Jack Roush Crashes Plane in WI

[Tommy]

The professional pilot view of accidents is that every accident is preventable. So, if a pilot makes a mistake because he is over tasked, the initial error was likely a lack of training to make him more capable, or a poor decision to enter a situation where the tasking was likely to overwhelm him. Accidents involving pilot error always track back to an error in judgement in the chain of events leading up to the incident.

Up until now I have resisted the urge to speculate on what happened in the Roush crash other than to say it looked like he was trying to dance around taking responsibility for the crash. But IMHO, this crash was not caused by him being "overwhelmed by inputs." I believe the most likely cause was the pilot got too slow while trying to keep spacing between his aircraft and the aircraft landing in front of him. If the spacing had gotten too tight, Roush would have been forced to go around and come back for another shot at landing. In an attempt to avoid that, I suspect he got much slower than his usual approach speed and stalled the aircraft near the ground. I don't state this as a fact, but as the opinion of a highly experienced pilot who has saved countless student pilots from stalling their jets during landing attempts.

[TXBLU]

Originally Posted by Excaliber

The problem with the above scenario is it ASSUMES there was time to add power, climb or manuver.

FAR 91.3 states:

Responsibility and authority of the pilot in command.

(a) The pilot in command of an aircraft is directly responsible for, and is the final authority as to, the operation of that aircraft.

(b) In an in-flight emergency requiring immediate action, the pilot in command may deviate from any rule of this part to the extent required to meet that emergency.

(c) Each pilot in command who deviates from a rule under paragraph (b) of this section shall, upon the request of the Administrator, send a written report of that deviation to the Administrator.

Some pilots have more skill and experience than others. There can be huge differences in the way one aircraft responds to pilot input compared to other aircraft. The PIC is resposible for knowing the operating performance and limits of the aircraft he/she is flying. Good pilots give themselves an extra margin for safety.

Given the information presented here, I'm not sure it's reasonable to assign blame to any single individual, except for possibly the PIC. I wasn't there and have not seen any data that would explain exactly what happened. I can guess, assume, and rationalize all day long, but that would be less than conclusive. I don't know Jack Roush, nor do I know his flying experience, especially in that aircraft type. That being said, I have little sympathy for pilots that "get behind" the aircraft they are flying, and have an accident. But, so what? The aircraft is toast, Jack was severely injured, and it's the FAA's job to find out why.

As a casual observer with 30+ years of aviation experience (very little actaually operating an aircraft), I have an opinion as to what happened, but I am usually wrong, or at least not completely right. That being said, I think Jack was flying an aircraft type that was fairly new to him, in a very challenging environment for any pilot, and he "got behind" the aircraft without enough performance margin to be safe. The Controller's instructions may have been a factor, but I doubt they will be determined to be a causual factor.

Eric