William Shatner's Crewmate on Blue Origin Spaceflight Died Thursday in a Plane Crash (nbcnews.com) 43
Last month 49-year-old Glen de Vries travelled with William Shatner into space with two other crewmembers on Blue Origin's sub-orbital capsule.
Today NBC News announced de Vries "was one of two men killed Thursday in a plane crash in New Jersey, officials said." Glen de Vries, 49, of New York City, and Thomas P. Fischer, 54, of Hopatcong, New Jersey, died following the small aircraft crash shortly before 3 p.m. in Hampton Township, according to New Jersey State Police...
De Vries co-founded software company Medidata Solutions, which specializes in management of electronic data from clinical trials. He also served as a trustee for Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. "We will truly miss Glen, but his dreams — which we share — live on: we will pursue progress in life sciences & healthcare as passionately as he did," Medidat said in a statement.
Newsweek reports that upon his return to earth, de Vries told a Pittsburgh TV station that space travel "is something we need to make accessible in an equitable way, to as many people on the planet as possible." In a tweet on Friday, Blue Origin wrote, "We are devastated to hear of the sudden passing of Glen de Vries."
"He brought so much life and energy to the entire Blue Origin team and to his fellow crewmates," the tweet continued. "His passion for aviation, his charitable work, and his dedication to his craft will long be revered and admired."
Today NBC News announced de Vries "was one of two men killed Thursday in a plane crash in New Jersey, officials said." Glen de Vries, 49, of New York City, and Thomas P. Fischer, 54, of Hopatcong, New Jersey, died following the small aircraft crash shortly before 3 p.m. in Hampton Township, according to New Jersey State Police...
De Vries co-founded software company Medidata Solutions, which specializes in management of electronic data from clinical trials. He also served as a trustee for Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. "We will truly miss Glen, but his dreams — which we share — live on: we will pursue progress in life sciences & healthcare as passionately as he did," Medidat said in a statement.
Newsweek reports that upon his return to earth, de Vries told a Pittsburgh TV station that space travel "is something we need to make accessible in an equitable way, to as many people on the planet as possible." In a tweet on Friday, Blue Origin wrote, "We are devastated to hear of the sudden passing of Glen de Vries."
"He brought so much life and energy to the entire Blue Origin team and to his fellow crewmates," the tweet continued. "His passion for aviation, his charitable work, and his dedication to his craft will long be revered and admired."
RIP In Peace (Score:2)
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Not many details yet. But here's [cnn.com] a story.
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I like the way the slashdot summary reads:
"Glen de Vries, aka the guy who flew to space with William Shatner, died in a plane crash today. Oh and some other guy we've never heard of died along with him."
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"Glen de Vries, aka the guy who flew to space with William Shatner, died in a plane crash today. Oh and some other guy we've never heard of died along with him."
The other guy's name? William Shatner.
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Screw the biography, I want details of the crash.
Engine failure due to a leaky acronym.
Okay, this is certainly said (Score:5, Funny)
I'm not sure, though, why it's news that someone who went into space with William Shatner died... unless he was wearing a red shirt.
Re:Okay, this is certainly said (Score:5, Funny)
You mean like in this crew photo?
https://twitter.com/MikeElgan/... [twitter.com]
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Good grief, then they were just *asking* for it...
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RIP 2 others since they're next. :P
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He's daed, Jim (Score:2)
Ah, small aircraft. (Score:5, Funny)
The rich man's only natural predator.
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Gout used to be their real predator, but now anyone can get it. At one point you needed to be rich enough to eat meat regularly.
But there is a whole bunch of rich man's predator. Pretty much any fast moving small vehicle. Not many poor guys die driving a Lamborghini, and usually they don't even get hit by one.
Then of course there is always being Assassinated by a high end assassin. Nobody wants to pay 100k to kill me.
Scuba diving is basically a rich man's sport - lessons, travel, etc. make it impossibl
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Scuba diving isn't that expensive. You can certainly make it as expensive as you want by renting a giant yacht and a platoon of diving guides but you can also easily do it on middle class income.
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Then of course there is always being Assassinated by a high end assassin. Nobody wants to pay 100k to kill me.
I know I'm double posting but I'd do it for 50k if anyone's interested.
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You forgot trees, which have a tendency to jump out in front of skiers.
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Wasn/t the vehicle he travelled in with Shatner a small aircraft? It didn/t get to orbit so it isn't a true space craft.
The Shatner Curse (Score:1)
We need a new curse. I nominate this one.
Lesson learned: (Score:1)
Don't go on an away mission with Shatner!
We need more to see (Score:2)
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Let us know when Bezos does something good
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Creating the most efficient logistics delivery and warehousing system ever devised wasn't good enough for you!??!!?!
Given the human cost, fuck no.
Let me know when he does it without fucking anyone over.
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The human cost is just an interim. It will be 100% automated within single digit years. Worth the pain!
And then what, he gets all the money? And sits on it? Oh good!
The art of news title construction (Score:3)
So Glen de Vries, who headed Medidata Solutions died.
Few people have heard of either Glen or Medidata, so that's not worthy news.
But, he flew on the recent Blue Origin flight, and that makes it interesting.
Unfortunately, having been on the Blue Origin flight is only marginally interesting, appealing to a very limited set of nerds.
So, William Shatner. He was on the flight, and people know him.
So basically, the news is: someone whom William Shatner met has died.
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Nobody cares that he climbed Bezo's flying phallus.
He met Captain Kirk!
And he died right away. It may have been the Klingons.
How profane. (Score:2)
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You'd expect people like these to die on decade-long space missions, but a plane crash?
Yes, you expect people to die in small aircraft. It happens a lot. I wouldn't get on a small airplane in particular unless you paid me enough to retire, I want something for my risk-taking. A friend of my lady who owned an acrobatic plane died on takeoff, the wind just caught it and flipped it the fuck over and smush. Had a passenger, too. Given that unexpected extreme weather events can be expected ;) to occur more frequently in the future you're going to see even more of this.
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Or not. A quick check shows the small aircraft death rate to be around 250 people per yea in the USA. Out of, what, 4,000,000+ deaths annually?
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100% of Americans die. Very of few of them die jumping off cliffs. Therefore jumping off a cliff is safe.
The death rate in small aircraft is about 1 per hundred thousand hours. Automobiles -- which are notoriously the most dangerous thing most people regularly encounter -- kill 0.017 per hundred thousand hours.
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Yes, you expect people to die in small aircraft. It happens a lot. I wouldn't get on a small airplane in particular unless you paid me enough to retire, I want something for my risk-taking. A friend of my lady who owned an acrobatic plane died on takeoff, the wind just caught it and flipped it the fuck over and smush. Had a passenger, too. Given that unexpected extreme weather events can be expected ;) to occur more frequently in the future you're going to see even more of this.
A friend of mine got his PPL recently and I did some research on it before deciding if I'll get on a plane with him. Basically it's about as dangerous as a bike, a bit more or less if you measure by distance or hour.
As usual there's a lot you can do to make it massively safer - don't fly in shitty weather, with overconfident hotshots, or old guys who'll randomly stoke out mid-flight. And don't be an idiot passenger who'll talk during takeoffs and landings.
Fly Commercial (Score:2)
Nothing to see here... (Score:1)
Wehn we see the snake's fangs but not its body... (Score:2)
Private aircraft risks (Score:1)
Private aircraft are much more dangerous than commercial aircraft because of
* Multiple engines.
* De-icing equipment.
* Crew experience (probably the biggest factor).
* Support system and rules (commercial planes usually fly IFR, etc).
It is also a lot of work to study weather and plan your route rather than to sit in a lounge and wait for your boarding group. Commercial aircraft get you there much faster too since they fly higher and have bigger engines. The danger, amount of work, cost, and slowness of priva