So what’s your point? That you can be a dumbass, make idiotic choices and still be a successful politician? Pretty sure the US political landscape has proven that over and over .... but thanks? I guess.

There's scant overlap in this horror to bona fide commercial aviation companies going solely by what's presented in the attachment. Which isn't to say many of us haven't been witness to behavior on the job which fell short of best practice effort in ways indefensible. My experience has been that a crewmember who intentionally deviates from accepted procedure in a maneuver or event which gains unintended discovery in some manner, has often revealed themselves in lesser transgressions previously. These acts may have occurred off property or in ways not specific to performance of their assigned duties. But looking back, after a show stopper, reportable incident, there will be something recent to discuss in attempting to unravel how it may have been prevented and what changes to monitoring or surveillance must be implemented. Without exception, failures of this kind lead to regulator examination of safety culture lapse. Return to normalcy in all operational areas will hinge on providing exhaustive documented assurance, structural remedy has taken place in that regard. Yet, here's this one character, who really got sideways, for no reason except gonzo. Tough anticipating that without putting yourself in the breach.

No, he was a lawyer and a newspaper editor when he was challenged to a duel by the county prosecutor of St. Louis. Never been in politics at the time. Duels were very common since before the founding of this country. Do you recall Aaron Burr, who was Vice President, challenged Alexander Hamilton, who had been Secretary of the Treasury, to a duel? He killed Hamilton. On my college campus, in the late 1800s, one student challenged another to a duel. Your lack of knowledge of history is an abomination.

My point was publicly taking political stances can be hazardous to one’s health. They can have a high rate of morbidity.

Nothing in my post to you indicated any lack of historical knowledge. I'm well aware of the practice of duals and the fate of our first US secretary of the treasury. What my post did indicate was confusion about why you felt the need to share your family's history with us when it had little to nothing to do with the discussion at hand. My guess is you wanted to impress us all with your ancestor and used a rather clumsy attempt to make an obscure connection between hazardous modern activities like scuba or sky diving and the archaic practice of settling disputes with pistols. Very strange, but whatever.

As to your claim about the "point" of your post.... uh, no. Not buying it. Anyone can see THIS:
Does not equal this:
So, if that was really your point, you didn't make it very well at all.

And speaking of knowledge abomination.... "morbidity" usually refers to the rate of disease in a population. I think the word you might be looking for is "mortality".

I respect your opinion, even though I disagree with you.

In the glider of course ... and let me ask you this; have you ever commuted on Mesa? Nuf said.

I enjoyed the story.

In theory that “well known guy” is a 5th cousin like 8 times removed.

Agreed. Sort of. I mean there were warnings about the maintenance and other factors. Those warnings just went unheeded. Seems more like this whole thing drifted into normalcy over time. The thing I forget is that skydiving operations are a lot safer today than they were back when most drop-zones had Cessna 182s and 206s.

The only idea I had wasn't very good.

ASAP programs have proven their worth. DFDR monitoring, FOQA and so on. Not familiar with current Pt. 135 initiatives but I'll bet it's improving. Skydiving, what's that? Commercial operations require oversight, regardless of scale or scope. Essential a squad of decision makers, backed by ownership, commits. Every month the hard work of staying informed, measuring progress & setback, circulating guidance, follow-up, disclosure if necessary, gets done. It's complex, always unpopular, not without risk of missteps through poor execution, investigation or judgement error. Money is spent. Cases may resolve in termination. You can get sued. I recall driver's Ed in school. They ran film reels on projector screens showing accident victims. Dated, B&W, cars from the 50's and so on. Graphic though. Do they still? Aircraft wreckage, body recovery is a ghastly spectacle only the hardest psyches could ever totally erase.

Eyeing a visit to Thrill Ville anyone? So many ways. Pack an alibi.

I don’t remember that. But I do remember being forced to watch 45 minutes of carrier landing mishaps a couple of days before going to the boat for the first time. Savage, but they got their point across...