seeing a helicopter so low, not even to assume something is wrong but it's not every day (for some of us at least) you get to see a chopper that close. I understand that the kid died, and it's sad, and I understand helicopters shouldn't be falling on people, but he didn't exactly make it hard to get hit :-/

Is one not allowed to express one's opinion?

EDIT: I work on a per-thread basis, no grudges outside this one? :tongue:

[Thrax]

Harudath, the helicopter was doing power pole inspections. Obviously these aren't 30 meter tall structures. Therefore we can assume the helicopter was descending.

Even if you looked up, the helicopter would fall, crush and kill you before you could say "OH MY GOD." Do you know why? Because it would've fallen from that height in 0.8 seconds.

[Harudath]

I guess it would depend on what the status of the helicopter was when he left his house, but I see what you mean. I guess I'm just trying to say the poor bastard should have at least been able to acknowledge it was there :( Tunnel vision + deafness = screwed

[garfield619]

a direct hit?

[Jokke]

I wouldn't go NEAR a helicopter hovering above/next to the power poles! I'd be **** scared and stayed far, far way!

[Black Hawk]

Because it would've fallen from that height in 0.8 seconds.Your ability to deduce what type of helicopter was in the accident, know how it crashed and calculate it's terminal velocity and come to that conclusion impresses me. :rolleyes: :tongue:

[Thrax]

The second article linked in the thread indicates what type of helicopter and what altitude it was flying at. All the information necessary to calculate the falling velocity is freely available from the helicopter's spec sheet on the manufacturer's website.

There are no assumptions or deductions. Good troll, though.

[Harudath]

Good comeback too :tongue:

[Black Hawk]

Yeah, I'm gonna have to call shens.
appeared to hang in the air before it banked to the left and then plummeted to the street Unless you somehow found a video, that's kinda vague for you to be able to calculate the 0.8 seconds. The article also never said at what height it plummeted nor at what angled it banked left.

In conclusion, saying the headphones were at fault is just ridiculous.

Just being a pain in the ass and I'm hungry ;) :p

[NiGHTS]

This posting was meant to be somewhat humorous. I don't think it could have derailed any harder or faster than it did.

[Lincoln]

This posting was meant to be somewhat humorous. I don't think it could have derailed any harder or faster than it did.
Wait, we're in the commiserating/empathy stage of the thread? Oh well, I'll try to slide in faster next time.

[rapture]

The title is a little misleading. Boy? One source says he was 20, the other 23.

Man, old enough to make his own decisions puts up his hood, turns up his music and gets involved in a freak accident. Nothing more to it right?

[Nomad]

I'm fairly certain this is not the iPod's fault, or that of the kid's.

[=MBG= De Sniper]

You can't blame God for the bad things that happen on this earth its all a result of the devil and us sinning.

They have proof that over the ear headphones provide better noise blockage then the in-ear buds.

I almost always have my headphones at a level I can hear people talking not screaming so ya, and I dont usually even take a mp3 player with me.

[NiGHTS]

The responses in this thread continue to appease Ulmec. They're getting better and better.

[Buddy J]

Gentlemen, there are very few things we don't allow on the forums, but debating religion is one thing that's on the list of no-no topics. Keep this thread clean.

[Harudath]

This can't be put down to one thing causing that kid to get turned into road kill:
The headphones prevented him from hearing it
The hood prevented him from seeing it
The speed of the incident prevented him from doing anything about it
The faulty Helicopter shouldn't have been faulty
Bad luck put him in the wrong place at the wrong time

Bitching about what did it will most likely end up in more bitching :tongue:

[Nomad]

The hood prevented him from seeing it

Actually, the cultural background from whence he came and the contemporary society that has established hoods as an appropriate and popular style makes us all to blame.

[GHoosdum]

I blame myself.

I have basically adopted this as a philosophy to defend myself against the rampant scapegoatism in society today. Since nobody else is willing to accept personal responsibility then by golly I will.

Plus, prof isn't around to be blamed these days. :(

[Buddy J]

Then it's settled. It's GH's fault.

[Harudath]

Then it's settled. It's GH's fault.

/signed

[Kwitko]

Thrax and I have been working on a telethon to raise money for headphone-related helicopter accidents.

With your pledge of $100, half will go in our pockets, while the other half helps the Headphone Safety Research Institute of America. The HSRIA leads the field in advancing helicopter death-proof audio technology. In the last ten years, nearly 1 person was killed by falling helicopters while wearing in-ear headphones. Your donation will help us place a device in all headphones tuned to the propeller frequencies of all helicopters in production. This device will turn off your music and a friendly female voice will warn the user of all helicopters within a 1 mile proximity. Without your much-needed support, another person may die within the next three years. Please, make your donation right now.

[garfield619]

:wow:

[UPSLynx]

Thrax and I have been working on a telethon to raise money for headphone-related helicopter accidents.

With your pledge of $100, half will go in our pockets, while the other half helps the Headphone Safety Research Institute of America. The HSRIA leads the field in advancing helicopter death-proof audio technology. In the last ten years, nearly 1 person was killed by falling helicopters while wearing in-ear headphones. Your donation will help us place a device in all headphones tuned to the propeller frequencies of all helicopters in production. This device will turn off your music and a friendly female voice will warn the user of all helicopters within a 1 mile proximity. Without your much-needed support, another person may die within the next three years. Please, make your donation right now.


;D:respect: