Steve Fossett Missing

jd writes "Steve Fossett, the first person to fly a plane around the world without refueling, the first person to fly around the world in a balloon, and possibly the record-holder for the highest-altitude glider flight, is missing in Nevada. He is reported to have taken off in a light aircraft last night and has not been seen since. As he had filed no flight plan, would-be rescuers have no idea where to even begin looking. The plane took off from a private airstrip on a ranch at the south end of Smith Valley in western Nevada."

Comments

Re:Gov't got him?

[morgan_greywolf]

Oh, c'mon. All joking aside, there will be plenty of wild speculation. Let's apply Occam's Razor here and say that most likely, he probably crashed somewhere. He took off from a private airstrip unannounced. No one knew where he was going or even exactly when he left. He could be just about anywhere -- most likely on the ground in pieces.

Re:sounds like this was just a short flight

[jollyreaper]

No, Alanis, that wouldn't be "ironic." It'd be unfortunate. You don't think it's ironic for an aviation pioneer and adventurer to die on a sedate, routine flight?

Irony
5. an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected.
6. the incongruity of this.

Usage Note: The words ironic, irony, and ironically are sometimes used of events and circumstances that might better be described as simply "coincidental" or "improbable," in that they suggest no particular lessons about human vanity or folly. Thus 78 percent of the Usage Panel rejects the use of ironically in the sentence In 1969 Susie moved from Ithaca to California where she met her husband-to-be, who, ironically, also came from upstate New York. Some Panelists noted that this particular usage might be acceptable if Susie had in fact moved to California in order to find a husband, in which case the story could be taken as exemplifying the folly of supposing that we can know what fate has in store for us. By contrast, 73 percent accepted the sentence Ironically, even as the government was fulminating against American policy, American jeans and videocassettes were the hottest items in the stalls of the market, where the incongruity can be seen as an example of human inconsistency. Served.