Selfies, in case you have recently emerged from solitary confinement, are those self portraits, preferably set in interesting or unusual surroundings or amid a clump of friends, that one takes with a cellphone camera, sometimes holding it on the end of a selfie stick to gain a wider field of view. They have spawned a great many cartoons, generally satirizing the implicit valuation of the solipsistic photographer’s face above the Grand Canyon or Mona Lisa. There have also been deaths and injuries, often of exotic kinds: falling into volcanoes, getting electrocuted or swept out to sea, or holding a gun in one hand and the camera in the other and getting the triggers mixed up. Falls from precarious places and encounters with moving trains seem to be among the more common mishaps.
Aftermath: Carelessness
Key Takeaways:
- A 2014 Cessna crash, fatal to both occupants, was attributed by the NTSB primarily to spatial disorientation, with cellphone distraction identified as a contributing factor based on circumstantial evidence of the pilot taking selfies shortly before the final flight.
- While the direct link to selfie-taking at the moment of the crash was not conclusively proven, the article uses this incident to underscore the critical danger of any form of distraction, including social pressures or the desire to impress passengers, during flight.
- The broader lesson emphasized is that flying demands full, undivided attention and is unforgiving of carelessness, particularly in challenging conditions like night flight with low visibility, where minor distractions can lead to fatal errors.
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