Rarely, and if so I usually just read over their Google bio blurb for the most basic overview of them.

It's reportedly at around 66,000 feet, which is only 1,000 feet above the declared maximum altitude of an F-15. Using the F-15s cannon on it, one could perforate the balloon and cause it to lose lift gas, which would end in a gradual descent. Even if the balloon were to fully deflate, it would act as a huge source of drag (much like a parachute) and prevent the payload from free falling.

Agreed. This has always been my advice to people. The plays were written to be performed, and when performed by a competent theater troupe, are a great experience. But I've always found reading them to be a chore.

A note on spaghettification: For very large black holes, of which TON 618 is certainly one, you can actually pass the event horizon and may not even know it. This is because gravity works according to the square of the distance to a mass, as such:

F = G( (m1*m2)/r^2 )

Where F is the force on an object, G is the gravitational constant, m1 and m2 are the masses in question (you and TON 618) and r is the distance between. So, the event horizon will be very far from the singularity and when you cross it say feet-first, the difference in force between your feet and your head will be minimal until you get much closer to the singularity.

From what I understand about it though, at the point you're inside the event horizon, collision with the singularity becomes inevitable. But could you move into a slowly decaying orbit near light speed and watch the rest of the universe go cold as TON 618 eventually evaporates and sets you free? I don't think we really know.

"You say this like we all agreed to do whatever was written in a manual!"

ITT: Non-engineers.

What this spec is saying is not "survive a cruise speed to full stop crash in 6.5 ms" but rather it can survive a series of decelerations and accelerations (bouncing from one direction to another is technically an acceleration) since its very very unlikely the plane (in parts) won't bounce and roll and shed all that kinetic energy over a wide area. It's a logical and reasonable goal.

Granted, crashing full speed into a vertical granite cliff might exceed those specs, but that's an edge case and we'll put it in the training docs that doing so is ill-advised.