[FPSPACE] Columbia crew / helicopter crash

[Jens Kieffer-Olsen]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mgr. Antonín Vítek, CSc. [mailto:avitek at lib.cas.cz] 
> Sent: Friday, January 02, 2009 8:29 AM
> 
> > If memory serves, in addition to Columbia's crew, two pilots were lost
in
> > the Columbia debris recovery effort. I can't find a link to their names,
> > but IMO NASA's incompetence in handling the Columbia emergency
> > killed them as surely as it killed Columbia's crew. Perhaps someone
> > here might remember what they're names were, and know something
> > about the friends and family they left behind.  Those men deserve more
> > than to be forgotten.
> 
> See e.g.
> 
> http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=2317
> 
> Mgr. Antonin Vitek, CSc.

 Your link reveals the following pearl:

 "The entire FEMA family expresses our condolences to the families of Jules
 F. 'Buzz' Mier, Jr. and Charles Krenek who died yesterday in the accident.
 Our prayers for a speedy recovery are also with those who were injured,"
...

 I suppose it's fair to assume that the 'entire FEMA family' comprises all
 the anonymous gals and guys, who - as depicted in Deep Impact - stand
 in the frontline to organize VIP resettlement in underground shelters,
should
 a premature comet og asteroid pay a sudden visit?

 But then, why should such a calamity happen? Brahma ( or God, or Allah if
 you like ) has looked after us pretty well for the better part of a century
now,
 so isn't He obliged to do so for a little bit longer? 

 But then again, in 1755 the Great Lisbon Earthquake shocked all of
Christianity,
 who at the time were under the - apparently false - impression that they
lived in
 'the best of all worlds'.

--
Jens Kieffer-Olsen
Slagelse, Denmark