Mental blackout: monitors' excuse after Maria Eduarda's puenting death

"Mental blackout": the explanation that explains nothing in Maria Eduarda's death

How can a puenting instructor forget to attach the rope to the client? That is the question haunting the accident that took the life of Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas, 27, who was thrown from a bridge in Brazil with no safety attachment whatsoever. The operators, arrested after the incident, claimed a "mental blackout": a momentary lapse that made them skip the safety protocol. The incident occurred on June 16 and has already triggered a wave of reactions on social media, some so macabre that a Brazilian lawmaker has reported several users to the Federal Police for inciting rape, necrophilia and desecration of the corpse.

Routine, according to the analyses, can be a silent enemy. Repeating the manoeuvre —launching dozens of tourists every day— causes critical steps to become so automatic that they end up being skipped. The instructor who carried out the launch, it seems, did not check that the harness was attached, and the victim, trusting, did not check either. Some safety experts remind users that, however professional the operators may be, the user must personally check the basic elements of their equipment.

The social reaction, however, has been especially chilling. While the instructors hide behind the "mental blackout", messages such as "there's a party at the morgue today" circulated on social media. The lawmaker who filed the complaint has peine a legal front against those who turned the tragedy into mockery and abuse. It remains to be seen whether the Brazilian courts consider human error a sufficient explanation —or simply a shoddy alibi for the inexplicable.