Originally Posted by flarepilot
healthy practices for sure...but the sadness of so many of these posts is disturbing, esp from flyboyike.
Actually, I agree with you. It's sad that people become so desperately dependent on this job that they would rather literally die doing it than consider any kind of an alternative. Capt Skillern clearly had some pretty serious health issues that he likely could have done more to address had he not been busy flying that one more trip. Then another. Then another. Just to make that extra few bucks. Really sad state of affairs we're in.
He lived (or at least crashpadded) in Humble, TX outside of Houston. He died in Boise. His loved ones didn't get to say good-bye to him. What they did get was that terrible phone call. I bet his family would have gladly traded whatever he made in these past three years just to see him again.
At the end of the day, it's really a matter of priorities, isn't it? Do you want to be a big (in this case literally), bad Airline Captain until they carry you out feet first or do you want to be a human being at some point? The fact that so many people seem to choose the former is indeed very sad.