These crashes are getting scary

J

JOhnH

Touchdown! Greaser!
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May 20, 2009
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Right Seater
Today, a plane went down about two miles from my house while trying to land at my home base (OMN). Not many details available yet:

http://www.news-journalonline.com/breakingnews/2012/04/plane-crash-lands-near-1-95.html

Also,
The FA-18 that crashed last Friday was in my Nephew's squadron. This is the same Nephew that was broadsided by another FA-18 over the Persian Gulf last year and had to be fished out of the water in the middle of the night after about a 2 hour swim in a storm.

The plane that hit the Publix in Deland last week fly's out of the FBO that we visit about twice a month to meet with my wife's IFR instructor. I am sure it had nothing to do with this, but Deland is a busy, non-towered airport that always scares the bejesus out of me. If it is not the parachutists, it is the crazy flyers taking off and landing on whichever runway the feel like regardless of what everyone else is doing.

The "Spanish Fly" crashed out of Everglade's City last week too. We have been there a dozen times. A couple of years ago after returning from Everglades City, our engine failed on the next flight and we landed our Cessna 172 on the highway.

About two years ago, a Dentist in my Rotary Club crashed flying out of Daytona Beach (DAB). He is finally starting to walk again, but his Father was killed in the crash.

Enough with these "close to home" crashes already. They are upsetting enough but I get dozens of calls from concerned people, whether I know them or not, every time something like this happens.
 
Fearless Tower said:
So what your saying is....stay as far away from you as possible???
Click to expand...

I know what you mean. I was in Dallas just a couple weeks ago in my pickup. Do you have any idea how many pickups are wrecked everyday in Dallas? I don't think I'll ever do that again. :idea:
 
Given the crazy stuff I hear about and saw in Florida, I'm surprised there aren't more. I suspect there will be more crashes this year nationwide. More good weather, more flying, more crashes.
 
I thought the overall "crash per flight hour" was slowly declining? My instructor taught me 20 years ago that most crashes were weather related. I tell my friends that flying has never been safer because of Garmin. I have a "cheap" moving map in my plane which has satellite weather, so I always know exactly what's going on. The fewer risks you take - the safer flying is. Of course as I say this... i was close to a "crash" yesterday when I couldn't get my landing gear to go down in my Arrow for about 15 minutes, which is likely due in part to the fact that the plane is 44 years old. It finally did come down, and today the mechanic can't "replicate" the problem so he doesn't know how to fix it. BUT... to my original point... flying should be safer overall because of technology. Technology (the Internet) also makes it extremely easy to spread nationwide information quickly - like news on plane crashes.
 
It's a reality we face every time we fly. No one is immune either, not from failures or from their own mistakes. Win Kinner Jr flew into the side of a mountain in Cabo, that man had more hours and was a better pilot than most any I have known. The entire SoCal contingent of the QBs showed up since he was half of their instructors way back. No one is immune.
 
KS Arrow Pilot said:
I thought the overall "crash per flight hour" was slowly declining? My instructor taught me 20 years ago that most crashes were weather related. I tell my friends that flying has never been safer because of Garmin. I have a "cheap" moving map in my plane which has satellite weather, so I always know exactly what's going on. The fewer risks you take - the safer flying is. Of course as I say this... i was close to a "crash" yesterday when I couldn't get my landing gear to go down in my Arrow for about 15 minutes, which is likely due in part to the fact that the plane is 44 years old. It finally did come down, and today the mechanic can't "replicate" the problem so he doesn't know how to fix it. BUT... to my original point... flying should be safer overall because of technology. Technology (the Internet) also makes it extremely easy to spread nationwide information quickly - like news on plane crashes.
Click to expand...

Technology is improving, but it's a close race with the decline of pilot skill plus we have lost the most important selection tool for most of them, military service. It won't be much longer before the overlap is complete and we go autonomous. AF447 was pretty much the straw that broke the camels back.
 
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