AP News – When wealthy adventurers take huge risks, who should pay for rescue attempts?

FILE - Balloonist Steve Fossett is retrieved by a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter from waters 10-15 miles north of the island of Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands, Dec. 25, 1998, after abandoning his quest along with Per Lindstrand, of Sweden, and British mogul Richard Branson, who were attempting to make the first nonstop round-the-world flight in a balloon. The massive hunt for the Titan submersible that imploded deep in the North Atlantic has refocused attention on whether wealthy risktakers should pay for emergency search and rescue efforts. (Richard Ambo/Honolulu Star-Advertiser via AP, File)

When millionaire Steve Fossett’s plane went missing over the Nevada range in 2007, the swashbuckling adventurer had already been the subject of two prior emergency rescue operations thousands of miles apart.

And that prompted a prickly question: After a sweeping search for the wealthy risktaker ended, who should foot the bill?

The massive hunt for a submersible vehicle lost during a north Atlantic descent to explore the wreckage of the Titanic has refocused attention on that conundrum. And with rescuers and the public fixated first on saving and then on mourning those aboard, it has again made for uneasy conversation.

AP News discussed with SHA Dean Arun Upneja on the matter.

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