I’m embarassed to admit that if I’m really honest it’s A for me. I like the coin flipping idea, but I’d probably rationalise that if the other person was asleep and I was awake then a kind of “universal coin flip” had already happened and I won it. It’s things like this I would repeating to myself when I woke up guilt ridden every single night.
Because of the guilt I wouldn’t actually keep what happened a secret. I’m sure I would feel the need to own up to what I did.
I like to think that I would put myself in serious danger for someone else, but in a straight “them or me” situation it would have to be me. Sorry about that.
I see the scenario playing out like this:
"YO!! WAKE UP!!!
“huh…whu tha? Whats going o…”
“SO LOOOOONG SUCKERrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…!!!”
[jump out of plane and hope he doesn’t do a Point Break after me]
I’ve never understood the concept that a married person’s life is worth more than that of someone who’s single. I’m currently single, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t people who will grieve if I die, and I might get married in the future. I don’t claim to be more important than anyone else, but as Sage Rat pointed out, I’m certainly more important to me than someone I’ve only just met.
Of course, the married guy may be the breadwinner for his family, but how does that make me responsible for giving my life to feed his family? Should’ve taken life insurance before boarding that plane.
I might be willing to risk my life for another person, but I don’t see any reason why I should sacrifice my life for someone I never met, nor would I expect anyone else to sacrifice theirs for me. And in an emergency situation where every second counts, as soon as I find that parachute I’m going to jump with it; the most that the other guy can expect from me is to wake him up so that he has a fair stab at making his own arrangements.
Now for the twist: if you were the sleeping guy, and the other passenger happened to be some Goody Two-Shoes who offered you the 'chute, would you accept it? Or would you go into a “No, you take it, I insist” argument while the plane went plummeting down?
If I knew there was no way to get the plane under control and it was, in fact, going to crash into the earth, I would put on the chute then wake up the sleeper to share it. No sense in me deciding to be a hero, waking up the sleeper, only to have him/her say, “Yippie ki-yay, mofo!” and jump out with the chute. God, that would suck.
Note to self: Do not step onto a plane carrying Uvula Donor. It will most definitely result in me being “OWNED.”
I’d give the other guy the 'chute, and I’d try to land and/or fly the plane myself. I’m too scared of heights to clean my own gutters, there is no way I’m jumping out of a plane that isn’t within 10 feet of the ground.
The pilot has had a heart attack and died, the plane is spiralling uncontrollably to its doom, I’m rushing around unpacking the single parachute and all that, and the other guy is still asleep through all of this?
Dunno if I’d take the parachute, or try to take the controls, but there is clearly no point even trying to wake this bloke up. If he hasn’t noticed the plane crashing, me tapping him on the shoulder and saying “Excuse me … ?” isn’t going to be any use, is it?
No, you’re not missing anything. The whole premise is silly. If you’re in a small enough plane to for there to only be three people on board, then how high could you be flying? Assuming you are flying/fall ingdownward at 150 mph and you start at 5,000 ft, you’ve got a little more than 22 seconds to :
realize that the pilot is dead
determine the cause of death (or at least realize that the pilot isn’t responding)
determine that the plane is out of control (come on, we’re considering jumping and we don’t try pulling back on the stick?)
find the parachute (on the seat next to you?)
decide it’s old (got to be a pretty fine line between something frail enough to only hold one person and not hold even one. . .)
make a decision to wake someone from a deep slumber
6.(a) let them wake up76. strap someone in
open door
jump with enough time to make a difference
I’m missing steps here.
Anyone who hasn’t pissed themselves at step one, and isn’t in complete panic can have the pilot’s watch and wallet as well.
