Dealing with death in aviation

BrettInLJ

BrettInLJ

Well-Known Member
It seems like in the course of any pilot's life or career they eventually lose one or more friends or acquaintences who die way too young from an accident. When it happens, I think many people don't really talk about it much because it is something that could happen to each one of us and we don't want to think about that.

This Saturday I went to several schools at an airport and talked to several instructors. I talked to the chief pilot of one school, which I am leaning towards, and he introduced me to the instuctor that would be the one who would do training for CFI's. We talked for some time and he must have been my age or younger. It turns out the next day (Sept. 11) the school lost an instructor and student in a 152. I found this out days later, and noticed that the picture and profile of the instructor I talked with is no longer on the website.

I can't help but think, what if I were an instructor at the school itself. It has only a few instructors, so everyone must be friends and probably feel like a family of sorts. It must be so hard to deal with this, and more so for the other friends and family of the guy and his student. My post doesn't really have a point, other than it just feels like an eye opener to the serious nature of aviaton. It puts everything else into a different perspective. It's not that I want this career any less than before, but the way I look at road ahead seems less innocent and glamorous.

Sorry for the downer, but I just needed to write something somewhere. All that has come of this tragedy publicly so far is a blip in the local paper and the removal of a picture from a website.
 
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Do they have any ideas on the cause of the crash?

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I got this link from AlexF.

"ACFT ON DEPARTURE, REPORTED POOR CLIMB PERFORMANCE, REQUESTED TO RETURN TO
THE AIRPORT, CRASHED 1/2 MILE WEST OF THE LONG BEACH AIRPORT, THE TWO
PERSONS ON BOARD WERE FATALLY INJURED, LAKEWOOD, CA"
 
fortunately i dont know anyone personally who has died. I saw Jimmy Franklin and Bobby Younkin in an airshow. I have been in a crash due to power loss but I came out with no injuries and my student minor injuries. Just today a single engine plane went down in a marsh where I live but no one was injured. It is something you cant look past, and I find myself not having the desire I used to to jump in a single engine trainer and blast off with a student. I realize how few options you have in some cases and I am always looking for landing spots now. Its just something you have to be ready for in aviation.
 
I’m sorry for the loss.

I don’t mean to stray away from the topic, but out of curiosity from what school in Long Beach did he instruct? I’m planning on getting my instruction from a school at Long Beach Airport, perhaps ATP.

Jtsastre
 
Nah, it's not a downer, it's a testament to the brotherhood of aviation.

I've lost a lot of friends to accidents, but the one thing we can always take from a tragedy is what went wrong and what we can do to avoid repeating it. Lots of us have the 'it could never happen to me!' attitude but it most certainly can.

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Sorry for the downer, but I just needed to write something somewhere. All that has come of this tragedy publicly so far is a blip in the local paper and the removal of a picture from a website.

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Which is why it's more important to develop love for friends and family, because you certainly can't "love" an object that can ruthlessly take your life if you make a single mistake. Just my humble opinion.
 
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Which is why it's more important to develop love for friends and family, because you certainly can't "love" an object that can ruthlessly take your life if you make a mistake. Just my humble opinion.

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I saw a good line that sums it up in the sig of an e-mail I got today:

"Time Management Hint: Pledge to start spending more time with the people who will cry at your funeral."
 
I know a few people who were killed/injured in GA crashes. Based on the law of averages, it's a sad and, unfortunately, inevitable part of training.
 
It's going to happen around you. I've been doing this flying thing for 5 years now and I have personally known 5 people who have been killed in plane crashes. After awhile, you either accept it or you don't.
 
Interesting story....

I knew the isntructor as well, UND alum... I went to that school to get my PPL and suggested to a friend who eventually had Dewey as an intructor.... but I wasn't pleased with the progess my friend was making, so I suggest he stopped going to that school and that I would take time from my busy schedule to personally train him... this was about 10 days ago... so he agreed and cancelled all his lessons with the late Dewey...

Not sure if it was the airplane or instructor... or a mixture of both that caused the accident... I remember flying in 6565L a couple years ago.. it flew great....

My friend is still in complete shock... its just crazy how life can chance so suddenly... one day you you're around, the next thing you know you're reporting problems and seconds later you're a memory.... My prayers go out to his family... he was a really nice and caring guy

Call it bad marketing, but I frown upon Julio (owner of the school) for doing the absolute least possible about it.... i.e., just taking the picture off the website.
 
Sad to here.....a friend of mine his instructor died in a plane crash the very flight after his first lesson for his PPL. He kept flying, learned a life-long lesson and is now flying Kingair's.
 
I heard about it Mon morning. One of the guys I instruct with was one of his roomies. Sucks. I heard rumors on what happened, but they are just rumors. Nothing more. Sorry to hear about it.
 
I hope that it wasn't LBFC again. I used to rent 2126X out of there. I was supposed to rent their Seneca once about 3 years ago and the day before we were supposed to leave some guy flew it and a family of 4 into the side of catalina island in thick fog. Sad day.


When I started flying, I heard about a story of two kids 18 and 19 that rented one of our planes and went to SBA for the day. When leaving, the marine layer came in and they were socked in. Well, being night, IFR and newly minted, they panicked and flew out to the ocean, only to return and fly the plane into the Santa Barbara mountains. I unexpectedly ran into the dad of the pilot when instructing a student. My student was a flight officer for the city police department and the father was the pilot on their EC-120. He simply, and calmly said to me, " I just wish he woulda called me, I woulda came to pick him up?" And that was the end of it.

Be safe out there.
 
Sorry to hear about the loss.

Unfortunately, it's something you're going to have to get used to seeing in this business, since there will be more to follow.

There always is.
 
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Unfortunately, it's something you're going to have to get used to seeing in this business, since there will be more to follow.

There always is.

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Agreed, well said.
 
Doug, Mike Lewis, and I lost a very good friend in an accident in '96. The friend's fiancee and her parents were lost as well. It was a very difficult thing, but not much moreso than if they'd died in an auto accident.

I remember when we lost the Beech in CLT in January of '03. Didn't know either pilot, but you know so many people who did. It's a very tragic thing, but it goes with the job and/or hobby. You remember the good times, try to ignore the bad times, and pray for their families who were left behind.
 
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Doug, Mike Lewis, and I lost a very good friend in an accident in '96. The friend's fiancee and her parents were lost as well. It was a very difficult thing, but not much moreso than if they'd died in an auto accident.

I

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Knew the fiancee well, and knew who the guy was. Used to work with her at ops.
 
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