Back on January 25, 2011, I wrote about how no flight should be considered routine, prompted by a couple of fatal accidents that felt particularly close to home.
A Shocking Lesson in Experience: The first incident involved Bill Law, the owner of Bill Law Aviation in Rochester, NY, who tragically died due to fuel starvation. At the time, I was a student in Bill’s ground school and just beginning my journey into flying. The news was shocking. How could an instructor, seemingly infallible with decades of flight experience, make such a critical error on a mere 30-mile hop between airports? This event profoundly underscored that even the most experienced pilots are not immune to human error.
A Personal Connection to Tragedy: The second story is more personal and involves a family connection. I hesitated to share it initially out of respect for the family’s privacy. Russ Jeter, a skilled pilot and my ex-wife’s cousin, was flying an amphibian aircraft with his son Jacob when they crashed. I had met Russ and his wife Kim, also a competent pilot, at family events in Canandaigua and their wedding in Santa Barbara in 2005. They often inquired about my progress in flight training—a conversation I wished I could have responded to more proudly at the time.
Sadly, the last memory I have of them together was at a family gathering with Jacob, who also perished in that tragic accident. The news was devastating and brought a stark realization: aviation accidents can happen to anyone, regardless of their skill or experience.
A New Resource for Learning: Today, I learned that a video detailing Russ’s story has been published online. It serves as a poignant reminder and educational tool for pilots to conduct thorough self-assessments and recognize the critical importance of being fit to fly.
Russ and Kim, I am deeply sorry for your loss. Your stories, though heart-rending, have inspired me and many others in the aviation community. Thanks to your influence and the lessons drawn from these tragedies, I pushed forward in my aviation journey—earning my pilot certificate, ground instructor certificate, high-performance and complex endorsements, and joining the Civil Air Patrol as a Transport Mission pilot.
Your resilience and commitment to sharing these hard lessons have helped educate and potentially save lives. Thank you for turning a profound personal loss into an opportunity to enhance the safety of the flying community.
No responses yet