Google co-founder Brin named a defendant in wrongful death complaint Sergey Brin and two of his businesses – Google and Bayshore Global Management – are named in a lawsuit seeking damages over the death of a pilot who attempted to ferry one of Brin's airplanes from California to his private island in Fiji. The complaint [PDF] was filed on February 8 in the Superior Court of the State of …
It's extremely credible to me that someone that has accumulated $111bn of wealth - by any means, fair or foul - and still retains it is absolutely the kind of person who disregards rules, has no care for other people or their lives, and would do exactly such a thing - including covering it up at extensive efforts merely to avoid paying out money than to actually avoid jail (as he didn't do the modification himself, did he?).
You can't become or remain a billionaire, let alone a hundred-billionaire, and claim to be of moral character and care about others whatsoever. It's completely disingenuous to even suggest so.
That's even not counting things like extramarital affairs when you have children, and with an employee.
This guy's got more money than half the world's countries have as their GDP.
Sure, you don't become a billionaire without taking risks and bending the rules. However, the risk to reward ratio must be right and the uber wealthy are normally extremely good at weighing up the odds else they never would've accumulated a fortune in the first place.
Brin playing fast and loose with aviation safety for the sake of a few thousand bucks, at most? That's why this story strikes me as strange.
"Brin playing fast and loose with aviation safety for the sake of a few thousand bucks, at most? That's why this story strikes me as strange."
I'd not think he had all that much involvement other than to say "Someone arrange to have my aircraft flown over here". Assuming he owns and not leases the aircraft, the buck stops with him, but where aircraft maintenance and modifications are concerned, he'd not be expected to know or understand the minutia of what was done and/or needed to be done. I'm not defending him here, just saying I think if there is blame and fines/damages to be spread around, little of it is probably on him and mostly on the operators/contractors and "experts". On the other hand, if was putting pressure on people to get the aircraft there ASAP, then he'll have to take more of the blame/responsibility.
On the other hand,
The plaintiffs are just trying their hand. If they can just get a jury to find Brin or Google 1% responsible, or 0.1% responsible, or 0.001% responsible, each of the defendants will be on the hook individually for the whole judgement. If they can just frighten Brin or Google with the threat of a jury judgement, they can get Brin / Google to payout to make the case go away. If they can just frighten Brin or Google with the prospect of legal costs, even if they win, they can get Brin / Google pay to make the case go away (in the American system, winners still have to pay their own costs)
This is what all the emotive language is about. Plaintiffs are threatening that a jury will find some small amount of responsibility out of sympathy, regardless of facts.
If the plaintiffs thought they had an actual case on the evidence, they would not choose to go public with the emotive language, they'd be looking for a quiet settlement.
Evil Overlords' undoings frequently happen when they 'take things personally' and obsess about 'getting' the hero, or obsess about 'not letting other people tell them what to do.' (E.g. rules, regulations, and laws.)
In real-world situations, having too much money and/or power seems to warp people. Not all people, but many of them.
What utter nonsense. These aircraft are ferried around the world safely for all manner of reasons. How do you think most of the aircraft you see around the world make their home locations when for example they are made in the US and flown in Europe…? Ferry flights are an extremely common occurrence, even with single engine piston powered aricfraft. Before making bombastic statements with little to no knowledge - maybe some background reading would be in order.
It takes a lot to be put in the position of saying a billionaire wasn't the bad guy in the situation. But such stunning ignorance is capable of anything. How do you think planes make it from a US or European or Brazilian factory to a place like the Pacific to begin with? DIY, assemble it yourself mail order?
Brin having a plane transferred from one place to another isn't a crime or a risky endeavor. Where he does become a typical billionaire villain is not taking ownership of the fact that the people he hired screwed up big time and then allegedly (believably) began to engage in stall tactics and other underhanded maneuvers. From the pilot, to the mechanic, to the management company. None of them did the most basic of checks nor followed any sort of protocol on the books.
So much effort just so they cod forbid get exposed to the presence of the great unwashed.
If I may speculate, if this is indeed his private island, surely he could put the plane on a cargo ship well in advance and have it there permanently?
Or is he a tightwad and prefers to make a massive effort to save pennies?
Either way it smells fishy.
You'd think sticking it on the deck of a cargo ship would be easy but from watching some aviation channels on youtoob these silly ferry flights are not uncommon. Someone wanting a cessna 172 flown to Hawaii.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4WPjwCxJvM
I believe they even add fuel bladders like this to ferry passenger turboprops long distance.
On this flight you'd think they would have tested the fuel transfer! It looks like a good dose of half-assery and too much get-there-itis.
On this flight you'd think they would have tested the fuel transfer! It looks like a good dose of half-assery and too much get-there-itis.
One would've hoped that would be part of the certification process.
If corners have been cut and Brin is any way liable, I hope they throw the book at him.
Sadly he will be well protected as he contracted someone who contracted someone else therefore the blame cannot be with him. He will blame Seafly, they will blame the mechanic, he will blame Seafly and the pilots...
Not bashing on the pilots but what paperwork and assurances were they given about the state of the plane? Sometimes in these types of fuckup it comes out that they had asked other pilots who said 'no thanks!' before finding someone desperate for some money.
Brin didn’t even know how the plane worked.
Ultimately the pilot needs to check the plane. He should have checked the spare fuel tanks before he had too little fuel to reach an airfield.
I.e. pump the fuel when the tank is 1/2 empty, not wait until you are on fumes to find it isn’t working…
Uber-billionnaire wants a little plane to be delivered to his personal island, but can't be arsed to charter a boat that could do that securely.
Instead, in a very Agile move-fast-and-break-things, he agrees to a makeshift fuel bladder thingy that is not properly tested to "allow" the little plane to cover more than X times the distance its normal range allows. The untested contraption fails, two people die as a result.
Well, as much as I would like to blast Brin for being an aloof asshole (I'm sure he is one), I do think the fault kinda lies on the guys who didn't check that the ad-hoc installation worked perfectly before going on such a flight. Maybe do a San-Fransisco-to-New-York-and-back before venturing over the Great Blue Yonder, just to be sure ?
I totally sympathize with the bereaved, but billionnaire or not, I wouldn't pilot a plane over the unforgiving ocean without ensuring that all its components worked to perfection.
They didn't, and they paid the price.
"a makeshift fuel bladder thingy that is not properly tested"
Adding "a [makeshift] fuel bladder thingy" is fairly common practice with standard kits. "I'll certainly grant you "not properly tested" through since that seems to be the primary cause of this sad accident.
Installing ferry kits is a well tried and tested means of transporting aircraft beyond their normal range - even single engine aircraft flying between the US and Europe.
The alternative is typically to partially dismantle them and load the parts into a container or two. That's a fair bit of work, and of course the aircraft then has to be re-assembled - which also means going through all the rigging adjustments etc. There at least as much risk in the re-assembly as there is in fitting a ferry kit - probably more as fitting a ferry kit doesn't affect the geometry of the wings, flying controls, engine controls, and a load of other stuff.
This is *not* what happened. Most airplanes have standard ways of installing temporary additional fuel tanks so you can ferry them long distances for one-off flights.
Installing the tank involves form 337, which documents an approved, temporary modification to an airframe.
So while it's Google's airframe it's not Google's fault...someone screwed up somewhere and the crew waiting too long before turning and running for home...
I'm sure that Brin is included in the suit because he has a lot of money, but it does sound like he's also guilty if he really did conspire to conceal evidence. But as said, the pilot appears to be guilty of stupidity and whoever did the work is guilty of faulty work and whoever was responsible for the oversight and filing of paperwork is guilty of not checking. So they're all guilty of something; it's just a question of where the music stops.
I expect Brin didn't want to put the plane on a boat because it was a spur of the moment decision and would take too long. :(
Fuel bladders and pumps are literally 1920s tech. Someone, not Brin, fucked up. And the biggest fuck up was not properly testing the setup as soon as the aircraft hit cruising speed and altitude. That way, turning back is trivial.
Air ferry flights occur regularly. Almost all are successful because those involved do proper testing and follow proper procedures.
I am not a Brin fan; those who have seen my posts might have noticed a distinct anti-Google slant. It is, however, simply not his fault.
Now, the guys who installed the things and didn't correctly test and failed to do the paperwork slap them hard. Oh. Wait. They don't have deep pockets. And that's why they're going for Brin. He's got cash.
One should assume this vital system would be tested in a "workshop flight" by the installers. Over land, close to emergency airfields.
Secondly, on the flight to Hawaii, the pilots should have tried the bladder pumping system while their main tanks were 50% or more full. Then they could have turned around safely on malfunction.
Thirdly, Mr Brin should look the families in the eye, say sorry, share some tears and compensate them for the loss of their men.
He has got the money.
Finally, workshop errors happen in aircraft engineering. I know of such horrible stories from my father, a Luftwaffe mechanic. Mr Brin would definitely not be the first to be related to an aircraft crash.
Only on the internet could your response get a down-vote. There are no victims in the story other than the spouse. Had Brin done as you suggested, I would even go so far as to say he is not responsible either. As you and others have pointed out, this is not some unheard of way to move aircraft. They do this sort of thing all the time. But now that Brin has engaged in this sort of stall and cover up, he has made himself responsible and then some.
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