I don't see anywhere that I suggested that they don their suits after egress. If I somehow gave that impression, I apologize (and if you could point it out, I'll edit it). I personally favor the modern Gore-Tex suits with insulation that you can wear like a normal flight suit, nothing at all to be done if needed except maybe finish zipping up or removing a neck ring (depending upon style).

As for a "litmus test," I'll respectfully disagree. These guys survived DESPITE making a number of serious errors in preparations. They were extremely lucky in the end. That's often the case, but hardly a reason to claim that makes what they did good choices. Survival due to fortitude and good luck is better than not, but we can learn a lot to ensure we don't have to face such difficulties.



Sorry, but in my opinion we have more than enough licensing requirements, so I disagree. Most folks who chose to do this, take some instruction. These guys may have, I don't know. I am very much opposed to the concept of a nanny society. Personally, I don't think we need any more of government licensing. You might just as well suggest that we require that children and people be licensed to cross the street. We lose lots more folks that way every year than we do the occasional pilot who fails to survive a ditching as a result of some lack of training. Ditchings, even in the north Atlantic, are pretty highly survivable events, even without such a licensing scheme and there's very little to suggest such a required expense would significantly impact the survival rate, given that most already avail themselves of some sort of training.