Who died? (Celebrity Deaths)

they have not said who was the pilot of the plane yet. biffle had pilot license for that type of craft but he couldn't do it solo. there was another pilot on board and possible another co-pilot.
one of my friend's brother started taking flying lessons, which lead me to a rabbit hole of youtube channels about plane accidents that lasted several months. one of the things that really surprised me was how old many of the planes were. people jump into 50+ year old plane and go across the country during a blizzard. biffle's company plane was reportedly 44 years old.
there are something like 40 million commercial fights each year and can be years between major crashes, (240 died in a crash this year) even with that the avg is still low teens over the years. in the US alone there are over 3 million non-commercial flights and the death avg is over 150 per year.

Goatface said:

they have not said who was the pilot of the plane yet. biffle had pilot license for that type of craft but he couldn't do it solo. there was another pilot on board and possible another co-pilot.
one of my friend's brother started taking flying lessons, which lead me to a rabbit hole of youtube channels about plane accidents that lasted several months. one of the things that really surprised me was how old many of the planes were. people jump into 50+ year old plane and go across the country during a blizzard. biffle's company plane was reportedly 44 years old.
there are something like 40 million commercial fights each year and can be years between major crashes, (240 died in a crash this year) even with that the avg is still low teens over the years. in the US alone there are over 3 million non-commercial flights and the death avg is over 150 per year.

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I watch pilot debrief all the time. He covers a lot of these small plane crashes. It's probably 90 percent pilot error with these things. Flying into storms or just making stupid mistakes. But this one sounded like mechanical failure. Plane had problems on take off, tried to land immediately, came up short of the runway.

I know a lot of these planes are old but they have to be serviced and inspected regularly to be air worthy. The only thing old is the frame. The engines and electronics have to be constantly tested and replaced if they fail.

Bald Brah said:

I watch pilot debrief all the time. He covers a lot of these small plane crashes. It's probably 90 percent pilot error with these things. Flying into storms or just making stupid mistakes. But this one sounded like mechanical failure. Plane had problems on take off, tried to land immediately, came up short of the runway.

I know a lot of these planes are old but they have to be serviced and inspected regularly to be air worthy. The only thing old is the frame. The engines and electronics have to be constantly tested and replaced if they fail.

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I have acquaintances in aviation at different levels and I have been around or flown in various aircraft, from a small two/three seat helicopter to the Goodyear Blimp. This is how I understand it:

In private aviation there isn't necessarily people checking certs, especially if your flying out of a small airfields. It's often up to the owner to make sure they are in compliance and getting the proper maintenance done on time. Mechanics can make fatal mistakes just like pilots (although less often) and often, on small aircraft, the owner tries to do some work themselves.

There are shady people in every industry and in aviation that means passing off "as removed" parts as "overhauled" and/or faking certs (very rare, hopefully, as the consequences are severe for any operation that isn't fly by night). There are also people that can just say they changed a part, but didn't. When it's your own plane, who is going to check until something bad happens.

Corporate aviation, on the other hand, mitigates most of these problems with setting up the staff to check work and follow the proper procedures, leaving a heavily documented paper trail. Even other parts of the world that have a reputation of skirting rules, the corporations there will still follow US standards and often surpass them. I know of at least one big repair center in the UAE or Qatar that wants certs on parts that the US doesn't even require certs for.

That's why you don't see Gulfstreams, Bombardiers, Citations, or Hawkers going down "all the time", like you do with the smaller personally owned aircraft.

Finally, different aircraft have different tolerances for errors and some pilots can fly an easy plane (like a Piper Cub or Cherokee) with no problems but end up in a crash when they buy something much faster with lower glide characteristics (like a Super King Air).

There was a Youtube vid that I saw where they explained clearly that the cost involved in aircraft maintenance, to do it 100%, well that can be budgeted for the cost of an airliner sure , but it isn't scalable down to a private plane. Unless you have really deep pockets and are prepared to keep paying huge costs repeatedly. So as guys have said above you end up with owners who think they know what they're doing, trying to do it themselves.

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My previous workplace ( I left 6 months ago ) was a place that made custom parts - small but very specific, world leading - for quite a few high tech applications.

Some were massive projects, but we catered down to small companies as long as they paid their invoices. A couple of the small ones ( 2 that I can think of ) were tech start ups, trying to develop small 2-4 passenger self flying robo-taxis. Vertical lift off with ducted fans etc.

I'm of course doing the Danny Devito "Nope nope nope" meme over that idea. Can you imagine in a field that would essentially be flying taxi / Uber with a few different companies competing, where profit margins are slim, how well maintained these thing will be.

I got an opportunity to explain my concerns to one of our engineers who was working on our side of those projects. He wasn't able to give any response that made me feel better.