"B A R R Y" wrote in message
om...
Now that I've learned that the instructor was not an NYC metro area
instructor, things start to make sense. A rough theory:

- Yankee flies instructor out to fly back to CA with him.
- Instructor has never seen NYC from the air
- 88 hour pilot takes foreign instructor for sightseeing flight before
heading west
- The pair go up the wrong river, possibly following one of the amphibs
that live up there.

I don't think so. Lidle had reportedly flown the East River corridor
previously. I've flown past the southern tip of Manhattan many times, and I
can attest that no one could fly up the East river by accident, even if
they'd never been to NYC before. Unlike with some terrain, everything there
is immediately identifiable by a cursory glance; looking out the window
there is like looking at a map.

- Rather than fessing up and asking for clearance through the LGA space,
they attempt impossible turn

The turn isn't remotely impossible. It's a routine maneuver. It just needs
to be planned and executed properly.

Their radar track suggests that they made the standard trek to the end of
the corridor and then attempted the standard U-turn.

--Gary