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  • Accidents, loss, the FAA, NTSB, and the media

    Okay, so it's been a week. My mind has had time to wrap around it a little bit... I'm still saddened and enraged (an interesting cocktail of emotions) and memory is not precise so maybe online isn't a great place to vent... but we tend not to talk about these kinds of things at work outside of training rooms because we might as well scream MacBeth in a theater.

    As I have said in a previous post, a coworker asked me to help out at his flight school when I can. A week ago today, winds were pretty gusty but pointed generally down RWY 31. An acquaintance of mine (and former renter of the school) came in with an out-of-town instructor to get some time in the airplane he had just proudly bought a month ago. We exchange pleasantries, ask after familiars, etc. He goes out to greet the instructor, who had flown in, and they head down to his hanger at 1:44.

    Fast-forward to 2:07, a convoy of emergency vehicles rides up to the terminal building. A county sheriff's deputy leads the charge into the building and we are asked where the site of the accident is. After a moment of shock and shared glances, we all indicate that we hadn't heard of anything. The county airport has a confusing layout even for those familiar with it. Something is mentioned about the departure end of RWY 31 near a helicrane business and they are so directed.

    Power-on stall on take-off, departure of controlled flight, wing-over spin, aircraft struck trees and broke up.

    Firefighters create sparks cutting through property fence, ignite 100LL fuel spilled in crash. Site burns for several minutes while foam is applied. Aircraft found in five closely-spaced sections at the foot of a wooded area. Close spacing of aircraft wreckage indicative of high vertical component and low horizontal component, meaning that the plane stopped flying and fell out of the sky. Two occupants found strapped to their seats, thrown clear of fuselage, perished in accident...

    2:30, news media are already converging on the accident site. Fine. The First Amendment guarantees freedom of the press, and I generally support that. However, immediately the word is spread that we have no comment, no opinion, know nothing, and are content to await the findings of the FAA and NTSB investigators that are on their way.

    First van pulls up to the terminal. Eyeball News. The reporter comes in first without a camera crew. He introduces himself and asks about the incident. I give him the line and direct him to the crash site. He is polite, thanks me, and expresses some touching off-record concern before he makes his way to the van.

    Second news van is from the Peacock. They immediately realize that this is not where they need to be and depart to the proper location before stepping out of the van.

    Sly Critter News is next, pulling right up to the terminal doors. The reporter steps out with a camera crew, they fire up their various instruments, he says some things into the camera, and they come charging in, the hot light of the camera already active. I'm the first human they see. Microphone and camera shoved into my face.

    "What do you know about the crash this afternoon?" The crash. This afternoon. The one that occurred probably forty minutes ago.

    Me: "Ah, we don't know anything yet. The NTSB is on the scene investigating now."

    Him: "You are a pilot, yes? Any speculation to offer?"

    Me, knowing that speculation at times like this is not helpful, useful, or wise: "Not at this time."

    Him: "With the recent spate of plane crashes, a lot of folks are starting to question the safety of small airports like this and schools like yours. What can you say about that?"

    Me (spate? safety questions? Schools like this one that I don't own? What is this BS?!): The accident aircraft was not associated with us in any way, nor was the instructor on board an employee of the school. Other than that I have no comment."

    Done but not defeated, he gives the cut. They pack up and roll out. Conversational comments are made as they depart to the effect that small airplanes are death traps and that those operating them have no clue what they are doing.

    The pilot's wife arrives with her adult daughter. It is only then that it sinks in that the man I had shaken hands and joked with just an hour before was one of the two killed in the accident. There is a news crew from the Alphabet right behind her. My coworker's spouse walks up to her and they hug and cry it out under the white lights of news cameras. As their embrace breaks, the wife is immediately set upon with questions about her husband and his competency. Come to learn, the instructor killed in the crash was their nephew.

    Around 3:15, a pair of news helicopters from the Critter and the Peacock are buzzing around the departure end of RWY 31, which is still open and active. The helicopter pilots, who should know better, are not on the CTAF (common traffic advisory frequency) and so aren't able to hear area traffic communications (the field is not towered, so local air traffic control his handled by pilot advisory). They are also hovering at traffic pattern altitude, so within the operating area of fixed-wing aircraft. Another accident is narrowly avoided when one of our planes with a student aboard aborts a take-off after one of the news choppers zips over the departure end on his take-off roll.

    I go home and watch the news. Crash is reported, thankfully without excess drama. One channel uses footage and photos from two separate crashes involving two different aircraft types. Grumbles are for naught.

    The following day and I'm back because I'm not due in to Real Work for another couple days. Despite our superstitions, it is the only thing many of us can talk about. Many knuckles are touched to whatever wooden surface we can find. We start speculating out loud to each other based on what photos we've seen. Stall-spin, definitely a stall-spin. Wonder what caused it? Well, you know that type of plane is underpowered for its weight. Etc. We become aware of another presence (aviators are supposed to have excellent situational awareness. We all failed the test in that moment). It is a guy in an Eyeball polo, furiously scribbling notes on a pad. We all go quiet.

    He looks up at us, suddenly aware that his invisibility cloak has failed. Without missing a beat, he says "this type of plane, the underpowered one, was that the aircraft type involved in the crash?"

    We all get silent. My coworker is there, too. He's has a four-day starting the following day. He pipes up "well, the NTSB has the information. The investigators are all out at the crash site," and he points, essentially inviting the man to leave. We have nothing for him. He folds his note pad and pockets it. "I was just wondering if you were talking about the accident plane."

    Throughout the day, we play host to folks from NTSB, FAA, the aircraft manufacturer, engine manufacturer, instrument manufacturers, and a host of other entities. It is discovered that the crashed pilot got his training and license through this school. The owners and his instructor are questioned, his student folder is bandied about, and his logbooks are poured over. Standard stuff.

    The pilot's two brothers and sister-in-law, parents of the nephew instructor, arrive. They tearfully ask us if we would consider ferrying the nephew's plane back home. We say that if they need us, we will. After they leave, we look out at the subject airplane and agree that if they ask us, we do the job for no charge.

    Media types are in and out of the terminal all day. One reporter hangs out in the lobby and asks anyone who comes in if they have heard of the plane crash and if they have any comment. One of those questioned is a new student, along with his wife, coming in for his very first lesson. After an hour of these questions, we ask the airport authority to have him removed for disrupting our operations, and he is.

    The recovery truck makes a wrong turn and ends up at our terminal. I agree to go with the driver to the crash site, which is where I see the wreckage for the first time. It is all within an area not much larger than the aircraft itself. Crumpled by a fence, it is hardly recognizable as an airplane. The fuselage is separated into three parts. The nose, including the engine and firewall, the cabin, and the empennage. The wings are broken off. Bizarrely, the nose section includes the cockpit instrument panel. The fuselage was sliced open beneath the cockpit seats. Somehow, they had managed to hit the only copse of trees dividing two fields. The feeling is otherworldly. I had seen this very plane just yesterday, whole and operational, taxiing out to the runway. I had heard the pilot's voice on the radio minutes before this happened. I had looked into his eyes and laughed with him, still high on being a first-time plane owner. I had touched him, shook his hand, in greeting just minutes before this. My palm felt sweaty and I wiped it on my trousers, like I was trying to wipe the last feeling of that handshake off.

    This week sucks, and they deserve a do-over.
    O God, thy sky is so vast and my plane is so small.

  • #2
    I...have no words. I am sorry this is happening. To you, to the families, to everyone involved.

    Comment


    • #3
      It is things like this that, in my mind, poison anything the media says or does. They aren't interested in presenting the facts, they're more interested in entertainment and ratings.

      Edward R. Murrow is looking down on all this and is NOT a happy camper...

      Comment


      • #4
        My condolences to yourself and to all those involved.

        And my apologies to all, on behalf of the news industry, for the behaviour of some of those news hounds. I used to be in that field but was lucky enough to work for a weekly newspaper in a locale where we had virtually no competition. So we didn't have the GOTTA GET IT NOW!!! mentality, and thus we also did not have a tendency to use Invisibility Cloaks, nor to ask grossly insensitive and/or stupid questions.
        Customer service: More efficient than a Dementor's kiss
        ~ Mr Hero

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        • #5
          That's awful. And the reporters trying to find some angle to make it more of a story, and not following proper radio rules, make it that much worse.

          As for online maybe not being the best place to vent... I'm glad you have a place to vent. It sounds like you need it. Take care of yourself.
          "I look at the stars. It's a clear night and the Milky Way seems so near. That's where I'll be going soon. "We are all star stuff." I suddenly remember Delenn's line from Joe's script. Not a bad prospect. I am not afraid. In the meantime, let me close my eyes and sense the beauty around me. And take that breath under the dark sky full of stars. Breathe in. Breathe out. That's all."
          -Mira Furlan

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          • #6
            Quoth Ghel View Post

            As for online maybe not being the best place to vent... I'm glad you have a place to vent.
            ^^^ What Ghel said.
            Customer service: More efficient than a Dementor's kiss
            ~ Mr Hero

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            • #7
              vent away. Pain shared is divided.

              Prayers out to everyone involved.
              Life is too short to not eat popcorn.
              Save the Ales!
              Toys for Tots at Rooster's Cafe

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              • #8
                I am so sorry for everyone involved.

                Sudden death is always a shock and having media involved must have made that such a nightmare for everyone involved.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Around 3:15, a pair of news helicopters from the Critter and the Peacock are buzzing around the departure end of RWY 31, which is still open and active. The helicopter pilots, who should know better, are not on the CTAF (common traffic advisory frequency) and so aren't able to hear area traffic communications (the field is not towered, so local air traffic control his handled by pilot advisory). They are also hovering at traffic pattern altitude, so within the operating area of fixed-wing aircraft. Another accident is narrowly avoided when one of our planes with a student aboard aborts a take-off after one of the news choppers zips over the departure end on his take-off roll.
                  They're doing this while the FAA and NTSB are on-site investigating? I'm surprised those helicopter stick-holders (I hesitate to call them "pilots") haven't had their licenses pulled.

                  In your shoes, I would have been tempted to make a statement to the "cloak of invisibility" reporters - "One of the biggest dangers in general aviation is when news helicopters, in an attempt to get better access to a story, blatantly ignore safety regulations. Just yesterday, there was an example of this when a student pilot had to abort his take-off when a news helicopter flew over the departure end of the runway when the student was already accelerating for take-off."
                  Any fool can piss on the floor. It takes a talented SC to shit on the ceiling.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Wolfie makes an excellent point. A little finger pointing wouldn't be a bad idea...

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      I think this might of made my local news.

                      Last small plane crash I was involved in, it almost hit me/the store I was working at.
                      Got paged by the service desk, call yea...A plane crashed..ok it happens, It's in our parking lot!..
                      I'll be right there.
                      AkaiKitsune
                      Sarcasm dear, sarcasm. I’m well aware that dealing with civilians in any capacity will skin your faith in humanity alive, then pickle anything that remains so as to watch it shrivel up into an immortal husk thus reminding you of how dead inside you now are.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        I have little respect for modern journalism. I stopped counting the number of events that I have attended that the media story was so incredibly flawed that I wondered if the reporter and I were actually at the same event. I stopped watching the news years ago after weather forecasts became readily available on the internet. There's more truth in an episode of M*A*S*H than in a television newscast. When someone states, "I saw in the paper...," or "On the news last night...," my eyes glaze over and I look for a way to exit the conversation.

                        I am truly sorry for all involved with this tragedy. The media feeding frenzy only exasperates the situation.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Quoth wolfie View Post
                          They're doing this while the FAA and NTSB are on-site investigating? I'm surprised those helicopter stick-holders (I hesitate to call them "pilots") haven't had their licenses pulled.
                          Licenses pulled, probably not, but I'm willing to bet if the FAA guys realized it, these fools would have had a ramp check waiting for them on the home pad. Aviation is a safe business, but the amount of dumbass shit that goes on sometimes has to be seen to be believed. Most often, the worst punishment a pilot gets for screwing up is ATC giving him a number to call when he's on the ground where they can spend the time chewing on his ass.

                          I have "opinions" about rotorheads. It's one of those things where individuals can be okay, but the group as a whole irritate me. They still aren't the worst. No, that label belongs to the owners of any of the Vans RV series, and especially the RV-6 thru RV-8. We jokingly call them the Vans Air Force. These guys are no shit wanna-be fighter pilots who give each other callsigns, always fly a break pattern, and use military terminology in comms. It's really funny listening to them block up CTAF practicing ACM. "Boomer's tracking on Sharky... pipper's on... guns, guns, guns. That's a kill and knock it off." "Sharky's knock it off." "Boomer's knock it off. fuel state one-niner-zero." "Sharky's fuel state one-eight-eight. Go again?" "Affirm... Bommer's got speed and angels on the left." "Sharky's got speed and angels on the right." "Fight's on..." Gee, thanks, fellas. Some of us have been waiting to announce we were departing RWY 5 for the pattern for the last 10 minutes. And considering that a CTAF can cover multiple uncontrolled airports on the same frequency... But we don't get into altercations over the radio. That's... unprofessional. It's also hard to make jokes about the Vans Air Force because the VAF don't think it's funny and other pilots don't think they're jokes.

                          I want to thank everyone for the sympathies. Frankly, I'm just angry and shocked at the whole situation. Do this long enough and you will at least know someone that has died doing it. This is my first.

                          At this point I'm not talking to anyone in particular, but I have some more venting to do.

                          1) Don't ever buy an airplane that's out of production if you mean to really use it. If it's something you bought for static display in the air show circuit, that's fine. But if you are getting a plane for travel, MAKE SURE THE MANUFACTURER STILL SUPPORTS IT! If nothing else, getting parts will be a pain in the ass.

                          2) Always fly a plane of a similar type before making a purchase. You might buy it on reputation and discover that you hate how it handles or the instrument panel layout or that you keep banging your knees with the yoke when you have positioned the seat so you can reach the pedals.

                          3) Always, always, ALWAYS have a safety pilot with you until you have at LEAST 15-20 hours in your new airplane if you don't have that many hours in that type already. Even if you do, get a safety pilot until you have figured out your airplane's quirks. Every machine is different. I have never flown two of any type of plane that behave exactly the same, even when equipped similarly. There is always a range of behavior you can expect, but it's never exact. Accidents are always highest during the conversion phase. Also, make sure that your safety pilot is checked out in the same aircraft type. If you just bought a Baron and neither you nor your safety pilot has never flown one, you are asking for trouble.

                          This advice is probably useless for 90% of you. Still, I feel I have to say it because if nothing else it helps me feel better.
                          O God, thy sky is so vast and my plane is so small.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            First - wow, that sucks. Please take care of yourself, and if you need help dealing, don't wait to get it!

                            Second, information shared is never wasted. Thank you for helping me learn something new about the world today.

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                            • #15
                              I'm sorry you had to deal with all that. The house I grew up in was under the flight path for a small airport. It has one runway I looked it up and at averages over 200 "aircraft operations" per day. Living in this location, we got very used to the normal sound of all the various air crafts. So we could tell when somebody was super low. I'm looking at you, helicopter pilots.

                              I know it's not the same, but years ago I saw a person directly before he died. It was really, really horrible (drowning) because his wife was right there and could do nothing. Also, later the local paper blamed my family for the incident. It certainly wasn't our fault, but this was a small town with lots of drama. Long story, don't want to get into it, but the whole thing sucked.
                              Replace anger management with stupidity management.

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