Thread 4 - Michael Mosley

[Aquarius1234]

Body found and identified.

Lessons I have learnt from the last two pages.

iPhones are shit. Don't buy them.
It's 'arrogant' to leave the phone without a phone. (Wtf!)

Meanwhile there have been other more useful comments.

The idea some have that taking/carrying a phone is some sort of panacea and will always enable you to call for assistance, wherever you go, is dangerous to say the least.

I’ve walked and even cycled on metaled roads in rural areas outside the UK where you can go best part of an hour or even more with zero signal….you really cannot rely on the darn things to get help if you have a fall/accident. Wonder how good the coverage is on Symi outside of the one or two villages? Looks to be plenty of opportunity for you to be out of signal due to the tear rain.

There are some interesting pro and very importantly cons here:

https://www.milestoneoutdoors.co.uk/post/hiking-with-your-phone-pros-and-cons-of-using-mobile-navigation

How very tragic. His poor family!

I just don't understand WHY he thought that walking around during the hottest part of the day was a good idea. It was my initial reaction when I read that he'd gone missing. Being a physician, he would certainly have been aware of the dangers of heat stroke. An umbrella wouldn't have been enough unless he was also carrying water.

It's raining. My phone stops working. Shit I'm lost cos I don't have a map and don't know how to navigate without one.

It's a phone. If you are in and out of signal it eats battery. Oh shit my battery is flat. I'm screwed as I can't non arrogantly call for help.

For starters.

Over reliance on your phone is unhelpful. And possibly carries it own risks.

It’s beside the point now, but 40 Celsius is 104 Fahrenheit. Rough conversion is to double the lower figure and add just approximately 10, round down.

This has confused many of us as he knew the risks more than most. But it might be a combination of his adventurous and experimental personality plus confusion from the heat. I guess we'll never know

I've been hearing about a lot of men who go to everest knowing the huge risk of dying and they do it anyway because the challenge and achievement is worth it to them

I think it’s what his wife says, and she knew him best, he took a wrong turn, basically went the wrong way.

But did she want him to go for a walk back to the villa for example in the extreme heat? Rather than early morning or evening.

I don’t think I said anything about over relying on a phone or that it’s a panacea ? Dr Mosley wasn’t relying on anything it seems, unless he had a map which given that’s not been referred to at all in this discussion seems unlikely. Better to have had a phone than nothing.

'I'm feeling particularly shocked that his fall was captured on CCTV. Knowing a man was missing, why wouldn't all businesses on this small island have reviewed their CCTV'

This omg why didn't everyone with cctv review their footage sooner rather than later. They can see him! Imagine if they'd looked on Wed pm or at least Thurs when they knew someone was missing.

Likely closed and possibly not there to do so. In addition, it would have saved days of worry but wouldn’t have sadly changed the outcome.

Yes but it's a tiny island and they said repeatedly minimal cctv so surely someone should have been assigned the job of reviewing the handful of cctv on the island. Initially they were looking on the beach path then they found out fri he'd got as far as Pedi but the shop cctv hadn't been looked at until then.

It's just incredible that cctv wasn't top of the list to review quickly and thoroughly on Thur a.m. He was visible and quite possibly could have been saved we don't know. I hope for his family's sake the pm shows a heart attack and sudden death rather than something that could have been treated.

@Justrelax

" there are very, very few places where people can go nowadays where there is zero phone reception"
That really isn't true , parts of rural Suffolk, Devon, Dorset just in my own experience.

I read the article in the Sun by the traumatised Sun journo who was there when the body was found. I think people need an awareness that their actions have a wider impact in many cases eg lots of comments about how it’s fine to take your own risks To an extent but often those risks have long lasting impacts on others.

Honestly there is lots of reasons it might not have been reviewed, the person who can access may not have even been on the island, the restaurant closed, it’s not like the uk, often they only open for a limited number of days.

his wife isn’t lashing out, his kids aren’t, so maybe you shouldn’t be either?

Completely agree with this . It's been the main thing that's been on my mind. The police and locals should have scoured all CCTV footage or insisted owners do so. Also if he was so close to the bar, and fence, why didn't anyone walk up that stretch of rocky hillside?

This has very much reminded me of the death of Matthew Power, an American journalist who went to join Levison Wood on a walk in Uganda to report on it in 2014.
I know it was discussed that acclimatisation could have been a factor there as he went from a cool/cold USA into extreme heat and was doing the walk the very next day. Which was sadly the case for MM.

Oh, I must have hallucinated all those other instances it was mentioned.

Seconded.

I'm elsewhere in Europe (mainland). Until they upgraded the local repeater to 4G a few years back we had no/weak mobile in the house.

Even now there are dead spots on the main road into the local big town.

Go into the local big big hills and there are sizeable areas (as in whole vallies and villages therein) with zero signal.

Re the phone - either he forgot it or left it deliberately. I think it's highly likely he wasn't planning such an epic mountain walk. Probably thought he'd go back with the others or get the bus. I imagine he went for a wander, saw the mountain and thought "Oh I'll take the scenic route/have a look up there". Hikers love climbing big hills.
And if he had the phone it may not have made any difference. Maybe there was no signal, maybe the phone would have died in the heat. Perhaps he was fine until the very last minute when he collapsed and so wouldn't have been able to call for help anyway.
He must have felt absolutely fine as he started climbing the hill. Thought he was OK with the umbrella and bottle of water and then got lost.
It's incredibly sad. I keep thinking about it. I'm really going to be more careful in the heat now and when out walking.

I’m not sure “arrogance” is the right word but I think definitely amongst some people and probably a lot of MN users amongst them there is a bit of perceived superiority in not being seen as reliant on a mobile phone. You even see it here. Suggesting it might be better to have a phone than nothing is misinterpreted as seeing a phone as a “panacea” or “over relying” on it.

Yes they'd have found his body earlier which would have saved a whole lot of stress and effort - but the outcome would have been the same. Seems he died long before anyone realised he was missing.

of course to accommodate the tourist euro, a massive part of Greek GDP, beach bars will open in high season throughout the day. (Although early June is not yet high season.)

@LefkaOri indeed, but earlier you said the kiosk/resort he was near was, like other places, likely to be shut because of siesta/closing during the hottest hours. I was pointing out that wasn’t the case, at least not on the beach where he was with his wife.

I do think the kiosk with the CCTV that showed MM was likely to have been open on the day he died, at least the wider resort/restaurant definitely was. Perhaps this particular CCTV wasn’t checked earlier because they didn’t expect MM to be there.

It’s been mentioned several times, but never verified. Unless his wife knows why and this information is shared, we’ll never know why he went for that walk.