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Darwin Awards
2000 Darwin Awards
Named in honor of Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, the Darwin Awards commemorate those who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it. Next Prev Random

Email a Friend High on Grass
2000 Darwin Award Nominee
Confirmed True by Darwin

(30 September 2000, New Mexico) A father-and-son team hired to mow the grass at the Tucumcari Municipal Airport decided that their skills with the lawnmower would suffice for a joyride in an airplane. Although neither was a certified pilot, or indeed even a student pilot, they managed to taxi the private two-seater to the fueling facility, fill the tanks, and taxi to the runway, where they commenced a takeoff.

That's when their luck ran out.

Fifty meters above the ground, the plane began to wobble, then entered a vertical dive and collided with the grass. The older man was found dead inside the flaming aircraft. The younger one managed to escape from the mangled machine before it was engulfed in flames, but subsequently died in the hospital.

The men serve as examples that training and a license may not be needed to mow the lawn, but are necessary requirements for flying a plane.

DarwinAwards.com © 1994 - 2009
Submitted by: Bob Parkins, Harold, Tom Rudd
Reference: www.ntsb.gov ID#DEN00FA183

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The Darwin Awards Gift Shop

Darwin Awards II: Unnatural Selection

Hardback. 240 pages. Autographed.
$15
A fresh collection of magnificent misadventures! Lust, Vanity, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Envy, and Wrath extract an evolutionary toll on the wicked. Salute the owner of an equipment training school who demonstrates the dangers of driving a forklift by failing to survive the filming of his own safety video. Witness the man who becomes a victim of his own strange passion for jumping into rivers. Heed the honest bricklayer who loses a battle of wits with 300 pounds of tools.

This book includes more History of the Awards, Gordon's Law, and 10 discussions of evolution, including speciation and the role of verbal memes in civilization.

Autographed by Author!

 


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