Why were Liz & Kirk holding onto the pontoon?

Great minds, I wondered the same thing, why not straddle them.

So the plane crashes and they end up in the water holding onto the pontoons from the bottom of the plane. Why are they in the water, trying to hold on? Why are they not sitting on top of the pontoon? Kirk was injured and having trouble holding on, but he could have been lying on top of it.

If they had been sitting on top of the pontoon (where it made sense, unlike most of the writing) she wouldn't have had the opportunity to show off her great strength and lift a semi-conscious, dead weight, fully clothed, water-logged man out of the water with one arm while hanging on with her other arm. This is not your run-of-the-mill heroine, folks.

i did not even notice on my first viewing. was pretty late for me, but last night we all re watch the episode and everyone was asking the same.

there are so many mistakes on this episode, in terms of writing.

It requires tremendous upper body strength to pull oneself out of the water onto a raised platform of any kind. Many people have died after falling into the water and finding themselves unable to pull their bodies up over the side to get back in. There have been cases where people jumped into the water from a boat and forgot to lower the recovery ladder to climb back in.

Any injury before, during or after the fall can make the situation even worse. Add hypothermia, dehydration, the weight of clothing, feelings of panic and fatigue - you have a recipe for disaster.

If you are successful, it had better be on the first try because every additional attempt will leave you weaker. It is possible to use clothing as makeshift flotation devices but this requires training. If there is a rope hanging from the boat or other object, you can hang onto it and float on your back to conserve energy. Of course, it's always best to have a life jacket and/or raft.

I thought one of the pontoons was taking on water, so why are they both floating at the same level?

That was the very first thing I wondered as well. The way those pontoons were floating they pretty much could have straddled it anywhere and been just fine. Even if their weight sunk the pontoons a bit, they still could have easily sat atop them. And if they were insisting on clinging to them like they did, why weren't they holding onto the supports that linked the two pontoons. You know, the smaller supports they could easily wrap their arms around rather than the large pontoons they could barely get an arm over.






I'm so hip I have trouble seeing over my pelvis.