[HN Gopher] FAA investigating controversial crash video
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       FAA investigating controversial crash video
        
       Author : nostromo
       Score  : 163 points
       Date   : 2021-12-29 20:02 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.avweb.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.avweb.com)
        
       | jb1991 wrote:
       | I'm curious who is the person who supposedly shot footage of the
       | plane from a distance as it was heading towards its crash. If he
       | was in the air in the parachute, who was filming the plane from
       | the ground?
        
         | emilburzo wrote:
         | I suspect it's from the selfie-stick gopro and cropped with
         | subject tracking
        
         | chrononaut wrote:
         | Do you have a timestamp for which part you're referring to? It
         | looked like it was entirely recorded by GoPros attached to the
         | air frame, the camera on his selfie-stick, or the GoPro on his
         | wrist.
        
           | jb1991 wrote:
           | I think I misinterpreted that part of the footage and the
           | sister comment explains it.
        
       | runjake wrote:
       | A lot of mistakes were made. The FAA is investigating and I'm
       | sure they will come to a sound conclusion. This is the most I can
       | say, based on the footage I've watched. I cannot speak to his
       | intent.
       | 
       | Anything more is just Internet Pile-On, and the Internet can use
       | less of that.
        
         | mmaunder wrote:
         | Not in this case. /r/flying put this idiocy on the map.
         | 
         | FAA is an imperfect organization. Check out some of the
         | discussions around pilots masking mental health issues to
         | maintain medical status.
        
         | Dylan16807 wrote:
         | I don't think it's wrong to talk about this rather than sit in
         | complete silence until the FAA releases a report.
        
           | planesceptic wrote:
           | I agree, but the comments are all either "how dare he place
           | an ad in his video (contractual, perhaps?)" to "I would
           | never"
           | 
           | There isn't much meat on the bone, to a layman at least.
        
       | neom wrote:
       | Reminds me of the David Lesh incident:
       | 
       | https://www.planeandpilotmag.com/article/on-video-guy-ditche...
        
       | KaiserPro wrote:
       | My dad used a fly a cesna 172 when I was a kid. So I've heard
       | many stories from his pilot friends about losing engines, landing
       | in fields and the like. It happens quite a lot, apparently.
       | 
       | A few things strike me:
       | 
       | o why was he wobbling the yoke so much forwards and backwards,
       | that costs you speed, and knackers your glide efficiency.
       | 
       | o Why wasn't he looking for landing sites (he was up really high,
       | like 2k+ above the mountain top), _edit_ : see comment daughter,
       | decent is measured in feet per minute, unfeathered prop will
       | cause drag, nailing your glide ratio so not 10 minutes glide time
       | before action was needed
       | 
       | o why didn't he set his glide path up properly, to give him time
       | to think?
       | 
       | o why isn't he looking at the checklist for engine failure? (my
       | dad had one in the middle) I suspect he might not have one
       | 
       | o Did he send a distress signal?
       | 
       | o where was the attempt to restart the engine (granted it might
       | not be young enough to have a starter, but he had the height to
       | spin the prop)
       | 
       | Finally, the other thing that gets me, is that the door is open
       | before the engine fails. which either means that he's expecting
       | the failure (checklists are your friend here) so why wasn't he
       | lining up/searching for a river bed for landing?
        
         | sokoloff wrote:
         | Sink rate is much higher than 200 fpm engine out (likely 500+
         | fpm in a T-craft). From 2K AGL, you don't have 10 minutes.
        
           | KaiserPro wrote:
           | thanks, I have updated.
        
       | stevesearer wrote:
       | Oddly enough, I'm familiar with the wilderness where the plane
       | crashed and based on the video am pretty confident I know where
       | the crash site was. Am now interested in hiking out to it
       | sometime too.
       | 
       | In the case that this was real, it is interesting to me to see
       | just how close he was to trails and camps without knowing it
       | where he might have been able to better assess his situation and
       | get his bearings.
        
         | k8sToGo wrote:
         | It boggles my mind why he recommends a parachute but no offline
         | maps on the phone.
         | 
         | Still I think this entire thing is staged
        
       | giarc wrote:
       | I only watched about the first half of the video, but I
       | understand there is controversy whether this was an accident or a
       | planned wreck. If so, I think there is an easy answer, he should
       | just release the footage of when the engine started to fail.
       | There should be a good chunk of time where he is trying to
       | restart, should also be genuine surprise when that happened and
       | not a shot of him shutting the engine down. The youtube video (or
       | at least the first half) didn't include that, only cut to a point
       | where he has obviously decided to jump. He may claim to have
       | turned off the gopro on the dash, but there was a gopro on the
       | left wing that was focused on the cockpit that should show his
       | reaction.
        
         | cdiamand wrote:
         | Came here to say this. Pilots are drilled to work an extensive
         | engine-out checklist during training.
         | 
         | In this situation, the pilot had what seemed like a significant
         | amount of altitude (time) to work the problem.
        
           | planesceptic wrote:
           | So, I'm a complete ignorant when it comes to planes, but I do
           | have the habit of giving folks BOTD and so I was wondering a
           | few things:
           | 
           | 1. How experienced a pilot is this man? Is he a very junior
           | novice or experienced such that this should be a non-factor.
           | 
           | 2. I see lots of folks mentioned hardwares in the comments -
           | would a vintage craft (80+ years) be lacking good maintenance
           | or equipment?
           | 
           | All in all I think he needs to release full footage otherwise
           | he isn't actually helping anyone as he claims to hope to. At
           | the same time I see lots of armchair quarterbacking on what
           | should have happened - but having been in high stress
           | situations (fist, knife, and gun fights) in my life your
           | reactions are never what you expect from the comfort of a
           | computer chair. I've also witnessed as a software engineer
           | very "senior" folks with loss of experience make amateur
           | choices in no-stress situations - I cannot imagine the "oh
           | shit this plane is going down" stress.
           | 
           | Wish someone would have a good layman explanation instead of
           | showing off their personal knowledge.
        
             | Syonyk wrote:
             | > _1. How experienced a pilot is this man? Is he a very
             | junior novice or experienced such that this should be a
             | non-factor._
             | 
             | Shouldn't matter. By the time the FAA examiner gives you a
             | pilot's license, they should be convinced that you can
             | safely handle aviation, to include engine failures.
             | 
             | But unless the airplane is literally coming apart around
             | you, bailing out of a light airplane is almost always the
             | wrong answer. They land fairly slow, especially an old
             | T-craft, and it doesn't take very many feet of deceleration
             | room for it to be something you walk away from.
             | 
             | I'm not familiar with the particular accident and
             | circumstances, but nothing I've seen in the avweb writeup
             | makes it look very good. And I generally suspect YouTube
             | "pilots" are mostly in it for the views, and nothing sells
             | views like a crash.
             | 
             | As far as "the engine has quit" stress, as long as the rest
             | of the airplane is in good shape, it's still a perfectly
             | good airplane. And pilots regularly train (at least,
             | should...) for engine out landings. It's a common event in
             | training - you get somewhere near the airport, the
             | instructor pulls the throttle back and says, "Your engine
             | quit." I hate to say it's not a big deal, because if it
             | quits for real, you'll certainly be sweating, but a general
             | aviation airplane doesn't fall out of the sky if the engine
             | quits.
        
               | phkahler wrote:
               | >> you get somewhere near the airport, the instructor
               | pulls the throttle back and says, "Your engine quit."
               | 
               | The first time mine did this was on downwind in the
               | pattern. I looked forward at lots of farmland and said
               | "how about there?" He pointed left and said "you got a
               | perfectly good runway over there." I said "oh you really
               | want me to do this, I better make my turn." IIRC I made
               | the landing but not really near the numbers :-)
        
             | sparkling wrote:
             | The giveaway for me is the camera mounted to his wrist. Why
             | would you have that on the wrist, it makes no sense if the
             | flight had gone "as planned".
        
               | planesceptic wrote:
               | I guess the question to what is, is this featured in
               | other videos of his? If not, very bad look.
        
               | jcrites wrote:
               | Yeah, and does he wear a full, regular skydiving rig (not
               | an emergency backup rig) while flying airplanes in his
               | other videos?
               | 
               | I have not watched them, but commenters in the original
               | article have said that he does not wear skydiving rigs
               | while flying other airplanes. (I haven't watched his
               | other videos and can't personally confirm or deny)
        
               | zikduruqe wrote:
               | Thanks to Ridge Wallet being the sponsor.
               | 
               | Don't forget that.
               | 
               | N29508 if anyone is interested.
               | 
               | NTSB investigation number - WPR22LA049
        
             | varamocs wrote:
             | For foreigners like me that are not so initialism-savvy,
             | "BOTD" stands for "Benefit of the Doubt".
        
             | weaksauce wrote:
             | > 1. How experienced a pilot is this man? Is he a very
             | junior novice or experienced such that this should be a
             | non-factor.
             | 
             | he has a pilot license and that is enough experience to get
             | out of this without bailing on the plane. the fact that he
             | had a full proper skydiving rig was a red flag.
             | 
             | > 2. I see lots of folks mentioned hardwares in the
             | comments - would a vintage craft (80+ years) be lacking
             | good maintenance or equipment?
             | 
             | every plane has to undergo some form of periodic
             | maintenance and 80 year old planes are worthy if kept up.
             | it's a single engine plane though and those do fail from
             | time to time, however they do have practice in engine
             | failures as part of the path to getting the pilot license.
             | these things can glide for a long long way and he had a lot
             | of altitude to find a place to land such as a road or dirt.
             | this was imo a stunt for his youtube page.
        
             | jcrawfordor wrote:
             | 1: A lot of failures could be attributed to someone
             | forgetting their training due to stress... but he didn't
             | seem under that much stress and evidently forgot _all_ of
             | his training. That 's pretty suspect. You shouldn't be able
             | to get a certificate without showing that slow to best
             | glide, start looking for a landing site, and start the
             | engine out checklist is a set of steps that you can conduct
             | quickly from memory. It should be trained into pilots to do
             | this kind of thing out loud (e.g. pointing and narrating)
             | because the instructor and examiner want to see it that way
             | and it just helps you keep on track and concentrating. That
             | makes it odd that, if any of this happened, he omitted it
             | from the video... from a vanity perspective it's an
             | opportunity to Look Like A Real Pilot by working your list
             | in an authoritative voice (I'm pretty sure every pilot gets
             | a kick out of saying Landing Assured, otherwise they
             | haven't found out how fun it is yet).
             | 
             | Of course we can't totally tell from the video but it
             | really doesn't seem like he took any of these actions prior
             | to bailing out, certainly we don't see him with a
             | checklist. Bailing out isn't even really something that's
             | discussed as an option in an engine-out scenario, it would
             | have to be such an unusual situation for it to be the best
             | choice and it will tend to endanger anyone/anything on the
             | ground (and of course it's a goal of aviation not to do
             | that). One thing that is explicitly trained for any kind of
             | precautionary (e.g. "this might go poorly") landing is
             | opening the door, because in the past doors have jammed in
             | the frame and prevented the pilot escaping a fire. That's
             | why a lot of people are calling it out as suspect that he
             | has his door open a bit from the very start... like he
             | already worked some kind of precautionary landing
             | checklist. Forward-hinged doors are also hard to open in
             | flight because of the air pressure on them (that's kind of
             | a feature), so one also wonders if he had tested to make
             | sure he could get it open enough to fall out.
             | 
             | It's hard to believe that someone with a certificate
             | wouldn't at least promptly fumble for the checklist, and I
             | bet inexperienced pilots would probably be inclined to make
             | a radio call earlier than experienced ones did since it
             | takes some discipline to keep your priorities on aviate,
             | navigate, communicate when things go wrong. Yet we never
             | see him make a radio call at all, which is very odd since
             | he expresses concern about having a way out of the
             | mountains... I personally suspect that he knew that a
             | mayday call would probably result in a fire brigade or
             | sheriff's deputies or state police helicopter or whatever
             | showing up before he had much time to address the crash
             | site (controllers activate local fire and search and rescue
             | as a precaution when they hear a plane might go down in the
             | wilderness and it didn't look like he was that far from
             | civilization). That could easily lead to questions and
             | discovery of evidence that would become a problem for him
             | later, so I think it was an intentional decision to avoid
             | having authorities notified in real-time. This is a cynical
             | take obviously but it feels like he was preserving his
             | ability to tamper with the incident site before anyone
             | showed up who would know to preserve it for investigators.
             | 
             | 2: I mean it's hard to say about some random airplane,
             | obviously it's a very old aircraft but most of the critical
             | parts will have been outright replaced much more recently
             | than it was made. The FAA has requirements to keep an
             | aircraft in use and they involve regular inspections and
             | preventative maintenance, so older planes don't tend to
             | fall out of the sky just because they're old. There are
             | ways to skirt these rules but not a lot of them, and if
             | it's found that he did (or the owner did or whatever) he
             | will really get the book thrown at him just on that front.
             | For the most part if an airplane is still registered to fly
             | it's in as good of mechanical condition as any other plane,
             | although sometimes older aircraft will get relegated to
             | basically experimental status because of missing safety
             | features (which puts in place restrictions like not flying
             | over cities). The Taylorcraft he was in is certified as a
             | standard aircraft though, nothing weird going on, except
             | that I think it might fall into the grandfather sport pilot
             | rules that allow certain standard aircraft to be called
             | "light sport" if they meet the requirements but were
             | certified as standard because the light sport class didn't
             | exist yet at the time. That raises the question of whether
             | Jacob had a sport pilot license or not since that program
             | gets some criticism from a safety front, but from searching
             | the airman registry it looks like he has a regular private
             | certificate issued about a year and a half ago, on a third-
             | class medical from 2018 which suggests maybe he started and
             | stopped training but isn't super unusual.
             | 
             | Also what YouTuber in their right mind leaves the part
             | where they say "mayday mayday mayday" out of the video.
             | It's just like the movies! If we believe that he worked the
             | steps and just edited them out, it's a really bizarre
             | creative decision for him to make. Hard for me to believe.
        
             | jcrites wrote:
             | If you have a pilot's license, which this man did, then you
             | have been extensively trained on these things. Getting a
             | pilot's license is not easy.
             | 
             | As someone who has also been training for his own pilot's
             | license, and has practiced engine-out situations while
             | flying, his reactions look suspect. First of all, he has
             | considerable altitude and could likely fly to a safe forced
             | landing location. Second, he doesn't bank at all to provide
             | better visibility into landing options. Third, we don't see
             | him trying to restart the engine at all.
             | 
             | (Unless this airplane is somehow so old that it doesn't
             | have one) - all airplanes come with a quick reaction
             | checklist which you keep right next at you, and are ready
             | to pull out at a moment's notice. It provides instructions
             | on exactly what to do in situations like an engine failure.
             | From what I can see, I don't see him attempting to recover
             | the engine. It would be poor airmanship to bail from the
             | aircraft without at least running through the engine
             | failure checklist.
             | 
             | I'll let the FAA do their job before drawing any final
             | conclusions but my impression as a student pilot is that
             | this was planned and staged.
             | 
             | Most light aircraft like the kind that he's flying have a
             | glide slope of something like 1:6 with no power: meaning
             | that you can travel quite a long distance with the altitude
             | that he has in the video.
             | 
             | Lastly, I will remark on comments made in the article
             | itself. He is not wearing an emergency bail-out skydiving
             | rig. He is wearing a full, redundant skydiving rig (the
             | kind that come with two parachutes). This is highly unusual
             | as full skydiving rigs are bulky and would be uncomfortable
             | to wear in the cockpit of an airplane. Emergency bail-out
             | rigs are considerably thinner since they are meant as
             | actual backup systems.
             | 
             | The guy's focus looking out the door, rather than focusing
             | on flying the plane and looking for a landing spot (he has
             | tons of altitude and potential to get to plenty of viably
             | safe ones), gives me the impression that he's already made
             | the decision to skydive out of the plane.
             | 
             | Someone may have radio recordings. If we know the tail
             | number of the aircraft (people were working it out in the
             | article comments) then it may be possible to find the radar
             | tracks showing the craft's last known location. If Internet
             | sleuths want to dig in, then you can from there find the
             | radio frequency that he'd be expected to be on, and if he's
             | even attempting to make this seem like a real accident
             | you'd hear him declare an emergency on the radio.
             | Furthermore, if Air Traffic Control had a radar track on
             | him, then they may have been able to guide him to a safe
             | landing location given his altitude and knowledge of the
             | aircraft's "best glide".
             | 
             | To me it's highly suspicious that he's not showing any of
             | the video angle of the cockpit interior, including what he
             | should be/is doing to recover the aircraft and look for
             | safe forced landing sites.
        
               | KaiserPro wrote:
               | All of this.
               | 
               | My dad had a PPL (uk single engine pilots license). The
               | checklist was on the dash, it was easy to understand.
               | 
               | Even though I haven't flown with him since I was ten, I
               | still vaguely remember what things you should generally
               | do:
               | 
               | 1) adjust trim for best glide
               | 
               | 2) attempt restarts
               | 
               | 3) find the best landing site, go to 2
        
           | earleybird wrote:
           | I still have a crystal clear memory of the time I was out in
           | the practice area with my flight instructor and had what
           | appeared to be a legitimate engine failure. I was all set to
           | land in a stubble field and about 200' agl my instructor
           | reached down and flipped the fuel selector from off to both.
           | Never forgot that step in the checklist since. Learned
           | several valuable lessons that day - practice til you don't
           | miss anything . . . and keep an eye on your instructor :-)
        
         | paul7986 wrote:
         | Also ... who is his friend Johnny that died ... is there an
         | obit ... a facebook or instragram page of johnny's that shows a
         | long history of using those apps and that he passed. Are there
         | any pics of him with this johnny on those apps?
        
           | planesceptic wrote:
           | Cursory Googling gives:
           | 
           | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Strange_(adventurer)
           | 
           | The pilot mentions snowboarding and such, seems plausible it
           | was this man. Then again he's a California extreme sports
           | type so might just well be some commonly named punker friend.
           | In that world "Johnny $FAKE_NAME" is a trope.
        
             | paul7986 wrote:
             | The guy you linked to died in 2015. I guess you could be
             | holding onto his ashes that long...but HA
        
       | emilburzo wrote:
       | There's definitely some suspicious stuff going on:
       | 
       | - gave up waaaay too early compared to any pilot I've seen with
       | an engine out
       | 
       | - skydiving rig[1] (bulky, more/less easy to reach handles,
       | steerable) instead of safety parachute[2] (light, one accesibile
       | handle, none/little steering, not intended for high freefall
       | speeds)
       | 
       | - gopro on ~wrist~ selfie-stick
       | 
       | - long and stable freefall before pulling
       | 
       | - before jumping, he opens the door and looks straight down a few
       | times, exactly like skydivers spot the landing zone before
       | jumping
       | 
       | Basically I feel like I've watched an experienced skydiver on a
       | planned jump more than a pilot surprised by an engine out.
       | 
       | [1]
       | http://scrisc.com/image/cache/data/m2aad/tn_zoom_obrazek_88-...
       | 
       | [2]
       | https://www.chutingstar.com/media/catalog/product/cache/dc97...
        
         | walrus01 wrote:
         | In addition to everything you mentioned there's two fixed mount
         | gopros, one on the wing aimed at the fuselage, and one on the
         | tail aimed forward. Footage from these is seen in the first 15
         | minutes of the video. Absolutely some kind of publicity stunt.
        
           | progbits wrote:
           | I could believe that if the channel had a history of that
           | kind of footage. But I just skipped around a few past videos
           | (actually most of the channel content is not about flying)
           | and couldn't see one.
           | 
           | I'll let FAA assign blame, but sure does seem like he added
           | that angle because it seemed like a cool shot for the crash.
           | 
           | Edit: Also, he doesn't seem to fly with a full parachute
           | normally, for example: https://youtu.be/OnOrfJo2LE0?t=253
        
         | Kye wrote:
         | Alternate possibility: a skydiver had engine trouble during a
         | non-skydiving flight and used his skydiving skills with the
         | skydiving kit he had with him to escape the plane. Not to say I
         | would be surprised if a YouTuber did a stunt for views, but
         | there are other explanations. Even for the fakey stuff at the
         | end. He _is_ a YouTuber, after all. Playing stuff up is habit
         | for them.
        
           | soneil wrote:
           | It does leave me with two glaring questions.
           | 
           | One, is where was he going? He states at the start the plan
           | is to go paragliding in the mountains. Apparently without his
           | paragliding kit. And up into the mountains with nowhere to
           | land. And they're really not the wheels for bush landings, so
           | I don't assume the plan was to land wild.
           | 
           | He does have access to bush-appropriate craft though, he has
           | an earlier video (this september) where he tells stories of
           | how scary mountain flying can be, and the recurring craft in
           | that video has the balloon-type tyres I expect from bush
           | flying. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMrwPPMTCmM )
           | 
           | But that earlier video raises the second question by
           | repeatedly, consistently, shooting down his "I always fly
           | with my chute on" statement.
           | 
           | I don't want to be "we did it reddit", but I can see why
           | questions are being asked.
        
           | pageandrew wrote:
           | Why would he have a wrist GoPro and a full skydiving rig on a
           | non-skydiving flight?
        
             | andrewflnr wrote:
             | Recording the whole thing for other friends of the
             | deceased, skydiving rig because it's what he's used to or
             | had on hand. (Hypothetically of course)
        
               | pc86 wrote:
               | To try and draw a technical analogy, wearing a skydiving
               | rig in this instance is really like buying your
               | grandfather a high end gaming PC so he can use email
               | because "that's what you're used to." It's plausible, in
               | the sense that those words in that particular sort of
               | make sense, but realistically nobody would ever do it.
               | 
               | Even if you've got thousands of solo jumps, if you're
               | doing a non-skydiving flight and feel the need to wear a
               | parachute (very few pilots _ever_ do this), you 're just
               | not going to wear a full skydiving rig. It's several
               | times bulkier, it's harder to move in the cockpit, and it
               | doesn't fit the purpose, which is to allow you to bail
               | closer to the ground after running your engine failure
               | checklist and not die.
        
         | shortstuffsushi wrote:
         | I don't know a whole lot about skydiving or piloting (nothing
         | in fact), but to each of your points:
         | 
         | > gave up too early
         | 
         | You and a couple other commenters mention this and not trying
         | to land. Do we know how long it was before he gave up? Did he
         | float 15 minutes before bailing after failing to restart, and
         | that's just not included in the video? I understand landing on
         | a small road would be possible in a plane like this, but since
         | he's over mountains (3rd disclaimer, I don't know this area) -
         | is it likely there would be roads available to him?
         | 
         | > skydiving rig
         | 
         | Is this because he is already a skydiver and/or was going
         | paragliding (is this the same rig? Another thing I don't know).
         | Would it make sense that this is just "what he has," as opposed
         | to owning both a bail out and a sky diving kit?
         | 
         | > gopro on wrist
         | 
         | Wasn't it mounted on the plane dash, and he took it with him
         | when he bailed?
         | 
         | > long/stable freefall
         | 
         | What is the norm for this? My thinking was this was to distance
         | himself from the plane, which he later mentioned "came back
         | around him" after he pulled.
         | 
         | I don't have any opinion either way, but I'm curious to know
         | more about why some of these details are "give aways" on it
         | being fake
        
           | stymaar wrote:
           | Casual skydiver with no piloting experience here.
           | 
           | > > skydiving rig
           | 
           | > Is this because he is already a skydiver and/or was going
           | paragliding (is this the same rig? Another thing I don't
           | know). Would it make sense that this is just "what he has,"
           | as opposed to owning both a bail out and a sky diving kit?
           | 
           | Not really. Those are really different material, with really
           | different design constraints. Skydiving parachutes open
           | slowly so they aren't a good fit for an emergency situation
           | because if you have to leave the plane too low, you're pretty
           | much dead, and as long as your plane is still high in the
           | sky, I guess there's little reason to leave it...
           | 
           | > > long/stable freefall
           | 
           | > What is the norm for this? My thinking was this was to
           | distance himself from the plane, which he later mentioned
           | "came back around him" after he pulled.
           | 
           | AFAIK safety parachute don't open well at high fall speed
           | (unlike skydiving ones) so you want to open it quickly and
           | not enjoy your freefall.
        
           | lumost wrote:
           | Generally planes are good gliders. The only reason to bail
           | out is if it is _impossible_ to find an airport /landing
           | strip within glide range _and_ the aircraft is in a remote
           | location where the aircraft crashing won't matter.
           | 
           | Even in the latter case - there is limited benefit from
           | jumping early vs. gliding towards civilization/possible
           | landing sites.
           | 
           | IIRC dealing with engine out/glide contingencies is part of
           | pilot training and licensing in the US
           | 
           | EDIT: the commenters on the FA also point out several
           | distinct troubleshooting steps that are missing from the
           | video including pre-engine failure signs + recovery steps,
           | radioing ATC for guidance, flying above roads to ensure
           | proximity to off field landing sites, and maintaining an
           | updated list of off field landing sites along the route.
           | 
           | At the very least, several flying mistakes were demonstrated.
        
           | emilburzo wrote:
           | > You and a couple other commenters mention this and not
           | trying to land. Do we know how long it was before he gave up?
           | 
           | It's true that there might be video cuts, but just visually
           | guesstimating, there's very little altitude difference
           | between when the propeller stops and when he jumps.
           | 
           | > Is this because he is already a skydiver and/or was going
           | paragliding (is this the same rig? Another thing I don't
           | know). Would it make sense that this is just "what he has,"
           | as opposed to owning both a bail out and a sky diving kit?
           | 
           | Paragliding gear is even more bulkier than a skydiving rig,
           | there's various types depending on the flying you want to do,
           | but here's a typical example: https://qefimagazine.com/wp-
           | content/uploads/sites/303/2018/0...
           | 
           | Even if he is a skydiver and pilot, you want to use the right
           | tool for the job
           | 
           | - skydiving rig: larger, main handle is out of sight, has
           | more snag points, built to stop you from terminal velocity
           | (~120mph/200km) so the opening distance is higher
           | 
           | - emergency parachute: small, usually just one handle which
           | you can see and very hard to snag on anything, meant to be
           | opened in under 3s after jumping, definitely not for terminal
           | velocity kind of speeds
           | 
           | > Wasn't it mounted on the plane dash, and he took it with
           | him when he bailed?
           | 
           | I re-watched the video now and you're right, it's a selfie
           | stick in his hand, as he moves the camera from one hand to
           | the other. Another "unlikely things a pilot does in an
           | emergency" from my side then.
           | 
           | > What is the norm for this? My thinking was this was to
           | distance himself from the plane, which he later mentioned
           | "came back around him" after he pulled.
           | 
           | This ties in to the parachute type mostly, for rescue
           | situations with emergency parachutes you want to pull ASAP,
           | as the plane will usually fly away anyway (excepting maybe
           | spins, but then it's pretty hard to exit anyway)
        
           | hellbannedguy wrote:
        
           | Vespasian wrote:
           | You want to pull the cord a few seconds after exiting.
           | 1...2...3...pull. Freefall is not the goal when bailing in
           | case of an emergency.
        
             | polack wrote:
             | Especially in a case like this when you need to hike your
             | way out. Then why not pull ASAP and then fly back towards
             | civilization and look for the best possible landing spot.
             | 
             | You can also see much better landing spots when he's
             | hanging in the shoot that he could easily make. So why the
             | hell did he end up in a bush like that?
             | 
             | And why go look for the plane? Like just focus on getting
             | to safety. Nothing in this video makes sense.
        
               | Vespasian wrote:
               | > And why go look for the plane?
               | 
               | You would attempt to go back to civilization
               | ASAP...Unless you'd need to, for example, reenable the
               | magnetos/fuel switch in order to avoid "embarrassing"
               | questions from the authorities.
        
               | gambiting wrote:
               | I mean, if you were far from civilization, it's probably
               | best to wait for rescue next to the crashed plane, no?
               | Much easier to spot from the air.
        
           | akiselev wrote:
           | _> I understand landing on a small road would be possible in
           | a plane like this, but since he 's over mountains (3rd
           | disclaimer, I don't know this area) - is it likely there
           | would be roads available to him?_
           | 
           | Comments in the article point out several viable landing
           | spots are visible in the video including a (seemingly huge)
           | dry river bed you can see just after the 5 minute mark.
           | 
           | I'm not a pilot (working on it) but my understanding is that
           | most crash landing fatalities occur when the plane clips
           | something like a fence or a power line because they couldn't
           | see it on the approach or they miscalculated the glide angle.
           | This causes the plane to suddenly pitch down and fall like a
           | rock but the stall speed for a 1940s Taylorcraft is around 40
           | mph so as long as the pilot avoids obstacles, they can touch
           | down and quickly dump enough kinetic energy so that the final
           | impact is more like a slow speed auto collision on a
           | residential street (minus airbags). The plane will be
           | totaled, but the pilot will probably survive.
           | 
           | It's even possible to land up a hill [1] but that area is
           | relatively rocky so I don't know how safe that would be
           | 
           | [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvKdfa8CoBw
        
             | bjornsing wrote:
             | I'd say it's understandable though that he prefers to jump.
             | The risk of personal injury is probably much lower that
             | way.
             | 
             | Still many reasons to doubt that there even was an engine
             | failure, but that's a separate question.
        
           | chrononaut wrote:
           | > Wasn't it mounted on the plane dash, and he took it with
           | him when he bailed?
           | 
           | I had the exact same thought. If you look at 3m53s in the
           | video, he has both a camera in his hand and the other GoPro
           | remains on the dash.
           | 
           | > Is this because he is already a skydiver and/or was going
           | paragliding (is this the same rig? Another thing I don't
           | know). Would it make sense that this is just "what he has,"
           | as opposed to owning both a bail out and a sky diving kit?
           | 
           | Another set of comments discuss that traditionally pilots who
           | might consider using a parachute generally bring a different
           | type of parachute on board, and not one that would be used by
           | normal skydivers:
           | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29730298
        
             | shortstuffsushi wrote:
             | > 3m53s
             | 
             | Hmm, I see what you're saying - is that a second camera or
             | a mount though?
             | 
             | https://imgur.com/a/REa64jn
        
         | ZanyProgrammer wrote:
         | On the ground he sounds like he's faking how difficult of a go
         | it is-I had to watch it with sound off because of all his
         | complaining.
        
           | amelius wrote:
           | Yes, he says he needs water badly yet he's complaining loudly
           | all the time. That's contradictory. If you need water and
           | there is none, you better keep your mouth shut.
        
             | sokoloff wrote:
             | That's not a core competency of YouTubers.
        
       | micromacrofoot wrote:
       | I watched the video and I'm no expert, but I'll be amazed if this
       | guy didn't crash his plane for views (and maybe insurance fraud).
       | This situation _feels_ like the perfect disaster... almost like a
       | low-budget Man vs Wild. I hope I 'm wrong.
        
         | shimonabi wrote:
         | Yeah, in the middle of the video I was expecting to see a hand
         | to hand combat with a man in a bear costume.
        
           | nefitty wrote:
           | A tangent, but the movie Hardcore Henry is a first-person
           | perspective action movie in that vein. Once I got over the
           | initial motion sickness it was insanely riveting.
        
       | mmaunder wrote:
       | Martha Lunken lost her pilots license at 78 years old for flying
       | under a bridge. She had 14,000 hours, worked for the FAA as a
       | safety manager and ran a flying school for 28 years. This guy is
       | toast.
       | 
       | https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2021/04/18/lunken-airp...
        
         | sephamorr wrote:
         | My father used to fly with the RAF - he told me that old pilots
         | who were about to lose their licenses due to age/health used to
         | 'go out with a bang' flying under a bridge rather than quietly
         | aging out of their license. IIRC, Tower Bridge in London was a
         | favorite. This was decades ago, but I'm curious if the
         | motivations were similar here.
        
           | darrenf wrote:
           | I don't know that it was a favourite, but there was certainly
           | a famous incident in 1968 where a pilot decided to buzz Tower
           | Bridge as a protest against the MoD not recognising the RAF's
           | 50th anniversary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_Hunter
           | _Tower_Bridge_inc...
           | 
           | (My father was also ex-RAF, though his role was to jump out
           | of planes - and teach others how to - rather than fly them)
        
           | masklinn wrote:
           | According to a followup article she'd also turned her ADS-B
           | off before going under the bridge (which is apparently why
           | her license was revoked rather than suspended).
           | 
           | So the hypothesis seems credible at least.
        
         | twhb wrote:
         | Article says she only lost it for nine months, and has to
         | retake the test if she wants it back.
        
         | KennyBlanken wrote:
         | > She had 14,000 hours, worked for the FAA as a safety manager
         | and ran a flying school for 28 years
         | 
         | Sounds like the FAA correctly decided that she should have
         | known better. Especially given her age, she should have been
         | dotting every i and crossing every t, because everyone knows
         | the FAA comes down like a pile of bricks on elderly pilots.
        
           | mmaunder wrote:
           | They do?
        
             | pc86 wrote:
             | They might, but probably not for the reason(s) the GP is
             | implying. I've definitely noticed a correlation between age
             | and how quickly a pilot is to disregard safety, checklists,
             | etc.
        
           | amelius wrote:
           | > ... worked for the FAA as a safety manager ...
           | 
           | Sounds more like she was a liability.
        
           | jcrawfordor wrote:
           | The linked article is a little odd to me, this story is kind
           | of famous as she's a bit of a celebrity in the aviation world
           | for her accomplished instruction career. The way I've always
           | heard it is that she was aware that her pilot's certificate
           | was going to be revoked soon anyway due to her advanced age,
           | and so she flew under the bridge well aware that there was a
           | possibility her certificate would be revoked for it. AOPA's
           | article supports this theory, it says that she did fight the
           | revocation but quotes her saying that she knew it would
           | likely happen.
        
       | temikus wrote:
       | - Crashing an airplane
       | 
       | - Recklessly endangering other people in the area (this was not
       | far from established hiking trails)
       | 
       | - Getting investigated by FAA
       | 
       | All for barely 200k views on YouTube. Wow.
        
         | johnnyApplePRNG wrote:
         | Even hearing the synopsis, I don't even care to watch the
         | video...
        
         | walrus01 wrote:
         | But it was all sponsored by _ridge wallet_ , I'm sure that
         | totally paid off. /s
         | 
         | At least not sponsored by RAID SHADOW LEGENDS
        
         | missblit wrote:
         | His youtube channel really sets the scene...
         | 
         | "I got stuck on a chairlift", "Skydive ends in police car", "A
         | helicopter left me in the ocean", "I Brought My Dog Flying (Bad
         | Idea)"... just on and on.
         | 
         | In the don't bring your dog flying one he starts with "this
         | story may or may not be true", mentions that his gopro
         | coincidentally didn't capture the critical moments, then talks
         | about nearly crashing during takeoff and all his electronics
         | going out and his dog panicking. So of course he alledgedly
         | continued on without navigation into a no-fly zone instead of
         | y'know turning around and landing.
        
       | umvi wrote:
       | Even if it is staged/fake... he only got 200k views out of it, so
       | it wouldn't have even been worth the cost of the plane
        
         | reidjs wrote:
         | For some people, notoriety/fame is more important than money.
         | Now he has a one-up story for parties. Instead of a rich
         | nobody, now he's someone who survived a plane crash.
        
         | Digory wrote:
         | Insurance.
        
           | gruez wrote:
           | but if it's an insurance scam why bother filming it? Surely
           | the investigation/evidence risk isn't worth 200k views?
        
         | usefulcat wrote:
         | Did he even own the plane?
        
           | ksherlock wrote:
           | The airplane is registered with the FAA under someone else's
           | name.
        
       | chrononaut wrote:
       | > "Please fly with a parachute"
       | 
       | Do pilots of small aircraft consider this in practice?
       | 
       | (As someone who doesn't fly, it's obviously an interesting
       | thought experiment as a means to survive, but I would imagine
       | most pilots are going to be looking to recover or land the
       | aircraft, not bail out of it?)
        
         | Syonyk wrote:
         | > _Do pilots of small aircraft consider this in practice?_
         | 
         | No. Not unless it's required (doing aerobatics work requires
         | it, which is rather more likely to overstress the aircraft than
         | regular mostly straight and level flying).
         | 
         | Small airplanes just don't fall apart in flight (exceptions
         | like the Piper wing spar in training duty are just that -
         | exceptions, and typically lead to a lot of exception
         | requirements). They only come apart if you've already screwed
         | up _a lot_ - usually lost control flying into a cloud without
         | an instrument rating and ended up in a graveyard spiral (nose
         | down, steep bank, you either hit the ground at speed or pull
         | the wings off first, and then hit the ground at speed).
         | 
         | I know a lot of GA pilots. I know _none_ who fly with
         | parachutes.
         | 
         | Things like the Cirrus airframe chute are interesting, and have
         | saved some people, but Cirrus seems to attract a large number
         | of people who outfly their skill level and get themselves into
         | a lot of trouble. Sometimes the parachute helps, but they
         | shouldn't have been there in the first place.
         | 
         | General wisdom is that once the engine quits, the airframe is
         | the insurance company's problem. However, an awful lot of the
         | time, the pilot is able to perform a safe off-airport landing
         | with minimal or no damage to the aircraft. You can safely land
         | on roads, in fields, in random desert, etc, and walk away with
         | a perfectly usable airplane. A typical single engine GA
         | aircraft only lands at about 50mph. It really doesn't take much
         | distance to get down and, if not stopped, at least slow enough
         | that you don't really hurt yourself or the airframe if you go
         | off the end of [whatever].
        
           | CSSer wrote:
           | It amazes me how many pilots I see on here when the topic
           | comes up. Is it because this site is just popular enough to
           | have a mix of everyone or is there some true demographic
           | overlap here?
        
           | tialaramex wrote:
           | CAPS (the Cirrus parachute system) has a pretty impressive
           | record. One of the ways Cirrus actually improved crash
           | survivability for their aircraft was training pilots to
           | _start_ by assuming they 're going to pull the chute. Might
           | they be able to perform a successful engine-out landing? Yes.
           | Might they be able to restart the engine? Also yes. But, by
           | starting with the mindset "Plane failed, pull the chute" you
           | don't fixate on these ideas past the point where the chute
           | ceases to be available, so when that engine _won 't_ start,
           | and you realise you can't find that long straight road you'd
           | always imagined landing on, you still have enough altitude to
           | pull the CAPS handle and live to make better choices another
           | day.
           | 
           | On their Vision Jets they also have emergency autoland, which
           | is a blessing under FAA conditions where realistically some
           | elderly pilots are going to die up there, leaving anybody
           | else in the plane to get down on their own. Is it possible to
           | talk a zero experience lay person down in a single engine
           | plane when their pilot buddy slumped over suddenly in level
           | flight? I wouldn't bet money on them even operating the radio
           | correctly. But the emergency autoland can put that plane back
           | on the ground pretty reliably, maybe even in time for the
           | pilot to receive medical attention if they're merely
           | incapacitated not yet dead.
        
         | dylan604 wrote:
         | I was doing a video shoot of a group of sky divers, but I was
         | not getting out of the plane. I don't know the exact make/model
         | of plane, but it was small. I was provided a parachute. I was
         | told it was required by regulations that all in the plane
         | needed one. The only training I was provided was a pointing to
         | a handle on a chest strap and the phrase "if you find yourself
         | outside of the airplane, this is the only thing you will want
         | to be concerned".
         | 
         | I did not enquire about what subsection of the regulations made
         | this requirement or any of the qualifications of equipment. The
         | pilot did have a parachute on as well.
        
           | CoastalCoder wrote:
           | > I did not enquire about what subsection of the regulations
           | made this requirement or any of the qualifications of
           | equipment.
           | 
           | I'm glad it turned out okay. Personally, I've learned over
           | time that plenty of people will sacrifice _my_ safety or
           | financial risk for _their_ convenience. Now I 'm rarely
           | satisfied by them saying "Don't worry, it will be fine.
           | Everyone does is this way." I'm glad that I've learned to
           | stick up for myself under that kind of pressure.
        
         | cmurf wrote:
         | Literally never (former flight instructor). I have no idea how
         | to operate a parachute. Not required knowledge!
         | 
         | Occasionally a student pilot will inadvertently get into
         | stall/spin (only allowed at a proper altitude) during stall
         | training. The value of the student getting into the stall spin,
         | and flight instructor calmly saying "what are you going to do?"
         | is way higher than a parachute. Low altitude stall/spins are
         | essentially not recoverable (in time) and you die. A parachute
         | won't help you, you're not getting out of the plane soon
         | enough. And a parachute as a fallback for proper stall/spin
         | recovery technique to me is idiotic. Don't get in a stall spin
         | low to the ground, and if you have the altitude you recover.
         | Either you can't parachute out or you don't need to. That's the
         | bottom line.
         | 
         | Further, my confidence getting out of the plane with a
         | parachute on is essentially zero. Whereas I know I can recover
         | from a stall/spin. In fact, normally trimmed, most planes have
         | positive static and dynamic stability, and will recover from a
         | stall spin on their own if you just relax back pressure on the
         | yoke. Which I'd have to do to parachute away from the plane. So
         | hilariously, by jumping from the plane, the plane has a very
         | good chance of recovering on its own, obviating the need to
         | jump.
         | 
         | Now for aerobatics training, it's different because plausibly
         | you could stress the airplane enough to break it. At which
         | point it might be uncontrollable enough you'd need to parachute
         | out to survive. And flight over hazardous terrain is another
         | plausible scenario although I'd argue that's just plain bad
         | flight planning. WTF are you doing planning a flight where you
         | can't glide to a road? I've done quite a lot of mountain flying
         | and it's not difficult to plane this, at least in the lower 48.
         | In Alaska and Canada, I'm sure there's a bit of a chuckle the
         | idea of being in gliding distance of a road or some flat enough
         | surface.
         | 
         | But for the other 95% of flights going on, you're not
         | considering a parachute. No. I've never worn one.
        
         | Rebelgecko wrote:
         | For some small airplanes (I think every one by Cirrus), they
         | actually have a parachute for the entire aircraft
        
           | ZanyProgrammer wrote:
           | I don't think it's normal for the overwhelming majority of
           | pilots who fly single engine propeller planes. The Cirrus is
           | very much an exception. Given the older ages of many people
           | who are private pilots, they probably shouldn't be
           | parachuting regardless.
        
         | azalemeth wrote:
         | No. Glider [sailplane] pilots routinely do, but only because of
         | their habit of soaring together in thermals, and the increased
         | risk of a mid-air collision. Larger and much newer (i.e. more
         | expensive) general aviation aircraft sometimes have a
         | "ballistic recovery system" fitted where the whole aircraft has
         | a parachute -- Cirrus a/c are famous for this. Other than that,
         | pilots dropping skydivers use them. And in some jurisdictions,
         | aerobatics. And that's it.
         | 
         | General aviation is about as safe as riding a motorbike. You're
         | trained to not get into that situation in the first place --
         | it's a very fishy video for many different reasons. We plan for
         | eventualities! Pilots assume that everything _will_ fail and
         | ideally don't let themselves get into a position where a
         | parachute is needed. I've been in a glider (ASK-21) under tow
         | from a tug plane (a Piper Pawnee) where it lost an engine
         | cylinder at exactly "the worst point" on the way up. The pilot
         | waved us off immediately, and we both executed our well-
         | practiced "eventualities" plan for that airfield, with no
         | incident whatsoever. An investigation showed that the engine
         | casing on the Pawnee had cracked, despite recent inspection.
        
         | dpifke wrote:
         | They're required when performing aerobatics, or if you plan to
         | open the door in flight. (e.g. pilots of skydiving planes need
         | to wear one, even though they plan to land with the plane)
         | 
         | But bail-out rigs are much smaller than normal skydiving rigs;
         | the latter would be uncomfortable to wear while operating the
         | plane. A bail-out rig is thinner, shaped more like a seat
         | cushion, and contains only a single parachute, often a non-
         | steerable round (which can reliably open much lower).
         | 
         | Example of typical bail-out rig:
         | https://www.summitparachutesystems.com/pilot-emergency-back-...
        
           | KennyBlanken wrote:
           | > (e.g. pilots of skydiving planes need to wear one, even
           | though they plan to land with the plane)
           | 
           | This is not true. I've watched numerous youtube videos of
           | pilots flying skydivers and I've never seen them wearing a
           | parachute. Flight Chops, for example. The pilot in question
           | in the videos was chief instructor for a flight safety
           | training company.
        
             | benlm wrote:
             | I've been a skydiver for many years and as far as I know
             | the FAA _does_ require the pilot to wear a bail out rig.
             | Most skydiving pilots I know do wear them, but I have come
             | across some pilots not wearing them in flight (even though
             | their bail out rig was in the plane next to them).
        
             | dpifke wrote:
             | I thought this was required by the FAA advisory circular
             | governing parachute operations (https://www.faa.gov/documen
             | tLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/... - PDF), but after just
             | looking, I now think it was part of the supplemental type
             | certificate (https://www.faa.gov/aircraft/air_cert/design_a
             | pprovals/stc/) or 337 approval for the door modifications
             | on the planes at the drop zone where I used to work.
             | 
             | Thus, it probably depends on the aircraft, and possibly the
             | process by which the owner got FAA approval to modify the
             | door.
        
       | arch-ninja wrote:
       | This guy sounds like he's fishing for attention, the phrase "I
       | didn't think I would have the courage to share..." is something
       | 10-year-olds think up for attention. It drips vanity and a
       | covered ego the size of the Hindenburg.
        
       | bartread wrote:
       | I mean, he literally says that he immediately reported the crash
       | to the FAA and NTSB at the beginning of the video.
       | 
       | It's certainly both fascinating and terrifying to watch, but
       | wouldn't the FAA investigate, regardless of whether or not the
       | crash was "controversial", whatever that actually means in the
       | context of this incident (disclaimer: not a pilot)?
       | 
       | Also, isn't the "controversy" here basically a bunch of armchair
       | critics/commenters?
        
       | jrootabega wrote:
       | Seems like a stunt on MTVs Jackass.
        
       | 1270018080 wrote:
       | Biggest guilty before proven innocent aspect: He's a Youtuber.
        
       | xzcvczx wrote:
       | i am not a pilot but i am a skydiver so i am not going to comment
       | on what he did/didn't do to keep the plane in the air. i watched
       | the video and the one thing that makes it slightly more
       | believable for me is the headset still on in (part of) freefall.
       | it could easily cause problems on opening, and wouldn't be too
       | suspicious to remove it if you were getting out planned or
       | unplanned.
        
       | colechristensen wrote:
       | The FAA/NTSB investigates basically every crash, they do a good
       | job. I doubt they will react kindly to crashing on purpose for
       | views.
        
         | redis_mlc wrote:
         | > The FAA/NTSB investigates basically every crash
         | 
         | No. The NTSB investigates significant accidents (either
         | commercial operations or passengers involved.)
         | 
         | There's an average of 400 GA accidents per year, so about one a
         | day.
         | 
         | If two CFIs climb into a Piper and crash, it probably won't be
         | investigated. Add a passenger, then the NTSB gets interested.
         | 
         | Source: commercially-rated airplane pilot.
        
           | KennyBlanken wrote:
           | Yeah, parent commenter has no experience in any aviation
           | matters. I've been in a "crash" (off runway excursion, no
           | injuries, no damage save a slightly bent landing gear door
           | flap.)
           | 
           | The "investigation" consisted of the airport director
           | speaking with the PIC and passenger (me.) His sole question
           | to me was "were you operating the aircraft?"
           | 
           | There are a lot of stories of pretty terrible decisions made
           | by GA pilots and little/nothing happening from the FAA. And
           | then do stupid shit like going after Bob Hoover's license
           | because he was too old for their tastes.
        
           | jcrawfordor wrote:
           | The details are nuanced by the definitions in the CFR, the
           | details of the reporting requirements (NTSB must do
           | _something_ with everything reported to it but that may be
           | minimal), and the NTSB 's authority to delegate more minor
           | investigations to FAA flight standards. Lots of people in the
           | thread are hashing these out. But it suffices to say that
           | when an airplane is seriously damaged or people are seriously
           | injured, the NTSB is obligated to investigate. This dates way
           | back to before the NTSB existed. In straightforward
           | situations that sometimes consists only of the regional
           | office making some phone calls and then preparing a two-page
           | summary (you see a LOT of these two-page summaries for GA
           | incidents, it's basically a form letter), but that's under
           | the assumption that their cursory review doesn't turn up
           | anything interesting. You can already find this incident in
           | the NTSB's investigation database, WPR22LA049.
        
           | shkkmo wrote:
           | The NTSB website says:
           | 
           | "The National Transportation Safety Board is an independent
           | Federal agency charged by Congress with investigating every
           | civil aviation accident in the United States and significant
           | accidents in other modes of transportation - railroad,
           | highway, marine and pipeline."
           | 
           | So if the NTSB is not investigating every civil aviation
           | crash, then they are failing in their congressional mandate.
           | If you have evidence of this, you should probably contact
           | your congress person or a newspaper with the details.
        
             | galago wrote:
             | I wonder how they define a "civil aviation accident"? In
             | places like Alaska, people routinely land at sites which
             | are not airports. If someone has a hard landing, there
             | could be some damage to the aircraft with no injuries. Do
             | they investigate every one of those? It might be there are
             | a lot of minor "accidents" that fall into grey areas. I
             | don't know if that's the case, I'm actually curious if
             | anyone knows.
        
               | p_l wrote:
               | _Accident_ , _Incident_ and _Serious Incident_ have
               | explicit definitions in civil aviation, and are also
               | graded internally and thus might have different scope of
               | investigation.
               | 
               | A planned landing in terrain, if it caused no injuries
               | but caused enough damage to aircraft to prevent takeoff
               | without repair, would be classified as accident, but its
               | investigation might be very brief depending on the event
               | in question.
               | 
               | Essentially if you have an "occurence", you're required
               | to report it to NTSB, which in turn will grade it and
               | decide if you need even a cursory interview.
        
               | sokoloff wrote:
               | Not quite correct. You have to report any accident and
               | any of a specific list of serious incidents to the NTSB.
               | You do not have to report other incidents or occurrences.
               | 
               | https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/830.5
               | 
               | Also note: a landing that required repairs would not
               | necessarily be an accident either, assuming no serious
               | injuries occurred. "Engine failure or damage limited to
               | an engine if only one engine fails or is damaged, bent
               | fairings or cowling, dented skin, small punctured holes
               | in the skin or fabric, ground damage to rotor or
               | propeller blades, and damage to landing gear, wheels,
               | tires, flaps, engine accessories, brakes, or wingtips are
               | not considered "substantial damage" for the purpose of
               | this part." (Those minor damages, even if they made the
               | airplane require repairs prior to further flight, are not
               | enough to make that landing an accident.)
        
               | krisoft wrote:
               | "SS 830.2
               | 
               | Aircraft accident means an occurrence associated with the
               | operation of an aircraft which takes place between the
               | time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of
               | flight and all such persons have disembarked, and in
               | which any person suffers death or serious injury, or in
               | which the aircraft receives substantial damage. "
               | 
               | https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/830.2
               | 
               | Later on the same page you can see how they define
               | "substantial damage" and "civil aircraft" too.
        
               | imoverclocked wrote:
               | That sounds like an incident, not an accident. They are
               | treated differently.
               | 
               | > [1] Aircraft accident means an occurrence associated
               | with the operation of an aircraft which takes place
               | between the time any person boards the aircraft with the
               | intention of flight and all such persons have
               | disembarked, and in which any person suffers death or
               | serious injury, or in which the aircraft receives
               | substantial damage.
               | 
               | Substantial damage is then defined as:
               | 
               | > Substantial damage means damage or failure which
               | adversely affects the structural strength, performance,
               | or flight characteristics of the aircraft, and which
               | would normally require major repair or replacement of the
               | affected component. Engine failure or damage limited to
               | an engine if only one engine fails or is damaged, bent
               | fairings or cowling, dented skin, small punctured holes
               | in the skin or fabric, ground damage to rotor or
               | propeller blades, and damage to landing gear, wheels,
               | tires, flaps, engine accessories, brakes, or wingtips are
               | not considered substantial damage for the purpose of this
               | part.
               | 
               | [1] https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/830.2
        
             | p_l wrote:
             | In most countries, depending on severity of the event, the
             | agency responsible for crash investigation can delegate
             | investigation of the event to another entity.
             | 
             | Mind you, this is usually done for _incidents_ , not
             | accidents. However, sometimes an accident is clearly due to
             | illegal operation, and sometimes that means that a) matter
             | is passed directly to prosecution b) investigation is
             | closed without conclusion due to explicit disregard of
             | safety mechanisms, thus making further investigation
             | useless to the purpose of aircraft accident investigation
             | (under common rules from ICAO that NTSB also operates when
             | it comes to aircraft)
        
             | sokoloff wrote:
             | Not every aircraft crash is an aircraft accident.
             | 
             | The definition of an aircraft accident is a matter of
             | federal law: https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/830.2
             | 
             | An aircraft crash where the aircraft suffers minor damage
             | and no one is seriously injured is, by definition, not an
             | aircraft accident, but rather an incident. (This incident
             | is definitely an aircraft accident, of course, whether or
             | not it was accidental. :) )
             | 
             | There is prior art for non-accidental plane crashes:
             | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhoxaJTzPu4
        
               | shkkmo wrote:
               | Thanks for the clarification of terminology. "Crash" is
               | indeed a bit ambiguous as a layman's term (though I would
               | personally argue that incidents that cause minimal damage
               | are generally not considered crashes.) Indeed, I think
               | there are even many accidents that don't rise to the
               | level of what I consider a crash (such as when my dad's
               | friend bent a prop by briefy tipping his plane onto its
               | nose when landing on a gravel bar to pickup a load of the
               | moose they had killed. While they did fly it out by
               | cutting/sanding all the prop blades to match and reducing
               | weight, it would seem to easily match the definition of
               | "significant damage" but I still wouldn't call it a
               | crash.)
               | 
               | I believe the claims made by the GP are still clearly
               | wrong, given that they do use the term "accident" and
               | stipulate criteria for investigation that (commercial or
               | passengers) that have no basis in the definition your
               | provided or the NTSB's mandate.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | natch wrote:
       | Repeated "oh my gosh" and "oh my godsh" came off as the biggest
       | fakey red flags here. Clear sign it was a performance; he was
       | more worried about offending some sensitive people than he was
       | actually stressed out.
        
         | shoo wrote:
         | youtube demonetizes videos that use language that advertisers
         | do not wish to be associated with.
         | 
         | so, arguably less about offending viewers and more about
         | keeping the advertising revenues flowing
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | paul7986 wrote:
       | TikTok is a cancer to society ... you see so many staged.. mean
       | things pulled on innocent people either working.. shopping at a
       | store, pranks, etc that i loathe most of it. Reels is the same
       | and both pay creators for content like Youtube does.
       | 
       | All such people should be made an example of get huge fines or do
       | jail time for creating fake content that harms others for their
       | financial gain or in this instance forces the FAA to spend money
       | on investigation only to find it was staged.
        
       | eCa wrote:
       | Really looking forward to commentary from Mentour and blancolirio
       | on this. Judging from Mentour's comment on the video I think it's
       | an understatement to say that he thinks it is correct for the FAA
       | to investigate...
        
         | Laforet wrote:
         | Just wanna chime in and say that Mentour has been doing a great
         | job with his videos.
         | 
         | There is a lot of low effort air crash videos on YouTube that
         | does not do much more than reading off the official report or
         | the script of an ACI episode. Mentour is one of the few that
         | goes beyond that by injecting actual professional insight into
         | the events.
        
       | mmaunder wrote:
       | They should arrest him for littering.
        
       | thrill wrote:
       | That aircraft could land on a driveway, much less the miles of
       | dirt roads visible all around.
        
         | Syonyk wrote:
         | Seriously. Your average dirt road is probably comparable to
         | some of the runways it used to fly off when it was new.
        
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