On 2006-11-21, Dudley Henriques wrote:

Actually, I've had a problem with the CFI side of the Kennedy equation since
the day of the accident .
I know the area of the crash very well having flown up there myself many
times .
I've always had an issue with the fact that Kennedy wasn't as aware as he
should have been about the dangers of horizon loss in the area under certain
weather conditions and at certain times of the day. I also wasn't at all
satisfied with his inability to avoid the loss of control situation that
apparently resulted in the loss of the airplane and its occupants both on
the planning end and during the operational end directly prior to the crash.
This accident seemed literally riddled with contributing causes as indeed is
the situation in many aircraft accidents.
Not that in my opinion it was the single contributing cause, but I'll always
have an unanswered question in my mind about the quality of Kennedy's flight
instruction during his training.
Dudley Henriques

I read the report at the time, but your comments made me go back to
reread it. It was a text book accident. The NTSB even quoted the text.
Sure there were a lot of contributing causes, but that's the way these
things usually unfold.

Ignoring all other factors, here is a direct quote from the report
regarding the CFI who was currently working with him:

| The CFI stated that the pilot had the ability to fly the airplane without
| a visible horizon but may have had difficulty performing additional
| tasks under such conditions. He also stated that the pilot was not ready
| for an instrument evaluation as of July 1, 1999, and needed additional
| training. The CFI was not aware of the pilot conducting any flight in the
| accident airplane without an instructor on board. He also stated that
| he would not have felt comfortable with the accident pilot conducting
| night flight operations on a route similar to the one flown on, and in
| weather conditions similar to those that existed on, the night of the
| accident. The CFI further stated that he had talked to the pilot on the
| day of the accident and offered to fly with him on the accident flight. He
| stated that the accident pilot replied that "he wanted to do it alone."

Sounds like the CFI did talk to him, but he insisted on going anyway.
What else was the CFI supposed to do?

The NTSB report didn't otherwise paint him as reckless, but this always
sounded like a case of getthereitis to me.

Every once in a while, a more experienced pilot (CFI or not) has said
something to me like, "do you _really_ intend to do that?". I may or
may not have taken the advice, but I've always at least thought about
it. Usually, I took it.


Morris