Over in the Philippines in the 70's, some buddies of mine and I were drinking and talking over taking scuba lessons. Jaws had just come out -- you figure out which one of us just left that idea at the bar. :)

We were talking over the precautions of pressurized tanks and stories about them. This is where I heard the one about the flying regulator, went through the ceilings and floors of a 3-story house AND the attic to land just about 3/4 of a mile away and make the news.

On to the real story -- 2 of the guys relate when as young kids still in high school, they decided to jet-propel a skateboard. Taking an oxygen tank (small) roughly the size of a skateboard, they strapped it to the it, using a sledgehammer to knock off the regulator.

Where was the best place? At the running track DURING football practice of all times. They had a 1/2 mile track there and figured it would go to the end of the straightaway, peter out and that would be it.

No ... in about 50 feet it was airborne, took a tack toward the goal posts, luckily missing the entire team and crashed through a cement retaining wall.

The kid's Dad who owned the oxygen tanks was confronted by the police, no charges were files but he had to pay a 2000.00 bill to fix the retaining wall.

The real funny part of it was even when his son was in the Air Force, late teens/early 20s his

Dad would haul off and smack him up the side of the head. (He'd done this several times) His son would look surprised and for as long as this went on, the comment would be, "I still haven't forgotten about that O2 tank and the retaining wall."

Well, the horse story (with its unparalleled idiocy) and now that I think of it, the methanol 55 gallon drum, brought this one up out of memory.

Somehow, when that regulator took of out of site in the opposite direction, it also took no lives, did no injury to anyone. However, it was never found ...

I don't think THIS one is too common!

Submitted on 07/20/2010

Submitted by: Mike Durthaler
Reference: Personal Account

Copyright © 2010 DarwinAwards.com

Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
For some reason I had visions of Wile E. Coyote strapping an Acme oxygen tank to a skateboard while reading this. The only thing missing was going off the edge of a cliff and remaining suspended in mid air for a split second before plummeting to the ground. Thanks, Mike!

Candi said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
This is the funniest thing since the rocket powered sled!

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