NTSB Report on Bill Phillips' Accident

On Tue, 22 Sep 2009 07:58:33 -0700, Ron Wanttaja
wrote:

Stealth Pilot wrote:

I could be jaundiced here but surely the drugs were prescribed.
was the real failure a failure of the american medical system to
diagnose and correctly treat his blocked anterior artery?

Certainly, I'd say the drugs were prescribed.

As far as failure to diagnose the problem, check the NTSB report again:

"The pilot’s most recent application for airman medical certificate in
May 2007 noted a “precautionary” coronary angiogram in 2006 which
“showed no blockage.” ... Records obtained from the pilot’s cardiologist
regarding the angiogram (performed September 25, 2006) noted a “totally
occluded” small left anterior descending coronary artery with “good
collaterals” and otherwise normal coronary arteries."

So the diagnosis had been made. Phillips knew he had a problem; this
angiogram was performed over a year before his death. We don't know if
there had been any treatment other than drugs. I suspect not; his
cardiologist would probably have noted it on his records and it would
have been mentioned in the NTSB report.

There could have been many reasons why Phillips didn't have surgery to
alleviate the problem. Denial is common enough... "I feel fine...there
isn't a problem!"

Another factor is that surgery is hard to hide. Your friends know, your
enemies find out, and there's always that fear that one of the latter
will inform the FAA and get your medical canceled. All of us know
friends who have gone through the tremendous hoops necessary to get
their medicals back after heart surgery.

btw if you have been taking medications for some time the body adapts.
it is possible to have high levels of medications in the blood stream
that have next to no cognitive effect on the individual.

Certainly the body adapts, when exposed to large doses of drugs or
alcohol over a long period. We've heard stories of drunk drivers with
BACs above the line that would put most people unconscious. These
people can outwardly seem normal.

But this isn't just an issue of "Monkey Skills," as Phillips called
them. This is an issue of reaction time and decision making, especially
decision-making under stress with a less-than-nominal. cardiovascular
system. The NTSB didn't just note high levels of a cocktail of drugs
(vicodin, valium, paracodine, cardura, morphine derivatives, etc.)...the
term used was "acute mixed drug intoxication".

Ron
Acute in the medical sense is quite different from our usual meaning.
typically we laymen use acute to mean serious.
In medical terms acute just means 'of short duration'
we laymen also use chronic to mean serious whereas in medical terms
chronic just means 'of long duration'
so the term "acute mixed drug intoxication" just means a situation
that hadnt occurred for a long period. it doesnt mean that he had a
huge mixed drug intoxication problem, just one that had occurred at
the time.(unless of course the report was written by laymen)
we have little way of knowing what impairment that may have caused
because as others have commented he took lots.

rat poison is probably the warfarin that is used to break up blood
clots.

so yes the canopy was the direct cause, but long before that the heart
problem.

if we were honest the draconian aviation medical assessment for
pilots also played a part in the accident. maybe if it wasnt so
draconian, people would get the medical treatment they needed.
in australia we see lots of pilots change to ultralights and self
assessment during a clear period and go on to fly lots of hours that
would be denied to them all without much problem.
pilot medicals are after all a throwback to the days when governments
kept civil pilots as a fighting reserve and wanted them to be fit to
military standards. it is largely irrelevant now.
if we were really interested in civil aviation safety we wouldnt bar
pilots from flying, we'd more actively treat them.

the other aspect that comes from this fatal accident is that the
canopy design on that aircraft isnt fail safe. the slide back canopy
on the Jodel aircraft (as an example) can pop open or even be
deliberately opened in flight and the worst that happens is that it
flies itself shut. The Thorp T18 has a similar style of fail safe
canopy.
I'll bet not many people would have the intelligence to change the
canopy design on that design to something that was fail safe.

so yes there are lots of lessons that can be learnt from bill's prang.
the question is "will we actually learn them?"
Stealth Pilot