This sucks

[Jim Peace]

http://nypost.com/2017/07/06/news-chopper-spots-alligator-eating-body-of-plane-crash-victim/

Not sure how this can happen.  So many pilots say flying single engine over the everglades is safe.  

Edited July 7, 2017 by Jim Peace

[kortopates]

Hard to say yet, but just from the wreckage its doesn't look likely the everglades had anything to do with the fatal outcome. But what terrible bad luck for the deceased after the accident and added horror for the family. 

Quite the mystery apparently when they mention the details of the student's unauthorized flight are unknown and the plane was missing for several days?? 

[PTK]

This is tragic and horrific for all involved. 

What's really amazing to me however is how lax the procedures as described are. The instructor left the airplane and the keys behind apparently trusting the student would follow him into the office. The school and the instructor will have a lot of questions to answer. How can it be so easy for someone to take an airplane and fly away? Especially post 911? This student apparently may have been mentally unstable. Girlfriend relationship gone bad kind of stuff. 

The school’s owner, Robert Dean, said Ukaere took off in the plane Saturday night without telling anyone. He decided to go fly, himself,” said Dean. “He basically took the aircraft away from here without any authorization.”

The same plane had an emergency landing incident last December, said Ahmed Mohamed, a student pilot at Dean Flight Training.

How can you allow this to happen Mr. Dean? Is there a good excuse? Who is responsible for the security of your aircraft? If not you then who? How secure are your aircraft if you didn't know it was missing for four days?! What does this say about GA if it can happen at a major and very busy GA airport like Miami Executive?

The consequences of this kind of things cannot be good for any of us! Another major black eye for GA.

 

[steingar]

I dunno, how is a CFI supposed to fly with someone if he or she does't trust them?  

I recall flying over the Everglades a few years back.  Nothing particularly dangerous, the Everglades sits low as can be.  But I remember thinking if the mill quit I'd be in a real world of hurt about 20 different ways, and I felt amiss that I hadn't accounted for this in my preflight planning and taken another route.

Hell of a way to feed the alligators.  RIP.

[LANCECASPER]

Keys or no keys, most older GA airplanes can be unlocked and started pretty easily. I remember hearing once that at one point one of ten keys would open and start any Cessna.

[PMcClure]

Yeah, I put the blame on the criminal.

 

[kevinw]

How convenient to call it an "unauthorized flight". Let's be honest, we'll never hear the pilots side of the story. Sounds like damage control to me.

[gsxrpilot]

Once I'm dead, I'm fine with an alligator or any other creature making use of my corpse. Much cheaper than spending heaps of money on funeral, burial, casket, or even cremation. The family can have a wake/celebration of life/or whatever they like. It won't bother me one way or the other 

[PTK]

19 minutes ago, kevinw said:

How convenient to call it an "unauthorized flight". Let's be honest, we'll never hear the pilots side of the story. Sounds like damage control to me.

Interesting...

[N601RX]

1 hour ago, kevinw said:

How convenient to call it an "unauthorized flight". Let's be honest, we'll never hear the pilots side of the story. Sounds like damage control to me.

The same thing happened in south Fl with a foreign student 2 or 3 years ago. She took the plane out one night and crashed. The owner immediately said she didn't have permission for the flight. 

https://www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/brief.aspx?ev_id=20150113X22629&key=1

Edited July 7, 2017 by N601RX

[Mark89114]

I sold my Cessna 152 to Mr. Dean about 2 years ago.....nothing bad to say about the transaction, he was fair and accommodating despite some technical hiccups and weather issues in me delivering the plane.  I hope it wasn't my plane.

[kevinw]

1 hour ago, Mark89114 said:

I sold my Cessna 152 to Mr. Dean about 2 years ago.....nothing bad to say about the transaction, he was fair and accommodating despite some technical hiccups and weather issues in me delivering the plane.  I hope it wasn't my plane.

Go to the link the OP included and watch the news video. At 1:35 the plane is shown. It was apparently involved in a forced landing earlier due to engine trouble. A student landed it on a highway. Can't quite make out the N-number but it looks like N49453.

[Jeff_S]

4 hours ago, PTK said:

This is tragic and horrific for all involved. 

What's really amazing to me however is how lax the procedures as described are. The instructor left the airplane and the keys behind apparently trusting the student would follow him into the office. The school and the instructor will have a lot of questions to answer. How can it be so easy for someone to take an airplane and fly away? Especially post 911? This student apparently may have been mentally unstable. Girlfriend relationship gone bad kind of stuff. 

The school’s owner, Robert Dean, said Ukaere took off in the plane Saturday night without telling anyone. He decided to go fly, himself,” said Dean. “He basically took the aircraft away from here without any authorization.”

The same plane had an emergency landing incident last December, said Ahmed Mohamed, a student pilot at Dean Flight Training.

How can you allow this to happen Mr. Dean? Is there a good excuse? Who is responsible for the security of your aircraft? If not you then who? How secure are your aircraft if you didn't know it was missing for four days?! What does this say about GA if it can happen at a major and very busy GA airport like Miami Executive?

The consequences of this kind of things cannot be good for any of us! Another major black eye for GA.

 

Seems like a pretty harsh indictment without any more than one news video's worth of information.  I'm with Paul...if there's blame to be had, let's start with the perp who allegedly stole the airplane and then crashed it. But even with that, let's gather some facts before we flame somebody.

[Hank]

3 hours ago, gsxrpilot said:

Once I'm dead, I'm fine with an alligator or any other creature making use of my corpse...

"Once I'm dead" is not necessary the same as "after I crash" . . .  That's what gives us all the heebie-jeebies about this one.

[PTK]

4 hours ago, Jeff_S said:

Seems like a pretty harsh indictment without any more than one news video's worth of information.  I'm with Paul...if there's blame to be had, let's start with the perp who allegedly stole the airplane and then crashed it. But even with that, let's gather some facts before we flame somebody.

Harsh indictment?! Not nearly as harsh as the blow to GA! It's the owner of the school saying this. Not a news reporter. 

 

[Bravoman]

I think about the Gators, snakes etc every time I fly over the okefenokee swamp, which is quite often. I do so with enough altitude to clear it if I lost power.

[Hank]

6 hours ago, Bravoman said:

I think about the Gators, snakes etc every time I fly over the okefenokee swamp, which is quite often. I do so with enough altitude to clear it if I lost power.

Not always possible . . . Palm Beach vectored me over the Everglades at 4000, then FXE approach descended me to 2000 a d took me 5 nm out to sea, pretty perpendicular to the beach. Any hiccup through there, this could have been me.

[cliffy]

It was at night- how much night time did he have? How much horizon can be seen on a dark night out there? Spacial Disorientation? Kennedy and a Piper?

Back when, ALL twin Aero Commanders had the same key!

Cut the P leads and hand prop the plane, ezzy peeezy. No key needed. 

[1964-M20E]

On 7/7/2017 at 10:59 AM, Hank said:

"Once I'm dead" is not necessary the same as "after I crash" . . .  That's what gives us all the heebie-jeebies about this one.

just keep S&W or Glock handy if you are alive and they come by hungry then you get to eat.