3 lives lost

Colin,

You are very 'on' with both points. There are quite a few (not a
majority, but enough to drive up the statistics) for whom no amount of
education will eradicate their emotionally-driven ignorance. And I
fully agree with you that the real problem was that he took off in the
first place. The conditions were iffy enough that his own flight
instructor called him and said words to the effect "It looks pretty
bad, let me go with you." And he is reported to have replied, "No,
this is something Ive got to do by myself." That statement is all
about proving that he is 'good enough,' which is, I believe, where he
drove off into the psychological 'ditch.'

I have been told that there were two CFI's holding down a couch in the
lobby just a couple of hundred feet away when he was loading up. When
his sister in law was 2hr late, and forced his planned daylight flight
into a night departure, that was the point where he shoulda walked into
that lobby and said "Which one of you guys wants to make $300?" (He
was reportely collecting $5mil a year off of his trust. $300 would
have been pocket change.)

I have also read that he and his instructor had been having problems
with the autopilot; it apparently was prone to occaisionally doing a
roll-axis hard-over failure for no apparent reason. Given that, and
his low time in type (30hr), and thus a probable lack of familiarity
with that autopilot, it may be that he was reluctant to turn it on.
Maybe he *did* turn it on, and it did its hard-over thing and made a
marginal situation worse.

I have, as of late, made it my business to study the human factors
issues associated with these kinds of accidents, because I agree with
you that it was the decision to go under these conditions that was the
real problem. My research has led me into the psychology of
narcissism, and I believe that is a major factor in this seemingly
mysterious penchant some pilots have to go ahead and launch when
prudence would dictate another less risky course of action.

If you trace the history of the Kennedys and the behavior of the men
(date rape, skiing into trees, trophy wives, affairs with actresses,
need to prove, and angrily blaming others when something doesnt go
right), and then bounce that off the DSMV-IV diagnostic criteria for
narcissistic personality disorder, you wil find it is a near perfect
match.

Unfortunately for our industry, a large percentage of the people who
have the money to fly are highly driven, type A, take-no-prisoners
types--and these traits are often symptoms of the narcissistic
personality.

The downside includes a need to constantly prove oneself 'good enough,'
trophy seeking, and the appearance of competence being valued much more
than the actual competence itself.

I wrote an article about this that was published in Plane and Pilot ,
called "The Wrong Stuff." It is available to view on my website at
www.genehudson.com if you care to read more about this stuff.

Become a therapist and open an office in LA? You are not the first
person to have said that... others have offered that I already have
done both... I don't want to advertise it too much, though, for fear
that then *all* my time would be spend wrestling with these types! (It
is, in fact, *very* hard work--getting some of these types to 'see
through their own bs.')

And, as you point out, it only works some of the time. Probably much
less than half the time.

A couple of years ago I lost one... ex-fighter pilot, took his
commercial training from me... I thought I had really made some
progress when after many hours of pushing and pulling, I finally got
him to agree to actually use a checklist. A year later he was leading
a flight of two, 'hot-dogging' at low level in mountainous terrain; he
turned up the wrong canyon, and found he could not outclimb the
terrain, and could not turn around. Both aircraft impacted the ridge
600 feet below the pass.

The unfortunate reality of this is that he and the other pilot took
four other (trusting) souls with them into the fireball. Six lives
snuffed out--and for what? To prove that you can fly up the canyon at
low level? Big deal.

He proved it all right. So did JFK Jr. ('I can do it by myself!')

I think this is in large part the answer to the painful question raised
by the accident that started this thread; why would someone who 'knows
better' take off in conditions such that the impact could be heard, but
not seen, from a hangar a 1/4 mi away?

I bristle at the notion that the weather just 'closed in'
unexpectedly.' The aircraft was airborne for about 60 seconds. I
argue that the conditions did not change that fast. She knew fully
well she was launching into a low vis condition (IMHO).

Why would Jessica Debroff's CFI allow them to depart, over-gross, in
the summer, at a high alt airport, in a non-turboed airplane, when hail
was falling on the roof of their car as they drove to the airport, with
a huge cell sitting directly on the airport, and the 414 that departed
before them called back with a windshear report, stating that he (with
620 turbocharged hp) 'almost didnt make it?'

What are we trying to prove? Can't we re-define 'good pilot' to mean
one that has the guts to tell everyone else to 'put a sock in it, I
a-ain't a-goin'?'
I gotta get a new soapbox, I am wearging this one out.

Regards,

Gene