Dude Who Jumped onto Wing of Moving Plane

[Rosaecrucian]

Anyone remember the strange case where a mysterious man was seen walking up to a small airport asking pilots for a ride? The man seemed agitated and nervous like he was on the run from someone. Well, eventually one of the airport attendants told him to get lost, so the guy left. A little while later, the airport attendant was driving around the airport and saw the guy climb the fence, run towards a moving plane and actually jump on a single engine plane and hang onto the wing while the plane took off. The attendant later saw the man fall from the plane after the plane got a few hundred feet in the air. The attendant mentioned how desperate this man must have been to run from someone, or run to something, if he had to resort to this. Well, the body was examined and no one knew who the guy was, so the case went cold for years.

Well, there was an update on the case, but in typical UM fashion, the show only gave VERY vague details. Apparently some lady in the midwest called UM, after seeing it many years later, thinking the guy might be her missing son since the witnesses said the man was in excellent physical shape. The mother knew her missing son was an athletic runner. That was the extent of the update. A positive ID was made and that was all the info that was given. UM didnt speculate on what caused this guy to do this, but I now know why.

Well, a little internet sleuthing turned up a couple of small-time newspaper articles on the case, and apparently when the mother was interviewed she mentioned that she knew something bad had happened to her son because he was a known and diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic and had been having problems shortly before his dissapearnce, believing people were after him.

My point in relating this story is that it relates to another thread about the Canadian man, Blair Adams, who was found dead in TN after proclaiming someone was out to get him in Canada. I think a parsimonious explanation is best here as almost always, and that would be that this man suffered a similar fate to the aforementioned airplane guy -- that is, he was most likely a paranoid schizophrenic, or psychotic in some sense, and simply fled Canada out of an irrational fear brought on by his mental illness. His death was simply a self-fullfilling prophecy, much like the airplane guy. People who continually think something is going to happen often times can make it happen by their very actions. What you fear the most often can come true. Your biggest enemy is often times yourself.

[LooksLikeCRicci]

The unidentified man has been discussed on here previously... here's a link to the past thread.

Interesting point you make, though...

[nohwheregirl]

I like the way you think, Rosaecrucian.

[Rosaecrucian]

Yes, nowheregirl, I have a great and keen mind.

[Mr. Fuji]

I get what you're saying Rosaecrucian. When I first saw that segment about the guy who fell off the airplane, I was extremely intrigued. UM never updated the segment, so I had absolutely no idea what could have caused anyone to do what that man did. I thought that maybe someone was chasing him and trying to kill him and he must have desperately wanted to leave town. When I found out the case had been solved and the man who did it was a paranoid schizophrenic, it sort of changed the way I look at all UM cases. Whenever something totally bizarre happens, there is that possibility that the person involved has some kind of mental disorder that causes him or her to act in a strange way.

I do feel that in the case of Blair Adams, though, it's not as easy for me to accept that he was just some crazy man with a bunch of personal demons that went crazy. The main reason I say that is because, if you remember, Adams ended up dying from a blow to his stomach. That is the one detail of the case that keeps it interesting. It seems implausible that someone could die from giving themselves a blow to the stomach. It just doesn't make sense, to me at least.