It’s not really all that dangerous a “profession” - though for most it’s a “hobby.”
It’s been going on for 40 years and these would be the first chasers to EVER be killed by an actual tornado (though it seems unclear how exactly they were killed) - a few chasers have died in traffic accidents.
It’s not nearly as dangerous as Alaskan crab fishing. Or climbing Mont Everest.
And really the movement of tornadoes are pretty predictable 99% of the time - look at the map of most tornado outbreaks, and they’re a bunch of straight, parallel lines, usually SW to NE; there’s a characteristic storm motion on any given day driven by upper level winds that changes quite slowly.
This movement predictability is what allows chasing to be pretty safe for the most part.
Last Friday was an exception -the El Reno tornado had a very erratic U-shaped path, and also had suddenly forming satellite tornadoes.
Although the overal storm cells themselves, and the overall movement of the tornadoes are indeed from SW to NE, once on the ground, tornadoes move eradicately...varrying that general SW to NE movement by zig zaggibng around, hopping up into the air and coming back down. A dog leg of 1/4 mile is not all that uncommon, though those doglegs are rarely an extreme movement. But if you are in the path, thinking you are going to be 1000 ft away as it passes, a quarter mile can be the difference.
My point is simple. It was tragic...but it is dangerous. This man was extremely experienced, and I doubt he did anything rash or wrong...things just took a terrible turn for him and those with him.
So would a tornado south of the equator travel from NW to SE?