Another case of pilot error

Eugene Leitl (eugene.leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)
Sat, 17 Jul 1999 17:52:34 -0700 (PDT)


Of course jetting (or worse: chopping) around the planet
back & forth is just asking for trouble. Planes might be safer than
cars, but this applies to big companies and only per mile travelled.

Joachim Feise writes:
> >From all what I heard about JFK, Jr.'s missing plane, this seems to be
> just another case of pilot error:
> Flying over water at night in a single engine plane, not high enough to
> be able to reach land in case of an emergency (due to airspace limitations),
> flying VFR without filing a flight plan or using flight following.
> There is a high probability for spatial disorientation, which I assume
> happened here. The decision to fly without ATC support just makes it harder
> to find the plane. Now it is more than 11 hours after the plane vanished.
> Nearly nobody survives that long in water. Game over.