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:
- The article highlights the general dangers associated with taking selfies, including a 2014 aviation accident where a pilot crashed a Cessna 150K, with distraction from selfie-taking suspected as a contributing factor.
- While the NTSB attributed the crash to spatial disorientation with cellphone use as a contributing factor, direct evidence of the pilot taking a selfie during the fatal flight was circumstantial, as the GoPro camera was not recording and the phone was not found.
- The accident occurred at night under IFR conditions with a low ceiling, underscoring how challenging flight environments amplify the risks associated with any form of pilot distraction.
- The broader lesson emphasizes that social aspects of flying, such as the impulse to impress passengers, can be "insidiously distracting" and lead to a critical loss of attention, making flying unforgiving of any carelessness.
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