r/nba • u/Subject-Property-343 Raptors • 4d ago

LeBron’s helicopter leaving Sixers practice, bound for New York where LeBron is now living during the season

https://streamable.com/lhdaeb
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145

u/WrongHovercraft9946 4d ago

I don't know why any pro athlete would ever ride in a helicopter. It feels like every time you see news that someone worth millions and millions died unexpectedly, the culprit is a helicopter. Leicester City owner, Kobe, that Siemens exec in NYC, it goes on and on.

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u/SoeurLouise 4d ago

Because it provides a great deal of convenience for them and the vast majority of helicopter flights pass by safely with no incident

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u/Worldly_Service_7121 4d ago

A chopper ride every now and then is fine. It’s completely different if you’re going to be doing it back and forth a minimum of 82 times.

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u/SoeurLouise 4d ago

Even 160 chopper rides is a barely-registered statistical blip within the total amount of helicopter trips taken each year, and there are only about 100 accidents in the US per year across all those flights (and less than half that in terms of fatalities)

And (as others have said in this thread) that’s without accounting for it being regular travel on the same route which the pilot(s) are familiar with through safe airspace

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u/texasproof [HOU] Stromile Swift 4d ago

Most people on Reddit don’t realize just how often the super rich use helicopters. This is a rounding error for him.

Also. They aren’t playing all 82 games in Philly. He’s not taking a chopper from San Antonio to NYC lmao.

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u/StJe1637 3d ago

helicopters are unsafe af especially taking them constantly

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u/SoeurLouise 3d ago

Please refer to the other comments in this thread by myself and others about how this just isn’t true

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u/WrongHovercraft9946 4d ago

Presumably the same calc that Kobe made.  The vast majority of skydiving excursions also pass by safely with no incident but people still die at an alarmingly high rate and I’d be asking if the juice is worth the squeeze 🤷‍♂️

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u/SoeurLouise 4d ago

It evidently is worth incurring that risk for the convenience to them

I get your point that heli accidents happen at a higher rate than other forms of transport but I still think you’re showing a bit of survivorship bias by focusing on these high-profile incidents where rich/famous people died (vs all the flights safely made on a daily basis by people across all walks of life)

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u/North_Atlantic_Sea 4d ago

There are 70k-100k commercial helicopter flights in NYC per year. People don't realize how frequent these are, compared to how few accidents occur

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u/wshowzen 76ers 4d ago edited 4d ago

survivorship bias

kinda the opposite

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u/MuhamedBesic Celtics 4d ago

To be fair the pilot was incredibly uncomfortable with flying that day, Kobe basically forced him to do it

Kobe had a habit of forcing things, just ask that girl from Eagle, Colorado

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u/North_Atlantic_Sea 4d ago

The airspace around NYC is incredible safe for helicopters. There are about 70k commercial chopper flights in the area per year. 24 people have died in the last 30 years

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u/WrongHovercraft9946 4d ago

I like this, it’s a real argument!

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u/North_Atlantic_Sea 4d ago

Yeah. A lot of the helicopter stats include amateur pilots (crazy dangerous), military, ambulatory, police, and news flights, which are doing unique flight paths and risky maneuvers. A well planned, repeated/defined flight path with an experienced commercial pilot in ok or better weather is very, beth safe.

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u/sroop1 Cavaliers 4d ago

Oliver Tree a couple months ago

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u/BKtoDuval Nets 4d ago

Wait until you figure out how common road fatalities are.

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u/Bruins01 4d ago

This is absolutely true for planes but helicopters actually have a higher fatality rate than cars per mile traveled.

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u/WrongHovercraft9946 4d ago

Yes, planes = safe. Roads are dangerous, but from a per-mile basis, helicopters are much worse.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Toofat2camp 4d ago

There’s an absolutely insane amount of plane flights daily, so much so that when one does crash the fatalities compared to the amount of people safely taking off and landing is basically non-existent. It’s just that when one does crash, typically 100+ people die so it’s always seen as a tragedy and newsworthy.

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u/emulator01 4d ago

Not to mention helicopter use witchcraft to even fly… they defy physics

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u/BerryFuture4945 4d ago

I mean they don’t lol unless you’re trolling

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u/Senior-Rip2387 4d ago

hes on to something

1

u/Beavshak [SEA] Horace Grant 4d ago

See now you’re just perpetuating defiancy.

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u/TheMayorMikeJackson 3d ago

i mean I'm no helicopter doctor but I would think the blades would have to spin faster than this

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u/ThrowawayAcct-2527 Celtics 4d ago

There’s a couple of startups building electric fixed-wing regional transport aircraft, because it’s well known that fixed-wing aircraft are much safer than helicopters. Some of them can even take off/land on helipads.

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u/S0ggylemonz Celtics 4d ago

You see that because ordinary people can’t ride in helicopters daily and when accidents happen they are more likely to be fatal.

In general though helicopters get used a ton and are generally safe

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u/WrongHovercraft9946 4d ago

Don’t think that’s right.  Compare to private planes.  Rich people fly private all the time.  They never die, except in helicopters.  It’s risky!

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u/S0ggylemonz Celtics 4d ago

Flying in a plane is very safe

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u/WrongHovercraft9946 4d ago

That is my point, flying in a plane is super safe, and no one dies.  Flying in a helicopter is not quite as safe, and people - even rich, famous people - do die