Why Does Colonel Tim Nye Question a Taxpayer Volcano Rescue?

Colonel Tim Nye lived in Hawaii for four years and watched people go up a volcano and then fail to get down. Choppers, state rangers, or the military had to go in. The cost sat on the taxpayer, with no program to reimburse it. Colonel Nye asks why a taxpayer should fund a trip someone took unprepared.

Dan Richards prices a one-week Global Rescue membership at $119. The panel calls that price the inexpensive fix, and a very small percentage of people ever place the call. Bucket-list striving still sends people with no business on the trip after another trophy. Joe De Sena says Spartan Race pushes people to get outside, and running sweep is about getting people off the course safely. Pick the spot. Do not go into the middle of the jungle on a first trip.

Shackleton had no GPS device and nobody extracting him. Satellites let a traveler in the wilderness stay in touch, which changes the explorer expedition mentality. The traveler is not fully alone. Unforeseen trouble includes a weather change, a tree falling, or political unrest. True pilot error is failing to prepare, failing to think the trip through, or leaving the right equipment behind.