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During a week in which David Blaine hung upside down for two nights and three days and a 49-year-old former military pilot used a jetpack to fly solo across the channel, it is worth considering how effective risk management can make the seemingly impossible possible. After all, these people, undertaking stunts and feats entirely at their own risk and outside of normal safety regulations, are unlikely to have any recourse to a no win, no fee claim in the event of something going wrong.
For example, Blaine, suspended by his feet over a New York ice rink, blood rushing to his head at an unprecedented rate, was actually advised by doctors that to do so risked levels of pressure on his brain and internal organs that could kill him.
However, by taking ten-minute breaks every hour, Blaine was able to alleviate the pressure and, despite his head feeling it was "about to explode", managed to see his task through to the end.
Blaine's decision to take breaks can be seem as a risk management strategy. So too does his commitment to intensive psychological and physical preparation for his stunts.
It can be said, despite his protestations that he would manage to complete the task through "sheer willpower", that what Blaine actually does best is know his own limitations. By being in peak condition and understanding risk, he avoids personal injury. I suppose if inspiration can be drawn from such novel acts, however extreme they may be, it is that. Perhaps Blaine would enjoy a second career as a workplace risk manager. Though if he were to get it wrong and a poor risk assessment resulted in a work accident then a no win, no fee claim one can just imagine the "David Blame" headlines.
Yves Rossy, the Swiss man who flew by jetpack at heights more than 8,000ft and speeds of more than 120mph, was more upfront about the value effective risk management played in his achievement.
He managed the Calais to Dover crossing, following the same route taken by pioneer French pilot Louis Blriot more than 99 years ago, in fewer than ten minutes, parachuting from his jetpack to make a dramatic and triumphant descent right here in the UK.
Producers from the National Geographic Channel, who were following the crossing and broadcasting it live, commented, "When we've talked to him and asked him are you worried about risk his quote consistently is: I'm not worried about risk. I manage risk.'
"He flew Mirage fighters for the Swiss army, he now flies an Airbus. And in his sort of heart he's a pilot and a parachutist and what they do is manage risk. He won't fly if he doesn't think that he will arrive in Dover."
Before embarking on the mission Rossy commented, "If I calculate everything right, I will land in Dover. But if I get it wrong, I take a bath."
He would certainly make a suitable superhero mascot for the health and safety movement, in the process perhaps helping to debunk myths of nannying, showing instead that health and safety is an enabler rather than a spoiler.
