If it were my daughter we would pay for the procedure. We would not impose yet again on the body politick for the incredibly expensive medical procedure yet again. I ask you. You have two people in need of an operation. You can only fund one of them. Do you fund the person who squandered their second chance and consign the mother/father/son/daughter who didn’t to die instead? Or do you fund the person having their first go round?

You can try to prey on emotion all you want and I can just as easily attack your position with emotion from the other side. The problem is nature doesn’t give a toss about your emotion. Nature is a stone cold killer of those who are too stupid or too ignorant to take care of themselves. It’s called natural selection and no matter how difficult the socialists try to make it go away through the legislation of every aspect of peoples lives, Mother Nature will eventually win.

Blue 2 – now I can understand your anger. But if it was your daughter and you had an organ to spare, would you be quite so judgemental?

This case showed for all what a mockery the so called justice system of the UK has become. Brings ‘A Clockwork Orange’ to mind. Looks like Kubrick wasn’t too far off with his prediction of UK society. A sad state of affairs and it’s getting worse I am afraid.

Nope! She made her choice. Now she should get to die with it.

Ahh yes. Regulate your society based on the lowest common denominator. And people wonder why the western societies are failing.

Unfortunately, we’ve seen what the nutters this side of the pond do with them aswell. Dunblane, Hungerford; those are the reasons we’re no longer alowed to own pistols and rifles.

Simply stunning photo’s! Many thanks for those. It is sad that the EU can’t figure out how to work around these aircraft though. Simply ridiculous.

I know nothing of the case involved but I am a Expert Witness for firearms safety, usage, effectiveness, and other related subjects.

To answer your questions in order in a very brief manner and no I was not involved in the case in any way I am merely surmising based on what I have read about their procedures and the common sense usage of weapons etc.

The weapon was being placed in a holster for travel. This is not per se “stowing” the weapon which implys putting the weapon in a locked box as in the case when a Corrections Officer stows his weapon prior to entering the sally port to enter into the prison where he or she works.
The holsters’ job is to keep it positioned for easy withdrawal in the event that it is needed. It must not move and must not allow the weapon to move under the normal physical forces acting upon it during the normal flight profiles. The design of the holster though (in my opinion) is severly flawed as this situation should never be allowed to occur. Obviously to be useful in an anti terrorist situation the weapon must have a round chambered for immediate use. Otherwise just hand the weapon over and die quietly.

Many modern pistols have no safety (Glock and Sig for example, though the Sigs do have a hammer drop lever it is not a safety) as for the most part they are not needed with modern pistols that are in good order. Also in the lexicon of discharges this was not a negligent discharge as the person did not have his finger on the trigger. This (if the reports I have read here are true) is a textbook mechanically induced accidental discharge.

Also, the armed pilots on the freight aircraft are there to deal with possible stowaways. Highly unlikely I’ll grant you but the possibility exists.

Gary

There’s another point. If he was stowing it, why was he stowing it loaded?

I can see him putting it away at the end of a flight, it no longer being required. And placing it in a security holster makes sense from that point of view, at that time.

But loaded? Chambered? Safety Off?

I think we need more detailed information as to what was actually happening when this event happened? At what point in the stowage procedure did it go off?

Maybe the holster is a bit of a red herring, in that perhaps he hadn’t reached the point in the procedure when the gun is discharged. The description of the holster being an aside. We can only go by what WD has posted, and I don’t see any corroboration apart from WDs post.