Juan Browne - blancolirio

Lowflynjack

Lowflynjack

Final Approach
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Jack Fleetwood
What is the obsession with these guys who make a living off of other people's accidents and/or deaths? I've had people tell me this guy really cares, "he's not like Dan Gryder." He's exactly like Dan! A plane crashed on 10/13 and by 10/15, Juan is telling you what he thinks happened. Spoiler alert... it's not complicated, the pilot reported severe icing. These guys are not trying to help you become safer, if they were, they would wait for the NTSB report instead of post within two days to try to beat the other 'aviation experts'.

How did he get my attention? Two different people sent me a photo he used from Piper Owner magazine, of a pilot I know. I had people saying there was a fatal crash and Juan was reporting on it, then they sent me this photo. I immediately reached out to the guy I'd flown with and was surprised when he answered. The photo not only shows his N-number, but has his name in visible in the article.

To be fair, he didn't say this was the accident plane. But, why use a photo of another plane when telling about a crash? This has happened to me several times now, but they just claim they are press and have the "fair use" law to hide behind.

I hope this doesn't happen to any of you. Even though it wasn't the guy I know, the pilot who did crash already has someone blasting him on YouTube before the funeral.

Screenshot 2026-10-16 at 10.13.02 AM.png
 
MountainDude said:
The hope is that others will learn from these accidents and avoid them.
Youtube is a much easier medium to convey such information than in NTSB reports.
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I don't think that is the hope at all. We know what happens if you fly into a storm. The goal is to make money and people think that's okay right after an accident. They don't care if they have facts.
 
Lowflynjack said:
I don't think that is the hope at all. We know what happens if you fly into a storm. The goal is to make money and people think that's okay right after an accident. They don't care if they have facts.
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He's a 777 pilot at AAL. Any money he makes through YouTube and sponsorships is insignificant compared to what he makes from his job. He can make a lot more by picking up an extra 3-day trip each month.
 
Larry in TN said:
He's a 777 pilot at AAL. Any money he makes through YouTube and sponsorships is insignificant compared to what he makes from his job. He can make a lot more by picking up an extra 3-day trip each month.
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Then why doesn't he wait until more facts are in? I don't understand the rush to post these videos... other than the fact that he gets more views which makes more money.

I know people love him, and others like him, but I will never understand.
 
IMNSHO, He's one of the few sane guys discussing accidents. I've gotten some value out of his discussions. Flying a Triple 7 generates a lot more cash than a YouTube channel and getting a sane discussion sooner might be valuable to the uninformed and uninvolved who watch some other loon speculate (not to mention this board ;))
 
Yeah, I don't think these videos are primarily for teaching nor learning. I think a lot of these guys may believe that's what they're doing, but it feels a bit more like just wanting attention and eyeballs. I suspect if there were some introspection they might even realize it. At this point there's too many of these guys out there. They're a bit boring and waste time reading me **** I could've gleaned in 1/4 the time or less. In my opinion of course.

Regardless, to each his own, and there are far worse videos to watch on the internetz. Give me more Smarter Every Day, Technology Connection, and Practical Engineering videos. :)
 
Larry in TN said:
He's a 777 pilot at AAL. Any money he makes through YouTube and sponsorships is insignificant compared to what he makes from his job. He can make a lot more by picking up an extra 3-day trip each month.
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They are chasing celebrity. Some do it for money, others want the fame.

And most are clueless.
 
I'd be curious what he makes off these video's. @SixPapaCharlie , any insight?

I do occasionally watch his videos. But definitely with a grain of salt.
 
Just because he’s a 777 guy doesn’t mean he’s managing his money or doesn’t need supplemental income. I read Sully’s book and he was heavily in debt during the whole “Miracle on the Hudson” timeframe. A failed gas station investment and a safety website not paying the bills. Don’t kid yourself, these guys find ways to spend it.

Also, with 600K in subscribers and well over a million views per month combined in his vids, no reason why he shouldn’t be into 6 figures a year. His airline job isn’t going to last forever and if he loses his medical, his channel could easily support him when the time comes.

Personally I like his vids and I completely understand getting compensated accordingly. But, it’s obvious every time there’s an accident or something new in aviation the usual suspects are trying to be first to the punch. There’s a reason why they’re doing that.
 
Prolly all about the Benjamins first, though we shouldn’t assume his motives aren’t altruistic (just like we and he shouldn’t presume the accident cause is determinable remotely within 48 hours).
 
I think because there are so many boneheaded G-car chasing wannabes bloviating their theories while the accident scene is still smoking, at least a few of folks out there truly believe they’re doing a positive thing to the community by analyzing the facts and describing what the NTSB will be looking at during their investigation. The videos I’ve seen on his channel generally avoid conclusions but suggest factors that investigators will look at.

The fact is people have very short attention spans and will forget about the incident by the time the final report comes out. This is the real world, and when something bad happens, people immediately want to know “why?” And don’t have the patience to wait. The void gets filled in by clout chasers.

I honestly don’t know if Juan is doing this for fame, glory or social media clout, but honestly he seems to be doing a better job at it than most of the others.
 
Doc Holliday said:
And most are clueless.
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The only thing different between blanco and the others, he doesn't wear his pilot shirts and bars for added credibility. If they were real "experts" as they portray, they would be running the legal side as experts for the real bucks. Then again, 1000s of people thought Trevor Jacob was an aviation sensation as well.;)
 
Feels like it feeds more on the energy of the frenzy that the laypeople in social media and traditional news media create when covering plane crashes, and the knowledge gaps that are created while doing so. We know there’s a lot of people spun up when there’s an accident, but there’s usually a distinct lack of relevant context and insight because the vast majority of people know between diddly and squat about aviation. And sometimes the reporting is egregiously bad, and we know darn well that pilots can’t let blatantly non-factual things slip by (that’s probably step one in creating a pundit). Sometimes the accident is so horrible that waiting years for a final report isn’t going to stop the misdirected, knee-jerk responses of the public and their elected officials based on rabbit holes created by those gaps or other misinformation.

My take is that we here aren’t really the audience for these types of videos, because most of us already understand the context well enough, or we know how to get relevant info and reject the irrelevant. And most of us know what we won’t know until the NTSB releases their official report a couple years down the road, anyway. We take that for granted and it’s really easy to forget that not everybody has that same understanding. Putting out any sort of context in front of pilots, even as possibilities, is always going to be met with a level of reproach because we all know better than the next guy, anyway, regardless of any evidence to the contrary. Which is probably why so many of us feel compelled to get riled up and comment about it.

Meanwhile, lots of those laypeople are clamoring for the gap to be filled by someone who has a semblance of a clue, even if it’s just to assure people that this isn’t going to happen to them on their next flight, or that a plane isn’t going fall on their house. Or maybe people just want to believe in the appearance of someone at large admonishing pilots not to keep getting into these kinds of situations (despite all the resources we have telling us not to).

Try it sometime with a layperson close to you - a plane crashes, they’re kind of freaking out about it because they have close to zero perspective, just being fed the headlines and mayhem. Calmly explaining even some of the context seems to at least assure them that there are people (beyond you) that get this stuff, that are investigating, and are trying to ensure it doesn’t happen again. And if you don’t get that perspective, it’s because, again, you’re not the target, you’re past that point.

Certainly not saying that Juan or anybody else outside the official investigators has the end-all, or even a good answer (and to be fair, Juan’s been letting his personal biases through more and more), but if it’s not him, the void will fill with someone else.
 
Lowflynjack said:
What is the obsession with these guys who make a living off of other people's accidents and/or deaths? I've had people tell me this guy really cares, "he's not like Dan Gryder." He's exactly like Dan!
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Nah, just because they are both on YT doesn't make them the same. Juan is mostly accurate and doesn't crash airplanes nor steal things from accident sites. Dan is speculative, often wrong, crashes airplanes and steals things from accident sites.

I happen to not really like ambulance chasing channels. But that doesn't mean that Juan isn't sane and Dan shouldn't be trusted with the keys to another plane.
 
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Flying Keys said:
Meanwhile, lots of those laypeople are clamoring for the gap to be filled by someone who has a semblance of a clue, even if it’s just to assure people that this isn’t going to happen to them on their next flight, or that a plane isn’t going fall on their house. Or maybe people just want to believe in the appearance of someone at large admonishing pilots not to keep getting into these kinds of situations (despite all the resources we have telling us not to).
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Is Juan doing any of that?
Flying Keys said:
Certainly not saying that Juan or anybody else outside the official investigators has the end-all, or even a good answer (and to be fair, Juan’s been letting his personal biases through more and more), but if it’s not him, the void will fill with someone else.
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I’m glad he’s happy to take the heat for being an ******* so nobody else has to. That’s a very altruistic reason to do what he’s doing.
 
MauleSkinner said:
Is Juan doing any of that?

I’m glad he’s happy to take the heat for being an ******* so nobody else has to.
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Do either of us have the perspective to answer that without our own biases getting in the way? This is exactly what I’m talking about.
 
Lowflynjack said:
What is the obsession with these guys who make a living off of other people's accidents and/or deaths? I've had people tell me this guy really cares, "he's not like Dan Gryder." He's exactly like Dan! A plane crashed on 10/13 and by 10/15, Juan is telling you what he thinks happened. Spoiler alert... it's not complicated, the pilot reported severe icing. These guys are not trying to help you become safer, if they were, they would wait for the NTSB report instead of post within two days to try to beat the other 'aviation experts'.

How did he get my attention? Two different people sent me a photo he used from Piper Owner magazine, of a pilot I know. I had people saying there was a fatal crash and Juan was reporting on it, then they sent me this photo. I immediately reached out to the guy I'd flown with and was surprised when he answered. The photo not only shows his N-number, but has his name in visible in the article.

To be fair, he didn't say this was the accident plane. But, why use a photo of another plane when telling about a crash? This has happened to me several times now, but they just claim they are press and have the "fair use" law to hide behind.

I hope this doesn't happen to any of you. Even though it wasn't the guy I know, the pilot who did crash already has someone blasting him on YouTube before the funeral.

View attachment 155726
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These guys are all grifters and charlatans. But you won't have to wait long for one of his sock puppets to come along and defend him.
 
Doc Holliday said:
It’s all about subscribers and clicks.

It’s nothing more than entertainment.
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^This.

The problem is, if he said what he actually knew at the time he reports it -- he'd be giving you about 1 minute of facts. Here's the filed+ADS-B flight paths, here's the weather radar, here's the aircraft type, here's the local METARs and PIREPs in the area (and maybe: here's the pilot's qualifications). Problem is: that wouldn't make for a compelling, high-click video on YouTube. It'd be boring and too short.

And not to be calloused but what's the rush to crank out this stuff? The guy who flew the plane and the passengers are dead. Whether Juan gets his video out in 3 days or 3 years makes no difference to the outcome.

The only obvious difference to me is that on day 3 his video will get a bigger audience b/c it's fresh in people's heads, and some answer (no matter how wrong) feels better than no answer. If he were to responsibly wait a year and give an actual retelling of the final report -- he wouldn't be nearly as popular on YT. Ergo, he rushes to do it quick.

The same thing happens all the time in mass shootings, murders, car crashes, etc. We people can't help ourselves; we'd rather have a seemingly-right (but actually wrong in fact) answer today, than to wait for tedious things like actual facts to be unearthed and stitched together methodically by professional investigators.

So IMHO you gotta treat it for what it is: morbid entertainment dressed up as education. And I do not understand why people watch this stuff.
 
Lowflynjack said:
Then why doesn't he wait until more facts are in?
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Juan reports the facts that are in and adds his interpretation of them for those who are less knowledgably about aviation. He understands the accident investigation process and the technical subjects that are raised. He is quick to correct any wrong information once new information becomes available.
 
Larry in TN said:
Juan reports the facts that are in and adds his interpretation of them for those who are less knowledgably about aviation. He understands the accident investigation process and the technical subjects that are raised. He is quick to correct any wrong information once new information becomes available.
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Yep, and generates very interesting discussions in the comments. Juan has seemingly quite a long and varied aviation career and his speculation is informed. I like him.
 
Larry in TN said:
Juan reports the facts that are in and adds his interpretation of them for those who are less knowledgably about aviation. He understands the accident investigation process and the technical subjects that are raised. He is quick to correct any wrong information once new information becomes available.
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Beat me to it. I don't seek out or regularly watch any of those types of videos, but of the creators of them, he's one of the best for being factual and knowledgeable. But I also get the angst against him and the type.
 
Doc's got it, I think it's primarily money/clicks/fame. And I get why someone would start a site like that, or follow it to an extent. Because whatever Juan is saying is always going to be more accurate, from what I've seen, than whatever CNN or other news comes with for their "expert". I still remember the 20x the speed of light thing on CNN's report of the second space shuttle disaster.

What I don't get is how anyone would look at youtube or news as anything more than another opinion or viewpoint. One of the reasons I like this forum is that for any given aviation topic you're going to get 20+ different opinions, some of which may include direct experience related to whatever it was, and all of those opinions are peer reviewed in near real time. It's usually pretty easy to spot which are the really unlikely opinions.
 
Larry in TN said:
He's a 777 pilot at AAL. Any money he makes through YouTube and sponsorships is insignificant compared to what he makes from his job. He can make a lot more by picking up an extra 3-day trip each month.
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Based on this channel view count, his channel has made him somewhere between $1.2 and $2 million
He makes a s*** ton on patreon.
 
mryan75 said:
As a YouTuber myself, easily $5,000 a month, probably 2-3 times that. I’d say he quite comfortably makes $10,000 a month on average.
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He has 282m views. Ballpark is $5k per million views just from yt ad revenue.
And yt rewards creators as they grow. 5k/m is what I see. He probably sees a lot more than that.

He's not not doing it for the money
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
He has 282m views. Ballpark is $5k per million views just from yt ad revenue.
And yt rewards creators as they grow. 5k/m is what I see. He probably sees a lot more than that.

He's not not doing it for the money
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Depends on the subject matter. I see about $3,400/million views. Financial matter would bring twice what aviation/news brings. And actually I’d revise my estimate on his YT income to $20,000/month. He says he doesn’t make money on YT but he does. And as someone else managed, he makes an absolute boatload on Patreon.
 
It’s an interesting study in incentives. I first starting watching Juan when he was doing pretty deep dive reporting on the Oroville Dam. I’m guessing that where he has migrated to is based on what he is incentivized to report on.
 
Sam D said:
It’s an interesting study in incentives. I first starting watching Juan when he was doing pretty deep dive reporting on the Oroville Dam. I’m guessing that where he has migrated to is based on what he is incentivized to report on.
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Yeah, his channel has been around for a long time and most of the early stuff was more sharing stuff with family, limited appeal. He certainly didn’t *start* YouTube with the intention of getting rich. But as sometimes happens, one video goes viral, the subs start flowing, and a though pops in one’s head that this is a viable side hustle. No one is going to prolifically post content without some personal benefit.
 
As to what @Lowflynjack wrote, it's pretty easy to remove an N-number from an airplane photo; and it would be a thoughtful thing to do. FWIW, I just removed the n-number from a photo of my airplane using Adobe Photoshop 2026's AI editing feature by typing, "remove the n-number from the airplane." The result was acceptable.

I think the secret benefit of the "accident report" YT channels is that it makes us better pilots because we really don't want to be the subject of one of those videos! Well, at least, most pilots want to avoid that fate...I think that Trevor might be an exception, though.

And kudos to @SixPapaCharlie for his YT video coverage of Trevor's event. He taught us all about being "sucked right out of the airplane" when the door is opened in flight! I have even heard that it happens all the time. Trevor should have known this! It was super lucky that he was carrying a camera and was wearing a chute and fire extinguisher! :rolleyes:
 
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