I awoke early on the morning of Saturday, July 17, in a hotel room in Rapid City, South Dakota. I was returning from my biennial trip to Alaska, and this seemed like a good place to remain overnight, refuel, and start out fresh for the remainder of the trip home. Waiting out a passing thunderstorm in my hotel room, I switched on Weekend Today to hear the news we now all know so well. John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn, and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette were missing on a private-airplane trip from Essex County, New Jersey, to Hyannis, Massachusetts. By late afternoon, when I returned to Maryland, their airplane had not yet been found — but the coverage had grown by leaps and bounds to encompass almost every misconception about general aviation that could be imagined.
First, and most important, let me express the sympathies of all of us at AOPA to the Kennedy and Bessette families. John Jr. was obviously captured by the same passion and fever for general aviation that all of us possess. He was an AOPA member, and from all reports he was proceeding in his avocation of flying with further training. He also shared an aspiration common to many of us, and had recently acquired a bigger airplane.
Unfortunately, the intense training, the regulations, and the very reliable airplanes that we fly all were ignored by a majority of those covering this story for the news media. Before my wheels hit the runway at Frederick, Maryland, that Saturday, AOPA's Communications Division was attempting "damage control." Your head of communications at AOPA, Drew Steketee, virtually camped on Dan Rather's doorstep at CBS News the very morning the story broke. Drew's aviation background proved invaluable as he fielded question after question about the safety of small aircraft and their pilots. Calls from newspapers and radio stations flooded our office, and as hard as the staff tried, it was impossible to correct every misconception or change the perceptions that were portrayed. I liken it to covering little ground when you're flying a Piper Cub in a huge headwind.
To make matters worse, neither the media nor AOPA are saddled with the responsibility for affixing the blame for any aviation accident. That's the painstaking, time-consuming, and very methodical responsibility of the National Transportation Safety Board. It is very good at what it does, but many wanted to publicly affix immediate blame. As is the case with almost every aviation accident, air carrier or general aviation, we as pilots often share our opinions with each other. On the other hand, when these opinions make the national media and the general public gets incorrect impressions, we do little to enhance the position of personal flying.
Ironically, AOPA Pilot's July issue carried a feature story on the Piper Saratoga, the same model Kennedy was flying. We began using that magazine and Associate Editor Peter A. Bedell's comments about the aircraft to offset some of the negatives being attributed to this "high-performance, complex" aircraft. The owner that Pilot interviewed called it a "comfortable step-up airplane." Bedell described its flight characteristics by stating, "The airplane has the same docile handling that requires lots of provocation to do anything untoward."
There was an immediate media reaction to flying VFR at night, but few pointed to the fact that over time, our night training for the private pilot certificate has been increased. When I checked out at night it was little more than a half-hour on the Hobbs meter for three takeoffs and landings to a full stop. Yes, my instructor turned the landing light off on one landing, and killed the panel lighting on the other two, demonstrating the need to carry a flashlight on board. Subsequently, the FAA has revised the rules to include three hours of night flight. And in 1997, the feds added a 100-nm night cross-country to the training requirements.
On television, the spiral dive was demonstrated, indicating what can happen with total disorientation. Yet, AOPA reminded the media that instrument skills are not only part of training for a private pilot certificate, but also must be demonstrated before an FAA-designated examiner. Three hours of flying on instruments and recovery from unusual attitudes are designed to provide recognition of the tricks that human equilibrium can play.
But most of all, we continued to remind everyone that general aviation has experienced a continuing safety-record improvement; last year saw the lowest number of total accidents and fatal accidents since the record-keeping started in 1938. As a matter of fact — and little used by the media during this hysterical period — the fatal accident rate for VFR day flight is 0.88 per 100,000 hours flown, and the night VFR fatal rate is lower, at 0.76. For those of us who fly — not for a living, but as an avocation — we are aware that it is a demanding skill. It is also more rewarding, useful, and safer than portrayed by a majority of the media in July.
Yes, the calls have already begun to legislate and/or regulate private flying to avoid accidents such as this. How one can design new rules without even having seen the NTSB's final report is beyond all of us. During this interim period, while the safety board is doing its work, I have pledged to NTSB Chairman James Hall that AOPA will work closely with his organization to answer questions and provide real-life practical knowledge about the system and private flying. If the final cause of this accident, along with others, falls into a pattern indicating that more safety education or rule changes are needed, AOPA and the AOPA Air Safety Foundation will be highly supportive. However, we constantly reinforce the notion that you cannot legislate or regulate good judgment, no matter what the activity. It was 1972 when the U.S. Supreme Court stated, "Safety is not the equivalent of risk-free."
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