my cfi and family friend died today in a crash with a student

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xavier0002

New Member
I am feeling really low...my cfi and good family friend died today while trying to land with bad weather and low visivility. He was coming back from albany with a student.

I don't know what to do... i feel bad for him and his family. also i am supposed to go to atp on july, to do the 60 days private pilot...now this happened and i don't know if i am supposed to take this as a sign as my girlfriend tells me, or press on an instead learn that i need to be very carefull in the future... i am kind of confused rite now... sorry to vent...my family is afraid for me and doesn't understand my passion for flying and they guy that made them feel that was ok ( talked to them and told them that it was ok and safe) died today.

once again sorry to vent
 
You've got to follow what you think is best for you.

Not to be the bearer of bad news, but pilots lose friends, family and associates in airplane crashes. But we also lose them in automobile crashes and people still drive.

I'm not sure if I believe in 'signs' or not, but if you want to be a pilot, become a pilot. If you're unsure about becoming one, well, perhaps it IS a sign.
 
First of all, my deepest condolences.

It's always a tragedy to hear about an accident. But I think the important thing to realize from this is that, it is, unfortunately, a part of life. Accidents happen, and it's just a matter of fate, unfortunate as it may be. But this shouldn't kill your passion for flying. It seems that throughout aviation there's a tendency to sort of overreact (and I'm NOT saying that you are overreacting, because you're not), but often times, the general public blows aviation accidents out of proportion. For example, today, I'm sure there were 10 fatal car accidents within 500 miles of where you live, but the news stations don't come out and proclaim driving to be "unsafe", whereas an incident happens in a GA aircraft, and security issues, as well as safety issues are raised. Don't let something like this kill your passion, if anything, you should continue flying to keep the spirit of flight (that your CFI had) alive.
 
Press on. Your CFI may be the first you knew, but certainly won't be the last. This is a dangerous business, whether brought on by weather, aircraft malfunctions, pilot error, or just plain bad timing. Notice I didn't say luck. I don't believe in luck, not in this business. Anyone that does believe in luck is living on borrowed time, IMO. If you worry about any of these things, you're only gonna hold yourself back over many things you can't control. Recognize what you can control, and make sure you have your shat in a sock when it comes to those items.

I've known about 10 people in my civilian and military career that have died in air crashes, one from my own UPT class, two from my cargo company, 3 from squadrons I was in, and the rest were people I knew well (of which one I witnessed the crash firsthand). Recognize the deaths for what they are, learn from them, and get back in the saddle. There is nothing else productive to do.
 
For what it's worth...I've only known one person to die in a plane crash and I've been flying since 1978.
 
Xavier

First let me say i'm sorry to hear of your loss.
I too have had these fears you are questioning. I love aviation so much i just cant give it up. (working on PPL) I dont know how religous you are but the way it was explained to me is "When its your TIME its your TIME" which is another reason to live each day to the fullest. Why would you want to stay out of the air because you may crash when you can easliy be killed crossing the street, driving, mugged, etc. the list can go on. If you we let our fears control us we will find ourselves sitting in the house watching life pass by. The best thing you can do if you choose to continue is manage your fears/safety by getting the best training you can. Good luck!!

nick
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I'm sorry to hear about your loss. I live in the area and heard about the accident on the news. I recently lost a friend in a crash so I know what the feeling is like. The best thing you can do is to get back on the horse so to speak if aviation is something you truely love and want to pursue as a career. Remember your friend and celebrate his life and love of aviation. There is no better way than to learn from the accident and let it remind you that we must never let our guards down (not suggesting your friend did by the way).
 
Sorry to hear of your loss.

I don't believe in 'signs'. I believe in passion, ambition, and doing what you want to do. My cousin died in a car/deer accident almost 2 years ago. That was not a 'sign' to me that I ought to quit driving. I lost 17 co-workers and 2 of my airline's airplanes on 9/11, that was not a 'sign' to me to quit working.

You only live once, spend it doing what you love.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Not to be the bearer of bad news, but pilots lose friends, family and associates in airplane crashes.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is true. If you stay in the aviation industry, these two people won't be the only ones you will lose. I don't mean that in a disrespectful way, either. It's something they don't tell you about when you start learning to fly, but it's something that seems to come with the license.
 
I'm sure I sounded harsh, but strangely, I was talking about this a few days ago with my captain on my last trip.

Some pilots have two "costumes" when it comes to losing friends in airplane crashes. The first "costume" is grief and mourning, however the other "costume" coldly tries to determine what happened and then integrate what they've learned into their own flying.

My very first flight instructor died in an airplane crash during one of my summer breaks. According to the investigators, she was doing some instruction in a Beech A-35 and ran a tank dry for a number of reasons. It really sucked because it was a small town and her niece and nephew were some of my high school homies, her brother owned the dealership where my family purchased all of our cars and it was a shocking loss. Especially when my mother was a 'non-flyer' and quietly scared sh*tless (but highly supportive) about her baby boy flying an airplane. However, you can presume how much of a stickler I was on my students about fuel management, aircraft familiarization and keeping positive control of the aircraft at all costs with my students once I became a CFI.
 
I am very sorry to hear of your loss.

Just remember that a while back a young adult was pondering if he should start learning to fly, even thought one of his closest friends died a few days ago. This young adult felt that flying was what he wanted to do most. So the young adult went for it and took his flying lessons. This young adult just happened to be Neil Armstrong. He walked on the moon some 30 years later.

The choice is yours.
 
you guys are right, he would have liked me to keep going...he encouraged me to do so before anyway, and maybe it is not really clear from my post but it is not that I am afraid of flying, I have wanted to this since I can remember. (After this happened my family and especially my girlfriend are afraid for me, especially since *she* is superstitious and found odd the fact that the student that died had my age (23, which is a common age to take flying lessons anyway). I know that there are a lot more chances for people to die in car crashes than in planes and I won't let this stop me or ultimately prevent me from flying... yesterday I was more in chock (for lack of a better word) and just wanted to pretty much hear, what you guys told me, a different side from what my family were telling me... since they made a bigger deal of what happened, and kept telling me that I need it to be careful. My mom kept pointing out how Kennedy Jr died (the only other case that they know about). Today I talked more to them about it, and I pointed out to them the statistics of local plane accidents (it was on the newspaper front page). It is not even 1 a year since 1989...compared to local car accidents.

Now here is more how I think after yesterday... I still want to get at least 2 more hours of instruction before I go down to ATP, but I don't know if I should look for another CFI in other local school. I don't know anybody else around the Westchester area, Isaac was my friend and that is how I got introduced to his school. The other choice is to give it some time, for mourning and also so everything gets clear ( I am leaning more towards this one) and then go back to the same school (American flyers) and see if I can get it done with a different CFI. I guess in the end it doesn’t really make much of a difference...

anyway thanks for the support everybody
 
I'm sorry, man. That has to be horrible.

But if you were to give up flying because of crashes and accidents, well, didn't the first Wright Flyer crash?

Be sad, mourn the loss, but you've got to do what you want. And if you want to fly, you've got to do it.

If you want to, look at your flying as a tribute to him!
 
I share with you what you are goin through, i know how you are feeling because he was my instructer too...Im also a student pilot at AF. As hard as it is we still have to hang in their and go ahead with our dreams of becomng a pilot.
BTW he was a great instructer and a great guy, i didn't know the student but i have him and his family in my prayers as well as my CFI's family.
 
Sorry for your loss. I would be shaken as well.

Unfortunatley, this is another instance where the media is waaaay off base:

"The closure forced the cancellation of six flights that were scheduled to leave the airport.....Lawrence Osowski, 36, of Brooklyn, was scheduled to leave Westchester at 4 p.m. on a trip to Detroit and then Nashville. But at 8:30 p.m., he was still waiting at the airport....Osowski, who said he heard about the crash from an off-duty airport worker, added, "You always hear about small planes crashing. I wouldn't voluntarily get on one of those planes....Andrea Coopersmith from Greenwich, Conn., who uses the airport frequently, agreed. "I don't like flying in those single-engine planes."

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http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050424/NEWS02/504240314/1017
 
Terrible news.. I am very sorry for your loss. You have to keep going though ( if you truely want to be a pilot). Since I first learned to fly in '95, I have known and flown with three people who have died in flying accidents, one of them was my younger brother. His accident was 6 days before my Instrument Rating checkride. All that kept me going was the knowledge that he would have been extremely dissapointed in me if I had given up. Almost two years on and I know it would have been a huge mistake if I had thrown in the towel at that point.
 
Sorry to hear about this. One of my former instructors was killed in a low-vis approach in Virginia a few years back.

Do what you feel is right-what you want to do. I don't believe in "signs" or other superstitions-everything is what you make of it.
 
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