Memorial Wall Honoring those lost traveling to and from OshKosh

[1600vw]

Following up on the sad tribute video posted by the OP of the couple who died in a crash on the way to Oshkosh, here are the facts as published by the NTSB's Preliminary Report:

-Took off at 4:00AM destination KOSH in IMC.
-Plane was a Zenith CH701SP flown by a non- instrument rated Sport Pilot.
-Crashed 4:15AM in a nose down attitude, 2 fatally injured.

I'm not making judgements but I think all of us here know what happened. The only remaining questions are WHY would you leave the ground in darkness and IMC prevailing? Do you think this Sport Pilot ever had a chance of becoming a safer pilot?

Thank you for the update on this. Now I must ask, why. Why would anyone do this? Some people have a death wish I guess. Un freaking believable.
Thanks again.

[robert l]

When Harrison Ford had his incident on the golf course, the media said he crashed ! Not true, he made an emergency landing just like we as pilots were taught and practiced. He did an excellent job of not killing himself or anyone else. Why can't they just give the facts ?
Bob

[Joda]

The news media, and the pilot population as well, seem to always point out that certain accidents happened "while they were on their way to Oshkosh", or "while they were returning from Oshkosh", as if the event itself somehow contributed to the accident. The fact is, aircraft accidents (like auto accidents) happen with some frequency. There are no doubt some folks who get involved in auto accidents on the way to or from Oshkosh as well. Nobody makes mention of that.

The accident and the event are only tangentially connected. The event certainly didn't cause the accident. The accident may well have occurred on that day to that airplane regardless of whether the pilot was heading to or from a particular event or just riding around for a pleasure flight. It's not the event's fault.

Oh, and on a side note, unless you're buying pants, "Oshkosh" is one word with only one upper case letter. "OshKosh" is a trademark of the "OshKosh B'gosh" corporation, and not the way to spell the city's name (nor the Chief for which it is named). Sorry, that's a pet peeve of mine. Thanks for understanding.

[DaleB]

When Harrison Ford had his incident on the golf course, the media said he crashed ! Not true, he made an emergency landing just like we as pilots were taught and practiced. He did an excellent job of not killing himself or anyone else. Why can't they just give the facts ?
Bob

Well, to be fair... an off airport emergency landing that substantially damages the airplane and sends the pilot to the hospital could reasonably be called a "crash". If I'd done the same thing, I would fully expect people to describe it as such.

[martymayes]

That said... there are definitely pilots out there who have no interest in attending safety seminars, FAAST meetings, etc. Not a whole lot we can do about those folks (except avoid flying with/around them). But based on the number of experienced pilots I saw in attendance at the Preventing LOC - Ground forum at OSH17 (the room was PACKED), I feel like a LOT of peat ople are interested in becoming safer pilots.

Well, that's kinda my point. The pilots that would most benefit from training by participating in forums like "Preventing LOC" don't participate. Can't just ignore them because we are all a piece in the puzzle. Even when we avoid flying with/around them, they are impacting our insurance rates and regs that we all have to follow.

[martymayes]

Thank you for the update on this. Now I must ask, why. Why would anyone do this? Some people have a death wish I guess. Un freaking believable.
Thanks again.

I guarantee he had every intention of landing at OSH as planned. Certainly we have all had things go not exactly as planned.

[Floatsflyer]

I guarantee he had every intention of landing at OSH as planned. Certainly we have all had things go not exactly as planned.

Huh?!?

If planning had anything to do with this flight/fatal crash we wouldn't be here talking about it. Guaranteed!

[robert l]

The news media, and the pilot population as well, seem to always point out that certain accidents happened "while they were on their way to Oshkosh", or "while they were returning from Oshkosh", as if the event itself somehow contributed to the accident. The fact is, aircraft accidents (like auto accidents) happen with some frequency. There are no doubt some folks who get involved in auto accidents on the way to or from Oshkosh as well. Nobody makes mention of that.

The accident and the event are only tangentially connected. The event certainly didn't cause the accident. The accident may well have occurred on that day to that airplane regardless of whether the pilot was heading to or from a particular event or just riding around for a pleasure flight. It's not the event's fault.

Oh, and on a side note, unless you're buying pants, "Oshkosh" is one word with only one upper case letter. "OshKosh" is a trademark of the "OshKosh B'gosh" corporation, and not the way to spell the city's name (nor the Chief for which it is named). Sorry, that's a pet peeve of mine. Thanks for understanding.

WOW ! What Waco said ! And on the word Oshkosh, It amazes me how many people don't know the origin of their cities and towns names. I find it interesting myself.
Bob

[martymayes]

Huh?!?

If planning had anything to do with this flight/fatal crash we wouldn't be here talking about it. Guaranteed!

There are a few people that get in a plane with the intention of dying. Excluding 9-11, those flights are usually solo and there's usually no specific destination. Nothing to indicate that was the case here. The pilot had a plan, it just wasn't a very good one. I've been there, not my proudest moment.

[Bill Greenwood]

The Zenith accident is extra sad since those young folks seem like the kind of nice people we meet at Osh. I dont think he had a death wish. Just a guess, but if he was a sport pilot maybe he never had any training nor ever experienced losing control from vfr in imc weather. We dont know if he had any imc training oreven if the Zenith had an artificial horizon . Night imc is tough and even if marginal can be bad. It says " no record of a flight briefing", Did he totally ignore that part of flight planning or more liklely he got something on a cell phone that he thought was good enough. If I was departing in night imc, especially in a plane with lesser equipment, I'd want a real thorogh conversation with a actual FSS person., maybe supplement with a radar/satelite view. Ar 4 am there may not have been many current reports. He may have had some visibility under clouds and intended to fly that way, had a gps, might have had some lighted features on the ground near the airport, that vanished over farmland. We dont know the exact weather, but waiting 2 hours for daylight might have been a life saver.