A New Zealand man is said to have been decapitated by a propeller on his home-made hovercraft as he showed it off to family.

Dr Alastair Kenneth Senior is reported to have been demonstrating his creation on Muriwai Beach, west of Auckland, when the hovercraft suffered a mechanical failure.

During a test run, one of the propeller blades sheared off and hit the 40-year-old in the head, killing him - early reports suggested he'd been decapitated, though this has since been disputed.

Engineers are now examining the device to determine exactly what went wrong and many are calling regulation of the hobby to build and hovercrafts.

A death notice said Dr Senior -- who had a PhD in mechanical engineering -- "died in pursuit of his dream".

Sad news. I wonder if his hovercraft was full of eels. Python fans will get that.

Yeah I totally ;D when reading this.....

Engineers are now examining the device to determine exactly what went wrong and many are calling regulation of the hobby to build and hovercrafts.



NZ legislature can write all the rules and regs in the world but somebody will still manage to cut his own head off!
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/14/sad1.gif

Sad news. I wonder if his hovercraft was full of eels. Python fans will get that.

I know, I know, I know, Spam Spam Spam...
8)

i dunno, i'm the debbie downer, i'm sure, but this story doesn't seem funny to me, just depressing and grotesque. maybe i've got a case of the mondays. also, the python reference is lost on me.

debbie downer part II: i seriously doubt the guy was literally decapitated. little known fact, it's actually extremely difficult to saw through a human neck. all that nonsense in movies where one swipe of a sword and someone's head just flies off is, well, nonsense. remember how long it took with that guy in afghanistan whose name i've now forgotten. it's more likely the blade just pulverized his skull.

It's all good. I know I'm going to hell just something about the irony. You expect it to be some jackass idiot and them u find out dude is a mechanical eng. You'd figure he'd have safety precautions in place.
Plus consider my line of work. I find humor in the strangest places.

i dunno, i'm the debbie downer, i'm sure, but this story doesn't seem funny to me, just depressing and grotesque. maybe i've got a case of the mondays. also, the python reference is lost on me.

debbie downer part II: i seriously doubt the guy was literally decapitated. little known fact, it's actually extremely difficult to saw through a human neck. all that nonsense in movies where one swipe of a sword and someone's head just flies off is, well, nonsense. remember how long it took with that guy in afghanistan whose name i've now forgotten. it's more likely the blade just pulverized his skull.


Yeah, I doubt the hovercraft blades had the force or accuracy to sever the head.  Decapitation takes deliberate angle and speed even with sufficient force.  The French got especially good at it with their guillotine.  It certainly can happen by accident, but as you say, it's rarer than people think. 
The rumor that Jayne Mansfield was decapitated persisted for decades.  Her head was squashed when her car struck the truck, but not cut off. 

The Monty Python reference comes from the infamous Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook sketch with John Cleese as a Hungarian tourist and Terry Jones as a tobacconist.  The tourist is trying to buy cigarettes when he says, "My hovercraft is full of eels!"  The Hungarian tourist character returns later in the same episode during the infamous [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RESpam sketch.  Geek crossover from Python to cyberspace. 
8)

Yeah, I doubt the hovercraft blades had the force or accuracy to sever the head.  Decapitation takes deliberate angle and speed even with sufficient force.  The French got especially good at it with their guillotine.  It certainly can happen by accident, but as you say, it's rarer than people think. 
The rumor that Jayne Mansfield was decapitated persisted for decades.  Her head was squashed when her car struck the truck, but not cut off. 

The Monty Python reference comes from the infamous Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook sketch with John Cleese as a Hungarian tourist and Terry Jones as a tobacconist.  The tourist is trying to buy cigarettes when he says, "My hovercraft is full of eels!"  The Hungarian tourist character returns later in the same episode during the infamous [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RESpam sketch.  Geek crossover from Python to cyberspace. 
8)



  Ah, okay.  I remember that Python skit, if not the line...

  Anyhoo, the guillotine worked so well because of the angled blade it supposedly featured.  Didn't so much *chop* as *slice*.  Probably not every time, though.  Those sadistic barstiges would need to run it over an Arkansas stone every now and then...

  Ah, okay.  I remember that Python skit, if not the line...

   Anyhoo, the guillotine worked so well because of the angled blade it supposedly featured.  Didn't so much *chop* as *slice*.  Probably not every time, though.  Those sadistic barstiges would need to run it over an Arkansas stone every now and then...



Arkansas stone was hard to find in the middle of Bourgogne?
???