Boy Killed by Helicopter, Headphones at Fault

David Kenkel 16 May, 2008 at 1:55am ET Article published in Tech

Comments

1. 
   16 May 2008 ~ 4:57am 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.
2. 
   16 May 2008 ~ 7:29am 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.
3. 
   16 May 2008 ~ 10:20am Garg 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.
4. 
   16 May 2008 ~ 11:06am 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
5. 
   16 May 2008 ~ 11:09am 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.
6. 
   16 May 2008 ~ 11:11am 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
7. 
   16 May 2008 ~ 11:13am TBonZ

   Your Amish Daddy wrote:

   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...
8. 
   16 May 2008 ~ 11:22am NiGHTS /me facepalms
   
   Well at least Gargoyle is on the right page.
9. 
   16 May 2008 ~ 11:56am 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.
10. 
    16 May 2008 ~ 12:17pm UPSLynx

    Gargoyle wrote:

    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?
11. 
    16 May 2008 ~ 12:25pm 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...
12. 
    16 May 2008 ~ 12:53pm Harudath

    CB wrote:

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

    
    At 80 decibels?
13. 
    16 May 2008 ~ 12:54pm BuddyJ 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.
14. 
    16 May 2008 ~ 1:48pm _k lulz all around, and a tear, then a smile cause one less apple product in the world.
15. 
    16 May 2008 ~ 2:01pm 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.
16. 
    16 May 2008 ~ 2:10pm Nightwolf

    Harudath wrote:

    At 80 decibels?

    
    Why not?
17. 
    16 May 2008 ~ 2:55pm Harudath

    Jokke wrote:

    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 >.<
18. 
    16 May 2008 ~ 4:02pm Winfrey Article title should be: "Boy killed by Death; God blamed for making weird **** happen."
19. 
    16 May 2008 ~ 5:49pm 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...
20. 
    17 May 2008 ~ 1:07am primesuspect 1:1, apparently.
21. 
    17 May 2008 ~ 12:19pm airbornflght

    Nightwolf wrote:

    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.
22. 
    17 May 2008 ~ 3:17pm GnomeQueen 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.
23. 
    17 May 2008 ~ 4:23pm UPSWeezer Why is it stupid?
24. 
    17 May 2008 ~ 4:57pm 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.
25. 
    17 May 2008 ~ 5:06pm Harudath Who leaves their house with their hood up?
26. 
    17 May 2008 ~ 5:09pm 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
27. 
    17 May 2008 ~ 5:15pm primesuspect I wear my hood up quite a bit, Haru.
    
    Haven't been struck by a crashing helicopter yet though.
28. 
    17 May 2008 ~ 5:33pm 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.
29. 
    17 May 2008 ~ 8:23pm 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.
30. 
    17 May 2008 ~ 8:29pm _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.
31. 
    17 May 2008 ~ 8:36pm 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.
32. 
    17 May 2008 ~ 9:06pm 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."
33. 
    17 May 2008 ~ 9:20pm primesuspect My point exactly. ^5
34. 
    17 May 2008 ~ 10:27pm airbornflght

    Thrax wrote:

    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.
35. 
    17 May 2008 ~ 10:32pm UPSWeezer I couldn't. Really though, it probably all happened in a few seconds. Not of enough time to do much but s*** yourself.
36. 
    18 May 2008 ~ 1:24am Ryder

    airbornflght wrote:

    I could do it.

    Yes, but you can do anything, we already know that.
37. 
    18 May 2008 ~ 3:07am bothered

    Thrax wrote:

    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.
38. 
    18 May 2008 ~ 5:49am 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?
39. 
    18 May 2008 ~ 5:59am 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.
40. 
    18 May 2008 ~ 6:03am 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
41. 
    18 May 2008 ~ 8:48am garfield619 a direct hit?
42. 
    18 May 2008 ~ 5:26pm Jokke I wouldn't go NEAR a helicopter hovering above/next to the power poles! I'd be **** scared and stayed far, far way!
43. 
    18 May 2008 ~ 6:11pm BlackHawk

    Thrax wrote:

    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.
44. 
    18 May 2008 ~ 6:30pm 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.
45. 
    18 May 2008 ~ 6:44pm Harudath Good comeback too
46. 
    18 May 2008 ~ 7:02pm BlackHawk 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
47. 
    18 May 2008 ~ 8:50pm NiGHTS This posting was meant to be somewhat humorous. I don't think it could have derailed any harder or faster than it did.
48. 
    19 May 2008 ~ 12:04am Linc

    NiGHTS wrote:

    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.
49. 
    19 May 2008 ~ 11:09am 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?
50. 
    19 May 2008 ~ 11:33am Nomad I'm fairly certain this is not the iPod's fault, or that of the kid's.
51. 
    19 May 2008 ~ 12:06pm -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.
52. 
    19 May 2008 ~ 12:18pm NiGHTS The responses in this thread continue to appease Ulmec. They're getting better and better.
53. 
    19 May 2008 ~ 12:21pm BuddyJ 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.
54. 
    19 May 2008 ~ 12:32pm 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
55. 
    19 May 2008 ~ 1:15pm Nomad

    Harudath wrote:

    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.
56. 
    19 May 2008 ~ 1:18pm 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.
57. 
    19 May 2008 ~ 1:27pm BuddyJ Then it's settled. It's GH's fault.
58. 
    19 May 2008 ~ 1:47pm Harudath

    Buddy J wrote:

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

    
    /signed
59. 
    19 May 2008 ~ 1:48pm 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.
60. 
    19 May 2008 ~ 6:45pm garfield619 :wow:
61. 
    20 May 2008 ~ 12:17pm UPSLynx

    Kwitko wrote:

    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.