It was a little over two years ago when, while going through my mail, I came across an angry letter from two eastern Maryland flight instructors. They were incensed at AOPA and me personally for failing to sponsor their 12-year-old student who was planning to make a record-setting cross-country journey. One of the instructors would accompany him and the other would do all the weather and flight planning from home base. Their feeling was that AOPA should at least heavily publicize the flight, if not offer sponsorship money to offset the cost.
AOPA has never sponsored, nor do we endorse, record attempts by aspiring young pilots, and the tragedy on April 11 in Cheyenne, Wyoming, is exactly the reason why.
At the time of the instructors' call, several of us discussed how endorsing the flight could be a two-edged sword: the slight chance of a tragedy on one side, and the positive promotion of young people learning to fly on the other side. However, with terrific national programs like the EAA's "Young Eagles," Aviation Explorer Scouts, Civil Air Patrol, and our own AOPA materials on introducing young people to aviation, the risk attached to these individual efforts just didn't seem worth it.
Within minutes after Jessica Dubroff, her father, and flight instructor Joe Reid, AOPA 597794, crashed after takeoff early on the second day of their journey, the lines to the AOPA Communications Division began ringing off the hook. This important department at AOPA has developed relationships with much of the news media and stands ready as a resource to them in covering general aviation stories. Within the next 24 hours, the association gave more than 100 interviews and statements.
One of the AOPA Legal Services lawyers owns a Cessna Cardinal similar to the one Jessica flew, and we called that airplane into action to illustrate the cockpit, instrumentation, and dual controls. Late in the afternoon, as many as four TV crews were waiting in line, some with satellite trucks, to tape or fly in this aircraft. I personally was frustrated with constantly having to state the fact that "Jessica was not the pilot, but merely a passenger in the airplane manipulating the controls under the guidance of a certified flight instructor."
The AOPA communications corps provided information that was carried on all of the major television networks and syndicated TV news services, and participated in dozens of radio interviews. Very important to the effort were quotations carried in the major U.S. newspapers, which then appeared in local papers through news wires. These included The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Examiner, USA Today, and the Associated Press. Our director of media relations, Warren Morningstar, was quoted in Time magazine: "The pilot in command can easily control the aircraft from either seat. There is never a situation in which the nonpilot can put the plane into such immediate peril that there is no safe recovery." Drew Steketee, AOPA senior vice president of Communications, stated in the April 22 edition of Newsweek: "If our members think a regulation can improve safety, they'll support it. If it's a knee-jerk reaction with no benefit, they won't."
Steketee's statement about some new, unneeded legislation or regulation is where our attention turned by day three, as the country and media began focusing less on aviation and more on the family surrounding Jessica. AOPA Legislative Action had already picked up intelligence that many in Congress were calling for immediate action to prevent children from handling aircraft controls. In addition, three state senators in Connecticut introduced a bill: "No person under the age of 16 shall engage in the operation of an aircraft. No person shall aid a person under the age of 16 in the operation of an aircraft." AOPA's legal counsel weighed in on this with the state judiciary, indicating this was a preemption of federal air regulations. The bill passed the full Connecticut Senate, but it was killed in the state House, thanks to persistent efforts of our state legislative advocacy.
Nationally, however, it became more apparent that the House and/or Senate aviation leadership were working on a bill similar to Connecticut's, one lowering the age to 15. Less than one week after the accident, we were in the office of Representative John Duncan (R-TN), chairman of the House aviation subcommittee. We discussed with him the ramifications of introducing such a bill and encouraged him to address the "real" problem — flights by youngsters trying to set a record. Reason won out, and as we left his office, the "seeds" of H.R.3267, the "Child Safety Act," were planted. "The Jessica Bill," as we have come to call it, would require an individual to hold a valid pilot certificate in order to manipulate the controls of an aircraft in any aviation record-setting attempt.
While all of us in aviation would have preferred to see no legislation, we congratulate Duncan for taking a reasoned approach to the public outcry to "do something about this." Other proposals could have had a devastating effect on young people interested in flying, something that we all know is essential if general aviation is to thrive.
One thing is certain: you cannot legislate good judgment. I am confident that when all the facts are in, the NTSB will cite a series of judgment errors — errors that were made by the pilot in command, a flight instructor who was under great media pressure. On behalf of all AOPA members, our sympathy goes out to the families involved, along with our hope that no further regulatory action than that contained in the Duncan bill is taken — so that young people can continue to share the experience of flight.
