I often read some new analysis of the JFK
Jr plane crash in 1999 with his wife and sister-in-law on the way to
Martha's Vineyard. He was in complete overcast weather, a sunset, over
the sound, and did a spiral dive into the ocean from 2,200 feet. Pilots
and instructors used to talk about this for the first few years after
it happened.
The thing is, the issue is pretty well
settled. What isn't settled is that people who have never had the same
experience can never accept the explanation of what happened.
I
had the experience after about 25 years of flying. I am only licensed
to fly when I can see five miles ahead of me and I can stay clear of
clouds by 500 feet. I deliberately keep my pilots rating that way
(Visual Flight Rules) to keep me out of more dangerous weather
situations.
One day I broke the rules. I was going about
90 miles from Oakland to a landing strip in Sonoma. There was a low
cloud cover over Oakland with occasional holes in the clouds. I could
see that the clouds were about 1,000 feet thick and it was clear blue
sky above the clouds. I knew I could find a hole to come back down near
Oakland in an emergency. It was clear in Sonoma.
I flew in a small
circle gaining altitude and intentionally flying up through the low
cloud cover. It should have taken me less than two minutes to climb
through the cloud cover at a climb rate of 1,000 ft per minute. But, the first
minute passed and no blue sky. Several minutes passed and no blue sky.
Here
I was, on a bright sunny day, inside a cloud, with absolutely no
visibility, and the plane was climbing. Minute after minute.
I
knew that I had no seat-of-the-pants orientation ability in an
airplane... nobody does. I did what I was trained to do. Fly by the
instruments, believe the instruments. No one who hasn't been in that
position can imagine the absence of orientation in a white-out or a
black-out with no possible reference point other than a few stupid
flight instruments in front of you. Damn it. What else could I do, I
sure couldn't go back down, there were 2,200 foot mountains adjacent to
Oakland.
When the altimeter showed 6,000 feet, I finally
broke out of the cloud into the warm blue sky. The cloud cover was
4,000 feet below me stretching for miles in every direction. I looked
back. I had been climbing inside a giant 5,000 foot high chimney cloud
that stood all by itself.
JFK Jr. had never been in such a
blind situation before; he couldn't believe that the only thing to do
is trust what the instruments tell you.