Jack Roush Crashes Plane in WI

[Tommy]

Terry,
No, its not always the pilot's fault. Mechanical and medical problems sometimes cause accidents, and it's always possible to get hit by a meteorite or some other bizarre natural phenomenon that no reasonable person could have predicted. But none of that appears to have been a factor in the Roush crash.

During my time flying in the Air Force I read or have been briefed on at least a thousand aircraft incidents and accidents ranging from a maintenance man who ejected himself from a parked aircraft to four Thunderbird pilots who flew into the ground when the leader was having a problem. The vast majority of those accidents were at least partly attributable to pilot error. Virtually all accidents are the culmination of a series of events, any one of which might have prevented the accident had it happened differently. The pilot usually plays a role in one or more of those events.

I know no more about the Roush crash than anyone else expressing an opinion here on this thread. But I've read enough accident reports and been in enough airplanes that came close to crashing during landing attempts (I was an instructor pilot for many years) to have a good feel for what may have happened. Maybe when the accident investigation is concluded I'll be proved wrong and the pilot may not have been at fault. But I strongly doubt it.

I've never seen an accident report that said: the weather was good, the airplane was in good working order, the pilot did everything the way he should, and he crashed the airplane; tell the families of the passengers that sometimes sh_t happens.

[TXBLU]

Originally Posted by Tommy

Terry,
No, its not always the pilot's fault. Mechanical and medical problems sometimes cause accidents, and it's always possible to get hit by a meteorite or some other bizarre natural phenomenon that no reasonable person could have predicted. But none of that appears to have been a factor in the Roush crash.

During my time flying in the Air Force I read or have been briefed on at least a thousand aircraft incidents and accidents ranging from a maintenance man who ejected himself from a parked aircraft to four Thunderbird pilots who flew into the ground when the leader was having a problem. The vast majority of those accidents were at least partly attributable to pilot error. Virtually all accidents are the culmination of a series of events, any one of which might have prevented the accident had it happened differently. The pilot usually plays a role in one or more of those events.

I know no more about the Roush crash than anyone else expressing an opinion here on this thread. But I've read enough accident reports and been in enough airplanes that came close to crashing during landing attempts (I was an instructor pilot for many years) to have a good feel for what may have happened. Maybe when the accident investigation is concluded I'll be proved wrong and the pilot may not have been at fault. But I strongly doubt it.

I've never seen an accident report that said: the weather was good, the airplane was in good working order, the pilot did everything the way he should, and he crashed the airplane; tell the families of the passengers that sometimes sh_t happens.

Dang. You beat me to it. I was going to say virtually the same thing. My comments here were intended to be relative to the subject of Mr. Roush's accident. We can play "what if" all day and won't get any closer to finding out what happened on that flight deck on that day. It may end up being some kind of bizzare mechanical failure, but my experience tends to indicate otherwise.

My point was that the PIC is the ultimate authority for how his/her aircraft is operated. That simply means they get to decide if what they are cleared to do by ATC is safe to do. They may not always have to do exactly what a Controller tells them to do, but they will have to explain why they didn't.

Eric

[tcrist]

Originally Posted by Tommy

Terry,
No, its not always the pilot's fault. Mechanical and medical problems sometimes cause accidents, and it's always possible to get hit by a meteorite or some other bizarre natural phenomenon that no reasonable person could have predicted. But none of that appears to have been a factor in the Roush crash.

During my time flying in the Air Force I read or have been briefed on at least a thousand aircraft incidents and accidents ranging from a maintenance man who ejected himself from a parked aircraft to four Thunderbird pilots who flew into the ground when the leader was having a problem. The vast majority of those accidents were at least partly attributable to pilot error. Virtually all accidents are the culmination of a series of events, any one of which might have prevented the accident had it happened differently. The pilot usually plays a role in one or more of those events.

I know no more about the Roush crash than anyone else expressing an opinion here on this thread. But I've read enough accident reports and been in enough airplanes that came close to crashing during landing attempts (I was an instructor pilot for many years) to have a good feel for what may have happened. Maybe when the accident investigation is concluded I'll be proved wrong and the pilot may not have been at fault. But I strongly doubt it.

I've never seen an accident report that said: the weather was good, the airplane was in good working order, the pilot did everything the way he should, and he crashed the airplane; tell the families of the passengers that sometimes sh_t happens.

Sounds good to me. It just seemed that no matter what was said you went back to saying that it was always the pilots fault no matter what caused it. Did not seem correct to me.

You being a pilot and an instructor sure know more about this type of accident then I will ever know about.

I guess we all will find out what happened later, or maybe not.