This is not Child's Play

You would think the father in this story would have more common sense but apparently not.

On reading the story of Warren Gold and his eight-year-old-son Aidan, the first thing to pop in my head was the tale of Lloyd Dubroff and his seven-year-daughter Jessica. Its almost ten years exactly since that little girl's story concluded. It wasn't a happy ending.

Jessica Dubroff was trying to be the youngest person to fly cross country. Her parents homeschooled her, and had different ideas about raising their child. Jessica's story got alot of national publicity. Television networks, National Geographic and more.

I was bothered by the story back then. A child flying a plane? Actually the FAA prohibits anyone under 16 from piloting. To me it all seemed like a publicity stunt. Some parents enjoy having famous children, or better yet making them famous. But I never dreamed Jessica's story would end the way it did.

Jessica Dubroff died on April 11, 1996. Her plane on its second leg of its trip, crashed shortly after takeoff from the airport in Cheyenne Wyoming. Along with Jessica, her father and the pilot died. The plane was possibly overweight, comined with bad weather at takeoff and possibly the flight instructor instead of the pilot at the controls all contributing to the crash. Jessica's story ended in a tragic form of publicity no one had foreseen.

Now we have another publicity hound lunatic father that I hope gets stopped. The article I link to tells of Warren Gold and his son Aidan. They aren't trying to fly across the country, they're doing something much more dangerous. For the last four months the Golds have climbing mountains around the world. One of the peaks being over 20,000 feet in height.

This is a very dangerous activity even for adults. So why is the Seattle Post-Intelligencer publicizing it? Someone should have a word with Mr. Gold and failing that, Children's Services should step in before another tragedy occurs. Because what is being done here is child endangerment in my opinion. I wonder even if Mr. Gold realizes the true dangers. He says he does, but read this quote.

But he said, "I really think the most dangerous thing we did the whole trip was crossing the street in Katmandu."

I just hope Mr. Gold finally recognizes the danger he is exposing Aidan to. If not, someone needs to put an end to this before we have another Jessica Dubroff.

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