Richard Payne told an inquest into the death there were "deficiencies and failures" with their equipment.Not least with his leadership.
Were this another time and place, he would be expected to retire to his study with a brandy & a revolver...
Speaking at their son's inquest, Olivia and David Chapple said they had examined a risk assessment document with their son before he left for the expedition in July 2011.My heart, small shrivelled thing that it is, breaks for them. Because what they were looking at wasn't a risk assessment at all. It was just a well-meaning piece of paper.
They had a plan. But, it seems, they had no plan for when the plan failed.
Richard Payne, chief leader of the expedition, told the inquest: "My intention was that all young explorers and leaders would have a pen flare.
"It was only when we landed at base camp... that I discovered there wasn't enough pen flares to equip everybody on the expedition."
Mr Payne said he had changed the original trip wire from fishing line to a heavy duty braided fluorescent cord as the previous system was "going off too easily".
"There was a shortage of stakes on to which the trip wire mechanism is attached," he said.
"There was a shortage of the small brass sear, which is a trigger for the device.
"There may have been some shortage of the trip wire itself."
Mr Payne said he met with base camp leaders to come up with a solution and decided to use a safety pin in the device to act as the trigger. The camp sites were also changed to be triangular in formation to make up for a lack of mines, with Horatio's group having three mines instead of four situated around their site.Jesus wept!
Assistant Coroner for Wiltshire and Swindon Ian Singleton asked: "Were you satisfied with the safety aspect of the trip as a whole?"
Mr Payne replied: "The three mines was the only downside, otherwise I was happy."Are you happy now?
11 comments:
Sad case, someone should have been on guard with the rifle at all times. Army cadets amongst the party? Clearly a case of underestimating the danger and being ill-equipped.
Complacency may have played a part - according to Warmists polar bears are dying out. Actually there are more than ever, increasingly ranging further afield and emboldened as they search for food.
I see a well justified civil case in a court soon where they are sued for every penny they have and I wouldn't be surprised if they went for a jail sentence.
They did have someone with a rifle with them, who subsequently shot the bear. Pity the useless sod was fast asleep when he was really needed! Lets see:
Largest land predator in the area - check
Border alarms faulty or missing - check
No personal protection - check
Twat with gun far off and asleep - check
If you sort of squint at the picture with the article, you can just see the cold hand of Darwin reaching out! Hard on the kid, but this was an accident waiting to happen!
Perhaps the writer of the risk assessment was seduced by the BBC propaganda:
"Polar bear 'extinct within 100 years' "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2642773.stm
Whereas it's now known that "Polar bear group admits population estimates were a “guess”"
http://polarbearscience.com/2014/01/14/the-scientific-abomination-that-is-the-circumpolar-monitoring-framework-for-polar-bears/
Bunny
Negligence definitely but a claim will not bring the kid back, who apparently acted with courage when faced with a polar bear iirc. The muppets running the trip should be left to fend for themselves out there and see how long they survive.
A claim won't bring the kid back. Tell me it isn't so.
What are claims for anyway?
1) Restoration
2) Retribution
So we just let him off so all he has is a guilty conscience because nothing will bring the kid back. Examples need to be made in cases like this and I am not one that thinks a claim should always be made but here I do.
Well other than that Mrs Lincoln, how did you like the play ?
"Army cadets amongst the party? "
Of a very modern 'Ugh, guns! How awful!' type, clearly...
"Complacency may have played a part - according to Warmists polar bears are dying out. "
The expedition director actually did loftily exclaim that this was unprecedented, in all his trips he'd never even seen a bear.
Yet the Norway authorities raised the alert level due to recent sightings, and the doomed schoolboy actually saw a fresh print!
To ignore that is ... well, baffling.
"I see a well justified civil case in a court soon where they are sued for every penny they have..."
And I'll be cheering on the QC as they finish the job of eating these morons alive that the polar bear started..!
"If you sort of squint at the picture with the article, you can just see the cold hand of Darwin reaching out!"
Indeed so!
"...but a claim will not bring the kid back, who apparently acted with courage when faced with a polar bear iirc."
Al hough there's been an issue for the coroner about the exact circumstances of the death, it seems the first or second bite was instantly fatal. He had no time to do anything.
"Well other than that Mrs Lincoln, how did you like the play ?"
:D
Nobody thought to bring a dog as an early warning device against bears? When I worked with the Canadian Rangers there was always one or two who brought their dog sleds....since the dogs raise a ruckus when a bear gets near the camp...and the dogs actually engage the bear until somebody comes out and kills it--we didn't scare the bear away--we killed it.
Post a Comment