Re: Another case of pilot error

Joachim Feise (jfeise@ics.uci.edu)
Sat, 17 Jul 1999 18:43:10 -0700


As a pilot I may be biased, but planes ARE safer than cars.
The only problem is, if you make an error, there is a high probability
that that error is going to be last error you make.
Most of the pilot training, once you get the basic coordination right, is
devoted to recognizing unsafe conditions and getting out of them as soon
as possible or avoiding them in the first place.
In this case, apparently it was not as clear as it originally seemed, and
according to one pilot report that I heard you could not see the horizon.
In such a case, the proper thing would have been to turn 180 degrees and
go back to where you came from, since it can be assumed that the weather
was better there.
The NTSB report on this crash is going to be interesting.

-JoeF

Eugene Leitl wrote:
>
> Of course jetting (or worse: chopping) around the planet
> back & forth is just asking for trouble. Planes might be safer than
> cars, but this applies to big companies and only per mile travelled.
>