Safety Board: Pilot suicide cause of January airplane crash near Denver

[fholbert]

National Transportation Safety Board: Pilot suicide cause of January airplane crash near Denver • Piper PA-28RT-201T Turbo Arrow IV, N82828

A pilot who died when his single-engine plane crashed near Brighton intentionally flew into the ground to commit suicide, a National Transportation Safety Board report released earlier this month says.
Investigators learned that 41-year-old Wade Howard Tefft's wife had told him she wanted a divorce and was buying another home.
"About five years earlier, (Tefft) had told her that if she ever left him he would fly his airplane into the ground and kill himself," the report said.
Tefft was killed in the Jan. 11 crash of a Piper PA-28RT-201T Turbo Arrow IV northeast of Denver International Airport and north of Front Range Airport. He was the only one aboard when the aircraft went down in a wheat field.

You really have to wonder how many pilot suicides happens each year?

 

[kryan11]

Is it bad that I look at these suicides and am more concerned that a good airplane went to waste?

 

[JordanD]

National Transportation Safety Board: Pilot suicide cause of January airplane crash near Denver • Piper PA-28RT-201T Turbo Arrow IV, N82828

A pilot who died when his single-engine plane crashed near Brighton intentionally flew into the ground to commit suicide, a National Transportation Safety Board report released earlier this month says.
Investigators learned that 41-year-old Wade Howard Tefft's wife had told him she wanted a divorce and was buying another home.
"About five years earlier, (Tefft) had told her that if she ever left him he would fly his airplane into the ground and kill himself," the report said.
Tefft was killed in the Jan. 11 crash of a Piper PA-28RT-201T Turbo Arrow IV northeast of Denver International Airport and north of Front Range Airport. He was the only one aboard when the aircraft went down in a wheat field.

You really have to wonder how many pilot suicides happens each year?

There's some website that has a list of pilot suicides... for some reason. I don't really care to go looking for it, but really, it's nothing new. But of course like anything the media is going to run with this and do its best to try to ruin the image of pilots for the sake of a news story.

Is it bad that I look at these suicides and am more concerned that a good airplane went to waste?

Yeah. I'm usually one for dark humor, but it's a really sad situation. People like the Germanwings pilot will never get an ounce of sympathy for me, and honestly I don't really sympathise much with guys like this either, but there were people that cared about this guy. It saddens me this guy couldn't get the help he needed.

 

[woodreau]

Wow. Well that sucks. He was my IOE instructor at my first regional airline.

Small world and I am very much saddened.

 

[scooter2525]

Glad no one else was killed.

 

[knot4u]

The fact that an aicraft was used is no different than a gun, car, or any other things that can be used. Suicide is an ugly problem, ugly enough that nobody talks about it and sadly so common.

 

[killbilly]

Ugh.

Wish he'd been able to call someone who would convince him that the end of a marriage is not the end of one's life, no matter how bad it feels at the time.

As I said in the other thread - there are better ways to auto-darwinate, but at least he didn't take anyone with him.

 

[Hacker15e]

I can't wrap my mind around why someone would kill themselves over the end of a marriage.

I do have a close friend, a very intelligent fellow USAF officer, who attempted suicide and fortunately wasn't successful...and even he can't explain the mindset he was in that caused him to try under similar circumstances.

 

[USMC-SSGT]

On my birthday too. How rude.

 

[Runincolorado]

Very sad but glad he did not take anyone with him.

The one positive about the media coverage is that we are all talking about the problem more. I hope this encourages all of us to help another person find help or get the help we need be resorting to such drastic and unchangable decisions.

 

[killbilly]

I can't wrap my mind around why someone would kill themselves over the end of a marriage.

Oh, I can. When it's not mutual, when there's betrayal involved, sure, that kind of pain is a special kind of hell. I don't think anyone really wants to die, though. They just want to stop hurting and hating. That's what friends, family and therapists are for.

What one lacks in those situations is perspective, thus, why I wish he'd talked to someone.

I do have a close friend, a very intelligent fellow USAF officer, who attempted suicide and fortunately wasn't successful...and even he can't explain the mindset he was in that caused him to try under similar circumstances.

I'm not surprised. The brain is a capricious instrument of existence. Does funny things.

 

[rockman2343@aol.com]

Is it bad that I look at these suicides and am more concerned that a good airplane went to waste?

Especially in the case of the A-10 that crashed in Colorado. At least these guys didn't take anyone with them unlike that German wings pilot.

 

[Murdoughnut]

I can't wrap my mind around why someone would kill themselves over the end of a marriage.

I do have a close friend, a very intelligent fellow USAF officer, who attempted suicide and fortunately wasn't successful...and even he can't explain the mindset he was in that caused him to try under similar circumstances.

Things that come to mind...

• Lost custody of children
• Financial ruin
• Loss of friends
• Loneliness (probably the #1 cause of suicide)
• Loss of role identity/purpose
• Feeling of being replaced by new boyfriend/spouse
• Children resenting you

Of course nobody should kill themselves because of any of these reasons, but I can wrap my mind around each one of them being a cause.

 

[Murdoughnut]

Maybe we should make doctor assisted suicide legal with a required one-week waiting period, and X number of hours of counselling. Perhaps then you'd actually stop more suicides, and reduce the potential impact to innocent bystanders.

 

[Apophis]

Is it bad that I look at these suicides and am more concerned that a good airplane went to waste?

Yes. That's a pretty pathetic viewpoint to take.

 

[SlumTodd_Millionaire]

Reason number 10,658 not to get married.

 

[JordanD]

Reason number 10,658 not to get married.

I had a 2 word reply typed up but I think half of it wouldn't have made it past the profanity filter and Derg would have probably kicked me out of his living room.

In short, take that garbage somewhere else.

 

[fholbert]

I can't wrap my mind around why someone would kill themselves over the end of a marriage.

Maybe this was his wife?

 

[Hacker15e]

Maybe this was his wife?

I've had some spectacular sex with some spectacular women...and none of it or them were worth my life, by a long shot.

 

[milleR]

Maybe this was his wife?

No matter how hot she is, somebody, somewhere, is sick of her s**t.