'He had been following the highway that led directly to Camarillo but suddenly made a left turn away from the highway into a hilly area. " Hwy 101 rises to the west (towards Camarillo) at that point . Essentially he was in a bowl . There is one additional option and that was to follow Malibu Canyon to the south out of that bowl to the ocean . Not at all a good idea as the mountains are high and the canyon twisty. Yes there was an option, climb into IFR conditions , confess and ask for IFR to Camarillo but that would likely resulted in some serious discussions with the FAA. However, it was the right option and would have saved all aboard.

(Written on 01/31/2020)(Permalink)

when the conditions are worse than anticipated the pilot's responsibility is to change the plan .

(Written on 01/31/2020)(Permalink)

Yes it is just that simple............. Also I think the multiple calls are you in vfr conditions? really translated to from here it looks like you are doing something pretty stupid.

(Written on 01/31/2020)(Permalink)

there is a fundamental mis-understanding of the respective roles of the controllers and pilots. The controller can issue "instructions" but it is the pilot's job and responsibility to fly the airplane safely . The controller issues an instruction " remain outside of Burbank's class delta airspace for now. The pilot may in that case announce " Burbank , helo 123 has an emergency and we are turning inbound to burbank NOW at that point (emergency declared ) the controller's task is to vector other airplanes out of the way. Or the pilot may say Burbank unable to fly in visual conditions I need to land at Burbank ( not declaring an emergency) and the tower will work to get the aircraft to the airport but the pilot must still follow instructions. In the case of the aircraft that had an engine on fire on takeoff from LA last week and declared an emergency , that it was returning there was widespread illiterate condemnation of the pilot for not getting permission to dum

(Written on 01/31/2020)(Permalink)

The general location of the crash is sort of a bowl with Hwy 101 descending into the bowl both east and west bound , rising terrain to the north and steeply rising terrain to the south. However, from that irregular bowl Malibu Canyon slopes down to the south to the Pacific Ocean only about 10 miles away. It's has steep slopes on each side with the mountains higher than the basin they were in. This is simply one possible explanation for the turn. It's also clear that they did not follow the controllers when they were near Burbank, instructions to generally follow I-5 up to the 118 freeway and then follow that west . They essentially went diagonally to the 118 ( closer to the final for VNY Rw 16 ) never followed the 118 (probably unable due to very low ceilings as the highway rises . Then turned about 45 degrees to the freeway and headed southwest for the 101 . The easy alternatives a) Land at VNY and get cars or Uber b) Go IFR

(Written on 01/31/2020)(Permalink)

Another option - land VNY and grab two rental cars or a van or uber . The issue of IFR competency and currency is critical as there was potentially the option to either pickup a clearance airborne . Socal has (not sure it extends out to Camarillo) an expedited method of getting clearances when the flight is in airspace controlled by SoCal Approach (tower to tower is my recollection of the phraseology)

(Written on 01/31/2020)(Permalink)

The simple answer is that the airplanes went out the door, signed off as airworthy when they were not. Much of this is a reflection of the change in focus at Boeing from building great airplanes to meeting the expectations of Wall Street. It's not just the 737 Max , the AF tanker is far behind schedule and problem plagued after being delayed almost twenty years ago by criminal behavior by both Boeing and the DOD senior civilian acquisitions manager.

(Written on 09/27/2019)(Permalink)

Amen - Few remember that the LA Times and other national papers came out with a story, just prior to the election where McCain was running that he was a reckless pilot who had destroyed 3 airplanes ( 1 engine came apart in flight, the flight deck catastrophe where a missile hit his airplane and a lucky shot by a N Viet gunner that sent him to the Hanoi Hilton)

(Written on 03/22/2019)(Permalink)

A stick pusher would have kept the crew in the loop but HAL running trim left them out of the loop. Presumably a stick shaker pusher would not have the sufficient authority

(Written on 03/22/2019)(Permalink)

One of the first things he did was assign his FO the task of trying to restart the engines while he flew the airplane which let each focus on a task

(Written on 03/22/2019)(Permalink)