Gender Reveal Stunt Crashes Plane – It’s Time for Extreme Reveals to Stop

I travel to 20+ countries a year sharing my firsthand knowledge of reward travel, travel credit card deals, travel tips and more.

In the old days, yes, like when I was born, parents learned the gender of their baby when their lower half popped out. Thanks to technology, these days parents find out around the 19^th week of pregnancy, though I’m pretty sure we found out around week nine or 10 because of bloodwork my wife had to get done. RELATED: 12 Things in Travel You Need to Know Today

Of course most excited couples don’t want to wait until birth to find out their baby’s gender so many have gotten creative with their announcements. Too creative, if you ask me. At first, gender reveal parties were a fun excuse to get together and for the parents to find out the gender of their new baby surrounded by loved ones.

According to Business Insider, the gender reveal parties were started in 2008 by blogger and mom Jenna Karvunidis. Jenna found out the gender of her baby by cutting into a cake at her baby shower to reveal pink frosting inside. I thought it was a great idea and it brings a new business opportunity to small bakeries.

Of course Jenna never intended for these announcements or parties to get out of hand and become so extreme but they sure have. Unfortunately, for some in this generation, a colored cake is too tame so now you see things like blue or pink confetti being shot from a firework or dropped from a plane. The latter happened yesterday in Mexico. Sadly, the pilot of the Piper PA-25 was killed after his left wing failed at a gender reveal party in the town of San Pedro.

The pilot has been identified as Luis Ángel, 32 years old, a resident of Navolato. It was indicated that he was in a serious condition and taken to the local hospital where he died moments later. pic.twitter.com/U6ouHW5xNi

— Breaking Aviation News & Videos (@aviationbrk) September 3, 2023

Per Breaking Aviation News, “The pilot has been identified as Luis Ángel, 32 years old, a resident of Navolato. It was indicated that he was in a serious condition and taken to the local hospital where he died moments later.” It’s too early to speculate but from the video, many observers think it was either structural fatigue or the pilot pulled up too fast. Either way, it’s a tragedy as a young man just lost his life.

One thing is for sure, as @GloryDoge commented: “These gender reveal parties are getting out of hand when people die annually because of them.” I agree. It’s not the first time tragedy has struck at a gender reveal party. One of the worst reveals was when a California couple used a “pyrotechnic device” and ignited the El Dorado fire. It burned 22,000 acres and killed a firefighter.

Something similar happened in Alberta, Canada. See below.

A new baby is something to celebrate, but be careful how you do it! A recent wildfire in Alberta was caused by an exploding target during a gender reveal party. You need written permission from a Forest Officer before detonating any exploding targets. https://t.co/Mp9Q6yZU3a pic.twitter.com/3fQYtGO8c8

— Alberta Wildfire (@AlbertaWildfire) June 7, 2021

It’s happening all over the world. In Brazil, a couple painted a waterfall blue for their reveal.

Couple paints a waterfall blue in #Brazil to make a gender reveal, Environment department is investigating the case 🃏 pic.twitter.com/eb2vjh6PqE

— Public Outsider (@publicoutsider) September 27, 2022

In Australia, couples were doing gender reveal ‘burnouts’ – in which cars emit billowing clouds of pink or blue smoke and many have resulted in flaming vehicles.

And then there’s this story. According to ABC News, “a soon-to-be grandmother killed at a gender-reveal party in Iowa was struck in the head by shrapnel after her family inadvertently created a “pipe bomb” to announce the impending baby news, authorities said.”

Do you know how I found out I was going to have a son? I was doing laundry one day in 2016 when my wife yelled to me from downstairs. She said she was on the phone with her doctor’s office and they wanted to know if I wanted to find out what the gender of our baby was. Our dryer sounded like a 747 engine so I didn’t really hear her question.

My answer would have been a hard no. But my wife waddled up the stairs with her phone on speaker and the young assistant from the doctor’s office blurted out, “You’re having a boy!” I was like, “Wait, what? Did she just tell me I’m going to have a boy while I’m washing our sheets?” It was a little anticlimactic and very unexpected as I wanted to wait until the day the baby was born to learn whether it was a girl or boy.

KEEP READING:
–12 Passport Tips That Will Save You Time, Money and Headaches
–The Most Important Thing I Do When I Travel Internationally Is …
–Rick Steves Got Pickpocketed in Paris: Here’s What He Wants You to Know
–The Most Important Thing For Travelers to Do According to a Safety Expert
–What You Need To Know About Renewing or Getting an Emergency Passport in the U.S.