Accident Case Study: Cross-Country Crisis 

Easy, the tail drags along the ground.

Real men don't feel fear,Goldilocks.

@Julian Kairo shut up

I’m surprised the damn thing even took off!

the worst thing is here's another pilot who took people with him when it was time to pay for his stupidity.

Yes. I also feel terrible for his passengers-

controller was outstanding

@@DrWhom coulda done more for the bad pilot

“Please respond” is basically how I slide into DM’s

I'm sure ATC would've done that too if they could have. Nothing worse than watching someone's incompetence kill them despite you doing everything to prevent it.

If his plane had Bluetooth , then yes he could have linked and fly it remotely for him... Lol just kidding but that is the future.

Haha... that’d be great. ATC takes control of the plane and goes “alright. Amateur hour is over. Let’s go ahead and land your plane now.”

Airbus: We're working on it ;)

Well, he was in surveillance , they're duty is to do just that.

David Parry Commercial flight sims are great and all, but they dont prepare you too well for real IFR flying. The issue is when your body is lying to you about the aircraft's attitude, you start ignoring the instruments and trusting your gut. You need to practice IFR flying in the air with foggles or a hood, with a CFI next to you of course. And dont cheat, if you can still see outside then your body is not lying to you so much anymore rendering the lesson useless.

@@rykehuss3435 Yea, my dad was a CFI (but not a CFII) and he was instrument rated. I have spent many many hours flying with him inside ping pong balls (if you know what I mean). That feeling of not moving, just sitting there, looking out the window, waiting to see the runway.... He would have me watch for the runway so he could concentrate on the needles. I always felt better when I saw the approach lights, then the runway come out of the grey. I'm not sure anything can prepare you for that, other than actually doing it. Years ago, we were flying into Concord (Buchanan) and conditions were right at minimum and getting worse. The tower closed right after we landed Later that night a plane tried to fly the approach but missed then stalled claiming out and crashed into the mall. He hit right above where the Santa Village was and it killed a bunch of children waiting in line. It was a bad one.

Even if you you the ATC know that you did all you could, it has to weigh on you. Knowing you’re the last lifeline they had.

@@esteemedmortal5917 Indeed

Nah, the worst feeling is when you know you've lost the plane.

DA42PIC Called the Tenerife Accident

I’ve seen higher hour guys do stupider things.

High hours can make you overestimate your capabilities. Secondly, having agreed to bring your friends or family to a destination may place external pressure on some people, making you feel like you really really need to bring them to the destination. Also there can be a desire to show off your skills to your friends, which is risky when combined with the thought that your 2200 hours will somehow magically make your flight succeed no matter what.

@@da42pic Capt van Zanten took over 500 lives with him. That fully fueled 747 went off like an atomic bomb. incinerated everybody in it.

Lying, forgery and fraud are normal in most Islamic cultures.

I guess it would be hard to come to terms that your father killed people. As far as I’m concerned if he survived the crash he should have been charged with negligent homicide.

This is so true.

Just the fact that he tried to go cross country as a VFR-only pilot without even getting weather reports or filing a flight plan proves that she is mistaken about her father. Even if the weather report looked promising it would still be a stupid risk without IFR rating because weather has a sneaky habit of changing.

I missed the part where there was an issue with the fuel gauge. He just didn't have enough fuel.

@@thegolfdude he could have had a leak and been losing it the whole time.

BobsYourUncle5000 I do feel bad that I laughed at that image in my mind but I did laugh...hard

it's a case where they don't understand the gravity of the situation, but gravity understands their situation very well.

@@adotintheshark4848 Precisely! And concisely said,

Isn't there something that can be done to stop these people? They could easily kill several people on the ground.

I don't know what's more scary A&Ps get paid dog shit or anyone can reasonably get a PPL. I mean think of all the people who can't even drive a care safely at normal speeds.

The NTSB report said that at least four of the passengers were "Polish/Americans belonging to a club". Thought that I detected a language barrier

@@jorgecallico9177 He spoke accented English, but I don't think that was a significant factor. So many other things.

"Plane has 6 seats. 6 people on board. Its fine."

@@jorgecallico9177 I thought the accent was Indian!

@@GermanAviation I assume this was the beginning of the flight. Dude's out of gas, there's no way he's overweight at the point of landing. I wouldn't even call that a factor. The biggest contributor to this crash was fuel exhaustion, very poor flight planning, ignoring fuel signs until it was at critical, and accepting an IFR approach when not IFR rated. Quite a bit of spacial disorientation it looks like. This guy could have been at it all day and never made that runway. He was right to declare an emergency but he only made his situation worse by saying he was IFR rated.

Yes! Thank you! I find it weird how many apologist there are here for this pilot, he lied and lied and lied until he died which would be good riddance but he took five souls and a perfectly good plane with him not to mention mental anguish for a controller who went way about and beyond to the degree he could have all but landed the plane for him but the guy clearly lied so much he didn’t believe the controller apparently.

@@colin-nekritz I agree with everything you wrote...except for the claim that people are defending the pilot. It’s darn near 100%. The people here pretty much agree that the pilot was totally at fault.

I think he lied about IFR since he wasn't going to get there any other way. Still, it was a mayday, so the controller would have done his best talking him down even if the pilot had been truthful.

When he was asked "are you capable of IFR flight" that might have been interpreted as - the plane is ifr certified. If the pilot was certified, ATC would suggest a precision approach

That controller had to have known this wasn't going to end well...the pilot couldn't follow a single instruction given.....Like a dog wandering onto a busy street. "come here boy, no no,, here, no, come to me,,,, eventually SMACK"

@@N224DW He just couldn't fly because he was really a VFR pilot in IFR conditions. He had no legs for instrument flying and frequently became disoriented. If there's anything I've taken away from all these reports, it's get IFR certified and stay current. If there's two thing's I've taken away, then it's get IFR certified and have back-ups for all critical instruments.

The controller did everything except fly the plane for him. There's an argument a non pilot could have landed (rough but alive) by following those instructions!

ATC did an exemplary job ... I wonder if there's any way to practice this type of approach ... low on fuel, overweight, IMC conditions seem a bad time to be learning ...

@@mjudec No, they couldn't. They would have lost control just like the pilot in this case did. That's exactly the point: he lacked the training to fly by the instruments on the aircraft and so would a non-pilot.

The flight was destined to fail. Added to the entire absence of any pre-flight planning, this pilot couldn't stop thinking about "that asshole" who questioned his abilities, I'm wagering.

And you could instantly tell just by the tone of his voice that the "yes" was a barefaced lie.

“Si, mas o menos”. Dude sounded like he has hardly English competent let alone instrument competent.

@@FlightSimulatorXATC He was Polish by the way not Hispanic. Granted, his English was pretty borderline.

He was destined to fail when he flew into IMC with 20 minutes of fuel left.

Kennedy Kennedy Kennedy

​@Terry Melvin He couldn't even keep the wings kinda level and the plane nose roughly at the horizon. That makes it kind of impossible to follow compass or altimeter. And likely the pilot was panicked that he'd kill them all ... or worse, someone would find out he wasn't that good a pilot after all.

@@advorak8529 He was more of an overconfident pilot than a good one.

Sounds like he has weak English skills. Was he a muslim? Need to check his surname.

@@jorgecallico9177 He was Polish.

right from the start he was tempting the gods

@white zebra Gravity.

Also begs the question why the other pilot felt the need to go talk this guy before he took off. Certainly what the other pilot was seeing in the moment raised flags but my guess would be the Seneca pilot was probably known at the airport for being sloppy with procedures.

@@mattpope1746 I totally agree. I have only 200 hours (and IFR) and been around my local airport, aka the second busiest airport in Indiana, only for about 4 years. I know most people here and only something REALLY major would trigger me to say anything. Which means, either I see a pilot loading 3 overweight passengers and 20 dumbbells in a Cessna 172, or he/she is one of the (very few) pilots I know who I think at times are quite sloppy or complacent.

black zebra the insurance company now....

Wasn't decent, guy did everything he could. I hope he feels no guilt.

Aft heavy CG = greater AoA and excessive fuel burn. All physics against pilot.

@@adamw.8579 Actually no, an aft CofG makes an aircraft more fuel efficient.

@@angeloquattrociocchi5487 I must disagree, any imbalance requires trim action and more drag from control surfaces. Perfect state is when static and dynamic CoG are placed together. Of course aft heavy aircraft is more safe than nose heavy.

@@adamw.8579 When the CofG is forward, the elevator is trimmed such that the tail produces extra downward force. This adds to the weight of the airplane so the total amount of lift that must be generated by the wings to maintain level flight must be increased. That results in higher angle of attack and therefore higher drag in cruise, leading to the reduced fuel efficiency (increased fuel consumption). Also, aft-heavy definitely doesn't make an aircraft more safe than nose-heavy. It's the opposite.

@@angeloquattrociocchi5487 You got point. I don't count this factor. But anyway forward CoG is seen as risky configuration, slightly aft heavy is common used.

So sad that the controller has to bear the guilt of this incident because of a person that made a series of egregiously bad decisions. I hesitate to even consider the person in the left seat of this plane a pilot. I prefer to think that pilots make good decisions and keep themselves and their passengers safe.

He did everything right and gave the pilot at least a sliver of hope. But no luck that day, and way too many grievous pilot errors.

I was hired for ATC but I was disqualified due to my vision. Still, I have remained interested in ATC and aviation. I’ve run scenarios in my head, regarding emergencies. I feel for your friend. 😰

Please tell your friend that he went well beyond his duty trying to save that Seneca.Even a nogyro approach is an almost impossible task for a non Ifr certified pilot.The ceiling was also almost below an Ils cat 1 approach.Trying to go in visual was just a lottery….Very sad,but the controller did a hell of a job.It‘s just that the pilot got himself into an impossible situation.Best regards from Spain.

@@davewilson9772 Those Controlles did excellent job in trying to save that suicidal pilot from his ultimate fate... There is nothing wrong done on their side.

@G Galilei Thank you, me lord! Where would humanity be without your sage one-liners?

I’d be more worried about the people driving on the road! Crazy people out there

Well I have seen people drive right into the house right up to the bed where my neighbour was sleeping.

It reflects poorly on all pilots. But at the end of the day we're all human.

On Average, there is at least one aviation death every day in the United States(From NTSB 2018 data). Someone 'like this' is almost always flying somewhere. Sad but true.

@diddle the poodle It's not "stupid". Overloading the plane was stupid. But, that didn't cause the accident. His over-confidence and lack of experience did. By the time he was on the radio being talked in to land, he was scared, confused and blind. Unable to think straight and follow pretty clear and simple instructions. That's a sign of stress. It can paralyze you. Suddenly, you're dealing with life and death IN your hands, and you freeze up. The mind races. You can't focus. He was doing the exact opposite of what he was being told to do. He was gone already. Just lost.

I think the certification is good, but a common theme seems to be flying in poor weather conditions.

I think as a part of VFR training, perhaps the testing syllabus should have students know how to shoot an RNP approach. Just one approach.

​@@mtadc1545That's a good point... but there is already a lot to learn in the basic private pilot's course. Learning how to read approach plates, set up the avionics and learning to fly on instruments at the skill level needed to fly such approaches takes an entire instrument course to learn, let alone master. Maybe a quick overview of a basic approach would help in private pilot training but I think it should be separated like it is now.

GronScott LOL I don’t know how I happened to randomly read this comment only 13h after you made it in response to a 1y old comment, but I got a good laugh. However I don’t entirely agree. This pilot was a fool, the ATC asked if he can fly IFR which he could not. Yet, he replied “Yes”. There is no excuse for that.

We should call people names but as commented he was out of his depth, his biggest problem was NO planning, how do you just take off without looking at the weather and flying that distance without a flight plan? Then his casual radio edicate was odd as well numerous times he would relay back with call sign just odd. Just looking at that flight track around the airport go out take a long straight final but he could fly a heading.

You are right

Im consern about new pilots flying passengers Jets. They are now cockpit adminstratore. They take off and indmidiatly engage autopilot. They dont fly anymore.

He sure was!😡

+Sea Dog I would have reported his butt to the FAA pronto. Those rental operators only care about profit. You did the right thing in changing planes.

+Sea Dog same here. I'd just never even get off the ground unless I was 110% sure I could do it safely in every conceivable respect. Only got this one life and no more free respawns. I find it odd people take their lives so much for granted when they pull stupid stunts like these

It's okay to practice landing with trim tabs only, but you certainly want to have the elevator working while you're doing it! Just in case you can't!

On my ATP check ride, just about the only time both fans were turning was when I was asked to land without touching the control wheel. You're right, it can be done but it wasn't exactly my smoothest landing.....lol.

While performing my preflight one hot day I moved the elevator and was immediately covered up with wasps. Needless to say I didn't fly that day. I agree it is best to balance reason for and against flying. Some things don't even need questioning.

Yeah and if he didn't say he could fly instrument landing maybe they could have got him on the ground.

You should never refer to them as 'accidents', accidents are totally unavoidable, this was 100% avoidable.

Not just with pilots, I’ve known many a motorcycle rider who didn’t have the skills to safely operate on a congested road or highway and ended up buying way too much bike and it not going well for them.

@@ynotnilknarf39 nothing happens by accident. "Accident" is a subjective perspective-based judgment that necessarily arises because of limited information. In this case, the pilot did not mean to kill himself and his friends. However, he did do this and it happened solely as a result of his actions. This contradiction is what makes this an accident. As opposed to a multiple-murder-suicide.

@@Dunkaroos248 Same here... There's a thread I made in here that has quite a bit of arguing going on in it. While I'm not a real-world pilot, just an experienced flight-simmer with maybe 3 hours of real world logged flight time, I am an experienced motorcycle rider. I can't tell you how often I see other riders who are nowhere near ready for the bike they're on, or to even be riding on certain roads...But they go on day trips or ride in heavy traffic, or otherwise constantly make bad decisions and it's never a question of "if" but "when". Sooner or later if you're doing dumb things, you're going to get a bad result....that's just how it works and unfortunately it only takes one. Those bad riders don't think like that though, they think because nothing ever happened before that nothing will happen in the future, then you read about them in the paper.

@@ynotnilknarf39 Stupid comment

Yea it's sad but the plane was set up for disaster. Flying overweight on a long cross country in winter weather without any real instrument experience......atc can only help so much 😞

ATC did an impeccable job of trying to get him on the ground. They even set up an ASR approach on their initiative. They just couldn't do more...

ATC is often dissed and if or when you get between the rocks and a hard place they are the best friends you never met. The very best of we featherless birds think of them as family with damn good reason.

I think of ATC as guardian angels for wise pilots in wrong circumstances.

DoD: I can't feel sorry for someone who couldn't be bothered to check his fuel. That's something we're all in the habit of doing in our cars.

In the midwest mind you. I'm in So Cal and I got my instrument immediately after private.

Ask his CFI.

@@eagle6754 FAA sure will.

Eagle 6 DPE*

What's the proper radio protocol for, "I am stupid and don't know how to safely fly."?

@@lazurm Even a 20 hour student pilot knows when ATC is giving you headings to fly you are getting vectors, clearly, this guy couldn't follow directions and his constant request for what he was already getting showed he was not only incompetent but was unable to clearly communicate. I suspect his 2200 was spent flying in the pattern.

10 miles in a C-150 is a long flight even when NOT in an emergency situation!

I thought same!

I agree.

Well, he didn't survive, after all.

You can if you stick strictly to clear weather and short flights. He probably never experienced adverse weather and got complacent about checking weather. I've seen pilots get an attitude about people questioning them about prep work before.

Another possible explanation for poor decision-making and behavior. Somewhere I read that half or more of all private plane crashes and deaths involved "flying while intoxicated". Take a great pilot, get them drunk, and see how great is his or her decision-making and behavior (piloting skills). Not saying this was the case here, but given the statistics... maybe could be. Also note that less-than-legally drunk (for DUI purposes) still has consequences, and that blood levels fall over time. Which means, it would be higher when fundamentally stupid decisions were made back at the start of the whole process, including the decision to fly at all. Oh, and don't discount the effects of prescription drugs too.

the sound of impending death

SAME! Such a haunting sound. Damn. :-(

The aircraft collided with the terrain

An overweight car can have handling problems as well.

Agree, very distressing for the ATC operatives. These videos are excellent, I am not a pilot, and no plans to be one, but sadly they are very useful for training pilots.

These were not mistakes, they were errors. Deliberate incorrect actions

GA Flying I am a new VFR. 10hrs. I am passing judgment as myself coming off as high and mighty at all. Judging of the communication alone (or lack there of). Or coming into a situation with the “eh, it will be fine” is scary. Yes I’ve ran out gas before as a new kid driver, but I am not going to plummet thousand of feet and endanger lives.

He must've been a fake. Maybe did some flight simulators and then pretended he knew how to fly a plane.

@@SusanKay- After few hours in FSX I have logged pretty good flight on IFR flight plan using AP for route and approach. It's simpler as looks. This idiot didn't even read his aircraft manual.

Adam W. As an instrument rated private pilot trust me... being in IMC feels a lot different in the plane than sitting in front of your TV screen. Your body telling you one thing but your instruments telling you another.

He was, well, unable.

@@Raison_d-etre he sorta didn’t believe the controller, that’s what liars do, they think because they’re a habitual liar, which this “pilot” seems if he moved his lips or blinked he was lying, others are lying. I’ve flown sims with weather complications set to max and the plane trying to move forward pitched and yawed at every angle to move forward. I crashed my plane but it was such one could walk away. His plane could fly into those conditions though not ideal with a trained pilot so the only reason he didn’t follow a damn instruction was he didn’t want to... fulfilling the obvious thing being he was a total asshole. Sad he took people with him but for the pilot good riddance.

By training in a simple airplane at a school that was more worried about getting his business than teaching him how to be a good pilot.

Makes you wonder how many other "pilots" like this are out there.

He was not IFR qualified, that's what brought him down, a plus 2000 hours total VFR pilot could not say "I can not go on with this, please help me" instead he said he could take an IFR clearance and killed everyone onboard!

@@redpunk So true. He's obviously rich enough to take 5 lives in his plane, so the school must've loved his money and loved it enough to turn a blind eye.

@David Erickson agreed!

Where did you go wrong at? Wasn’t watching altitude and dropped or wind drift into higher terrain?

Something to do with wind correction angle. I was holding altitude and heading. I’ll only fly on Sunny days!

Dominican Omar always remember one thing if you get to fly. You can recover your ego after a mistake. You can not recover lives lost.

Too old.. it's too late to start flying. What were u doing last 25 years?

I'm an IT guy, but this is no different than tragedies on Mt. Everest, or people who hike into wilderness without experience. As an adult, it helps you learn better decision making, stress control/response, and impulse control. You'll enjoy life more and not die due to incompetence or obstinacy. Wisdom is learning from the mistakes of others. Less than a year ago a woman from MA went to Arizona and dehydrated to death on a half-day hike; her "date" left her to descend alone although she felt woozy.

A VFR flight plan is optional. It assists search and rescue crews if you get lost with no comms. Not filing one was the least of this guy's crimes.

@@alk672 thanks for that information. i didnt know it was optional and i binge watch aviation regularly. im saving my pennies for a discovery flight in march.

@@daddy4739 go for it, never heard of anyone who regretted doing it. Heard of plenty of people who regretted not doing it :)

@@alk672 thanks for the encouraging wods. im more pumped up now😀

@@daddy4739 you should be, it’s awesome. If you do decide to go for it - make sure you have enough money/time/etc to finish it - and then never stop until you get it. As long as you don’t stop halfway - it will be a positive outcome overall.

No rating, don't feel bad at all. Guy is trash, I feel bad for the innocent passengers who didn't understand how complicated flying is and trusted their friend.

This man was feeling, what comes.

Obviously he made a lot of mistakes, but you are jumping to conclusions, an emergency is ,,an emergency..it does not matter how he got into it. It is the unknown that kills.Very easy for the rest of us to judge. He declared an emergency - therefore he knew his limits. The video suggests him as ignorant - maybe to make a point, but I am not that sure. he managed to fly VFR into IMC and the accident happened because he stroke power lines. Loss of life leaves deep marks every time.We should be more respectful.

XYZ Aerial I'm not going to argue against your rebuttal to my post and you're right about the Monday morning quarterback thing. I will point out that the point of these videos is to learn so people don't get in over their heads while flying. And no, I'm not being disrespectful at all, I wanted that pilot to land his airplane safely. Did any of my suggestions not make sense?

4 onboard were pilots - belonged to the Polish Flying club.

My primary instructor insisted that I learn how to make ILS approaches as a student pilot. He was an x Navy F-14 pilot and a hard ass however lol. I could hold commercial standards before testing for my private. Your instructor matters! He'd bitch me out for being 50ft off my altitude or 3 degrees off heading. In hindsight I'm glad he was a hard ass because if my weather went to shit I would have landed that plane like a boss, even at 60 hours TT.

SpaXpert, well that explains it. "Insert Pollock joke here." ;)

That's why I love this channel!!!

+SGTSnakeUSMC He also sounds slower and slower the more this drags out - you'd think the adrenaline would raise awareness level, not diminish it. But since the NTSB didn't say anything about that in their report, I guess the blood sample was clean...

+SGTSnakeUSMC Plus there was another pilot on board. I'm not a pilot but I've logged a few hours worth of lessons and even I wouldn't have tried to do any of the stupid stuff this idiot did. Not check the weather while doing cross country over mountains without IFR certification? What?!

he was impaired by his stupidity. As you imply, the gene pool is better off without him but not the innocent passengers who were taken in by this idiot.

SGTSnakeUSMC he’s just a street shitter. His 2200 hrs were likely made up. Just another dishonest poo in loo

@@HerveBoisde "I'm not a pilot but I've logged a few hours worth of lessons and even I wouldn't ..." Of *course* you would not do such stuff, you know after all that you are incompetent and not God's gift to the world of planes. It's not that the pilot thought he might not be able to do it --- the pilot was unable to consider non-good outcomes (bad weather, not enough visibility, fuel reserves, ...) because he was way overconfident and _knew better_ than the smart-arses who determined maximum load and allowable centre of mass positions. After all, it worked before, so they were clearly wrong. Nothing could happen to this God's gift to planes ... Unskilled and unaware of it.

+2008Flyboy I agree. I dont understand people who fly lots of xc without an instrument rating, especially if you are flying long xc's in a twin. It's only a matter of time before weather closes in on you.

+2008Flyboy I'm not a pilot but I dont understand why anyone but a casual flier would not have instrument rating. Is it that difficult and expensive?

it's about as expensive as getting your pilots license is. Around 10k

+Herve B It's not that difficult, but does require more commitment, especially to stay proficient. Cost varies greatly dependent on the individual and if you choose 141 or 61. Lots of variables in the cost factor.

Nick Manning why get rated when you can just SAY you’re rated?

Done that myself, it was a PAR. Heading and altitude call outs from the controller. I said nothing during the whole thing. I'm not sure that would have helped the Seneca pilot as he was outside the Center of Gravity limits. Very difficult to control the aircraft even in nice weather.

Raoul Cruz .... Yes, with you .... you say nothing on a GCA, just do what is given to you and I don't know about you but I found it very draining .... but very satisfying and I reckon it should be part of the PPL syllabus, i.e. compulsory before getting a licence. Yes he was overweight and c of g was a few inches out .... surely, a higher minimum and approach speed would deal with this. Well, I believe it would but he needed to be aware that higher speeds were required. We're only talking between (a guess) 5 to 10 knots difference in these minimum / approach speeds. He should have replied to ATC that he wasn't IFR rated but could likely handle a surveillance approach. He should have been able to do that with so many hours! If he'd climbed to 2500 feet and maintained a heading of 170 degrees as instructed he'd have been fine if he'd followed all instructions. He was multi-engine rated .... more than I am and I, probably like you, would have landed safely in my single engine PA28. A very sad affair .... he was completely out of his depth but should not have been given his experience. To be honest I find it difficult to believe that he had 2000 hours.

Raoul ... sorry, forgot to ask, what is a PAR?

Precision Approach Radar, it's a GCA type approach,they give heading and distance callouts and your position in relation to an imaginary glidepath (same glidepath as the ILS). In the video, the Huntington controller is trying to give the pilot a SAR approach but, it's obvious the pilot was not capable of following simple heading instructions. Sad indeed.

Yes, kind of intense but, very satisfying to 'pop out' of the low clouds and see the runway ahead.

Yes, on the ground all you have to do is stop. In the air you have to get to the ground, the plane will always find the ground, the question is will you be in control when it happens. I hope you old car gave you many more years, I love the old cars. I think i typed this to feal less sad and angry.

That instrument thing boggles my mind.....

If you are going to survive as a pilot you should RESPECT and avoid IMC even with an instrument rating. Fully competent pilots die in icing condition all the time.

IMC is not fine if you have no training or experience by flying without reference to the ground and cannot scan the instruments properly and interpret them readily for your orientation and direction of flight.

Night flying is the most peaceful and less stressful time to fly. The sky's are empty and the airports easy to see all lit up on the ground.

with an instrument rating, his added confidence he'd probable have only lasted a few hundred hours..... read the Nall report. Most weather accidents involve pilots with an instrument rating.

Either way he was doing an approach