Originally Posted by
voyageur9
If enthusiasts/organizers/participants of some other lawful but dangerous activity managed to produce an outcome that killed and maimed several dozen entirely innocent people who were not partaking in any fashion that suggested assumption of risk, would you be so quick to condemn the authorities for imposing an interim ban? Or do you think a repeat of the same sort of event next weekend would be wise?
I have only sympathy for those who have lost loved ones or are in other ways gravely affected by this accident and cannot imagine how they must feel. But if I was being presented by the media with the stories of the many others who perished or who suffered life-changing injuries on Saturday, simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, I would feel equally saddened by how good or bad fortune can make such a difference to each of our fragile lives.
But just because I happen to work in the aviation industry and happen to enjoy watching pilots showing what their aircraft are capable of does not mean that I become irrational when something happens involving an aircraft. Any more than I become irrational and demand a knee-jerk reaction when people lose their lives in senseless accidents whilst, for example, travelling in a train. I want the people charged with establishing what happened to do their job and to report the facts and make their recommendations to prevent it happening again. Only if there is an identifiable and substantial risk of the same thing happening again before the facts can be established and analysed would I expect to see restrictions imposed in the interim - this, by my definition, is not a knee-jerk reaction but rather one based on evidence.
You ask if those of my mind think a think a 'repeat of the same sort of event next weekend would be wise?'. And that is the key to making a rational response - on the basis of the information that has been made available up until now, understanding that a repeat next weekend is extremely unlikely.