Yukon College Papers by Murray Lundberg, 1993-1994
Social deviant
Murray Lundberg
Sociology 100
Yukon College
Winter 1993
MINI-ASSIGNMENT #2
We are all social deviants, at one time or another.
Describe your most interesting experience as a deviant. What did you do? How did people react to you? What sanctions, if any, did people employ to alter your behaviour? How did you feel about the response you generated? How did you feel about yourself? What lessons did you learn from the experience?
Write your account in the space provided below. Please don't use the back or additional paper.
[Handwritten]
My most interesting experience as a deviant resulted in fleeting fame via the national TV news, and alasting reputation among Vancouver-area pilots. Everybody loves a good plane crash!
In July 1987, while my own plane was in the shop for an inspection, I rented a similar plan eto fulfill an arrangement to pick up 3 fishermen in Port Hardy. At 11 pm on the return flight, within sight of the airport, the engine died, resulting in a crash-landing in the shallow waters a mile off-shore (the plane was on wheels, not floats!). A spectacular hovercraft rescue of the 4 of us ensued.
Two very different reactions followed - praise from fellow pilots (the crash was generally considered unsurvivable), determination by the legal system and flying Establishment to make an example of me for "chisel-chartering" (commercial transport without a licence). When, after weeks of harassment by police, they couldn't prove that charge, I was charged with carrying less than the legal amount of fuel. That charge was so ridiculous that I defended myself in court, and lost. The result was financial and licence-suspension "slap on the wrist." The flying Establishment could then tell their members that they had won, that they were once again safe from outlaws.
Although I remain proud of the way I handled the crash and subsequent problems, I did learn never to fly anything that is obviously not in good mechanical condition. Would I do this sort of border-line-legal chartering again? Absolutely. I also learned that corporate deviance is protected. ( I feel an essay coming on!)
The "essay" noted in the closing above was written a few years later, and is posted as "Deadly Silence".
There were no instructor comments or mark.
See a pdf of the paper.
