From Alan Chattaway
Those of us old enough to remember the 1950s, when air travel was a luxury and sea travel was the economical way to cross the oceans, have noticed that the Airbus A380 will carry a similar number of passengers (600 to 800) to the ocean liners of the 20th century (21 May, p 8).
Every one of those ocean liners had a ship’s hospital with a ship’s doctor and nurse. So why shouldn’t the Airbus have at least a paramedic on every flight?
On another flight-related issue, I enjoyed the article about Nate Saint suspending a stationary load – in his case, a basket of gifts – from a plane flying in tight circles (30 April, p 35).
In a photo caption, you mention that Saint was killed by the tribe to which he was delivering gifts. Readers may be interested to know that Nate’s son Steve, who was 5 years old when his father died, subsequently lived with the tribe for many years as a Christian missionary and became a close friend of his father’s killer.
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He founded the Indigenous People’s Technology and Education Center (I-TEC) to help the tribe become self-reliant and resist the “development” agendas of less altruistic outsiders who have designs on the tribe’s territory. One I-TEC development is a portable dentist’s chair, with battery-powered drill, that folds into a backpack (see www.itecusa.org/projects.htm).
Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
