Phil J wrote:
On Apr 6, 7:47 am, Matt Whiting wrote:
Phil J wrote:
On Apr 5, 5:56 pm, "Mortimer Schnerd, RN" mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com
wrote:
Phil J wrote:
If you were this pilot, would you ever get back in the cockpit??
http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?C...e64-5fec-4034-...
I probably would, but I think I'd try wearing a seat belt the next time.
--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com
He was wearing it, but he somehow managed to 1) go to full throttle,
2) throw the controls to the left, and 3) snag his seat belt buckle
and unlatch it - all at the same time. Not a good thing in an
airplane without doors. If I was him, I think I might get the feeling
that someone up there doesn't want me to fly!
Well, I'm personally pretty skeptical of some aspects of this story and
the accidentally released seat belt is one of them.

Matt- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I had that thought too. He might have just forgotten to buckle it.
On the other hand, it is possible that he snagged his sleeve on the
buckle and release it, or released it in some other way.

I don't think this was intentional because it would just be too risky
to fling yourself out of an airplane like that. At the least you
would expect to be seriously injured, at the worst killed outright.
And you wouldn't do it in the middle of a lake. You would do it
within easy swimming distance from the shore.

The article doesn't say whether or not he built the airplane. If he
did, it is hard for me to imagine that someone would go through all
that work and then intentionally destroy the airplane.

I'm not suggesting the accident was intentional. I'm just saying the
story seems a little too much and details may have been changed to cover
something such as forgetting to fasten your seatbelt. Certainly,
anything is possible and maybe this happened exactly as described, but
it certainly seems unlikely.

Matt