Flight Instructor Gets Student Killed! 

Calling the student "slow" and "Forest Gump" is telling so much more about the instructor than the student. None of this was the students fault RIP.

I feel so bad for that student pilot. Spending his last hours trapped in a plane with a bully on a smartphone.

The father of "Jr" shows exactly why Jr was such a POS. Making excuses and calling bad behavior "demanding excellence" for him rather than teaching them the right way.

I had a flight instructor like that once but I stood up to him and told him off. Then I filed a complaint with other students and he lost his CFI privileges. Don’t ever get in a vehicle or plane with someone you don’t trust your life with

"1.6 hours into the flight of me giving it to him straight up" So the last 2 hours of this kid's life was just non-stop bullying.

My first flight instructor was not someone I would describe as a "nurturer", and he eventually recommended that I find a new hobby. That was in 1975. I eventually found a new CFI and recently retired after 43 years as a professional pilot.

Junior displayed the class and humility you would expect from a kid whose dad was a serial enabler.....

Imagine calling someone slow while you don't know the difference between "are" and "our" 😂

The way the CFI's dad defended the behavior of his son tells me that "Junior" was probably never held accountable for any of his mistakes growing up.

Unfortunately, junior’s dad’s attitude is very telling. Rest in Peace

Retired major airline Captain here. 40 years in the business. Flew every jet Boeing made until the the 787. Retired flying the B-777-300. Taught new hire co-pilots, Captain upgrades and pilot aircraft transitions at my major carrier. I promise you this, in my generation of major airline aviators "Junior" was exactly the kind of pilot that we would never hire. And if he did manage to somehow get through the interview, he never would have made it through new hire pilot school with us. We had a "Jr." there several years ago who as a new hire co-pilot during his final simulator check ride for graduation decided to text message his buddies during the ride. He was told twice to put the phone away but he kept texting anyway. The check ride was stopped and he was fired.

Researched a bit on the crash and the NTSB report. It just got suckier. The CFI 'Junior' was all of 22 years old. From a news article where daddy is so proud of son in Dec 2022, Junior was still working on becoming a CFI. It took mere months for him to kill a student. The person he managed to kill was 18! This is grotesque.

I feel awful for the student pilot. He did not deserve this flight instructor’s lack of professionalism. It cost him his life 😥

I’m just glad Jr. never made it behind he wheel of a commercial plane. It’s a tragedy that he took a innocent student with him.

Junior’s parents raised a mess of a son, unleashed him on unsuspecting students and then defended his terrible actions. RIP to the student. What a roller coaster of emotions that student went through. The abuse then fear then death with that monster . So sad

I *was* a student with ATP and I told my wife on many occasions that the flight instructors were like the walking dead. They were overworked and focused solely on time-building. They were (almost) all under the age of 24 and just wanted to get one student out of the way so they could get back in the aircraft with the next student. With a couple of exceptions, none were mature enough to handle the job but they *were* booksmart. I left the program just before my commercial checkride because my instructor became belligerent during a flight when I had trouble mastering the Lazy 8. I picked up my training a week later with a Mom-n-Pop flight school and after a few flights with an older flight instructor (early 30’s) who wasn’t hellbent on time-building, I aced my commercial checkride. After leaving ATP I learned that many of the ways the program teaches students are frowned upon by the flight school community at large. I have heard from many ex-ATP students who were kicked out or left of their own accord, that they were treated better and learned much more at small, traditional flight schools. My experience at ATP was not entirely negative per se and I did learn a lot during my time with them, but the reality is that ATP is a high-priced pilot-factory churning out a product. The students are expected to keep a low profile, hurry up and learn the maneuvers, pass the checkrides (two failures and you’re out on your ear), graduate the 30-day CFI academy and, in turn, they are then expected to teach (the same way they were taught) the next batch of students coming through the pipeline. We frequently had only six instructors for 40 students, so fatigue amongst the CFI’s was noticeable. It is a finely honed curriculum designed to make the most money in the shortest amount of time legally allowed, regardless of the toll it takes on students and instructors, mentally, physically and financially. Unfortunately, “Junior” was one of those ATP flight instructors who was not mature enough for the responsibility of teaching another student but had checked all the boxes that ATP requires. His attitude toward his student should have been a red flag at any traditional flight school with at least one experienced, mature person at the helm. But at ATP, the students become the leadership at each location. It really seemed like the inmates were running the asylum. They’re all the same young age, all buddies, and “real” leadership is sometimes hundreds of miles away. For instance, I studied at an ATP location in Northern California and our regional manager was in Phoenix, Arizona, so there was no one around to check attitudes and watch for cracks forming within the localized system. Sadly, it seems like this may have been a contributing factor in this video as well. Maybe a mature person would have seen the incompatibility between. “Junior” and his student pilot, or maybe even recognized that “Junior” didn’t yet possess the maturity or even capacity to teach-we all know some people aren’t cut out to be a teacher. But failing that, an innocent student pilot lost his life because his instructor created an environment where the student likely felt he couldn’t speak up, and was knowingly or unknowingly mocked on social media moments before their unnecessary deaths. I’ll let you decide for yourself who is ultimately at fault for this tragedy.

"We demand excellence and professionalism"...like snapchatting as an instructor during a critical phase of flight? Like that? Like knowingly hosting underage drinking parties, etc? Like that? Such excellence and professionalism, huh?

He “demands professionalism” but his social media shaming of the student is the exact opposite of that. He should have demanded professionalism from himself first and foremost.

That Junior had the communication and people skills of the average League of Legends player. No way I want to be in a cockpit with that much toxicity.

I grew up being bullied, sitting next to an instructor that is constantly posting negative comments would be impossible not to notice what the instructor was doing. And all the while berating the student for the past 2 hours is bullying. Theres no two ways about it. Junior doesnt deserve any form of respect even deceased. The student I feel a lot of pain for, sitting there flying watching and listening to the instructor. This is where cockpit recordings should be compulsory. Clearly juniors father encouraged bullying as he himself is a bully. People blame the system but the reality is junior was a bully before even going for piloting. You dont become a bully over night.

Couldn’t agree more. This is exactly what I have been talking about as “unintended secondary effects” of the 1500h rule. Focus on quality of training and NOT quantity. That way we can keep non-appropriate pilots out of the flight-schools as well.

The flight school has a responsibility not to hire immature instructors too. Just because someone has the instructor certificate doesn't make them a decent instructor.

Good leaders don't "demand" professionalism from others, they role model it through their own behaviour. Junior obviously never had that example from his father.

Sobering video, I took lessons from a great instructor who definitely was not a time builder. He was tough but thorough. I decided to stop after 34 hours, due to economic reasons but it was a great experience. I retired from the Air Force as a Weather Forecaster and now work as an Aviation Weather Observer at my local airport. Videos like these remind me of how important accurate METARs are to aviation. I take my job very seriously.

Junior's namecalling is a good indication he wasn't very bright.

As a CFI for over 40 years - I agree with you 100%. There is no place in flight instruction for bullies. I don’t know what Jr was like in person, but his social media speaks volumes.

That genius can't even spell Forrest. The student wasn't the dullest knife in that drawer. You caught the "are" instead of "our" as well.

I’m the Chief Training Instructor at Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit in England. This is a brilliant video, thanks for having the courage to speak the truth. I’m going to show it to my race school team. We have the same ‘type’ in motorsport. I’m also a heli. and fixed-wing pilot. This is the worst kind of instructor - the whole story - and his posts - are appalling. The system is broke, but that does not excuse such a toxic attitude. RIP student 😢 - your bad luck to be assigned Jnr. So many lessons to be learned here. When I started flying I refused to have the ‘hour builders’ - because I knew intuitively they were instructing for ‘the wrong reasons’. Always insist on people with a genuine interest in people. Same on the racetrack. The only reason you would post stuff like that is to make yourself feel better about yourself. If you had genuine confidence in your abilities, you never would. End of.

That instructor was a total failure in every sense. My heart breaks for the student who was spending time, money and effort to chase a dream and absolutely did not deserve to encounter and fly with "junior". RIP buddy, I'm sorry how it turned out for you.

I've literally been going thru personality issues with an instructor and a couple days ago decided to move on and find another instructor, knowing it will cost me time and money to start up again with someone else. This incident helps me confirm my decision.

I feel terrible for the student. Also It’s wild to me that a Felon can get a Pilots License, but because I was diagnosed by the VA said I have PTSD from my Afghanistan deployment in the Marine Corps I don’t qualify for an FAA Medical

Thank you for posting this video. It made me angry as well because my first instructor also used to cus and swear at me when I didn't do things right. This was 4 hrs into my training. I switched instructors after that and before I agreed to go flying with them I assured them that I was there to learn and if I would be cussed at for any reason at all I would land the plane and he or she would be fired because they work for me.. The very first instructor I ever talked to told be, bragging, he had made a lot of pilots but not many friends. That told me that the system has been broken for a long time. Thank you for your work, keep it up!!

As an ex RAF Flight Instructor I always remembered that any student I flew was never deliberately doing anything other than their best.

Thank you. I had an abusive instructor when I was a student, it really made it difficult and I almost gave up. Thinking back I now realize that time building and criticizing were his only goals. I finally found a great instructor down in Destin Florida, and went on to become a flight instructor myself.

Agree 100% I just found this channel and it is now DEFINITELY my favorite channel.

Any "flight instructor" posting crap like that on social media should be fired immediately! I have a "zero tolerance policy" when it comes to flying. Flight is "defying Gravity". Root word "Grave". Grave = Very Serious Grave = You're Dead. Flying should always be treated as a "sacred" thing that should not be trifled with in any way. Avoid flying with anyone that treats it as anything less, at all costs.

Whoever approved "Junior" to be a CFI needs to be investigated. Absolute lack of any qualities required to be a pilot let alone an instructor

Wow poor student. That CFI had a nasty attitude. And his family’s attempt to salvage juniors lasting image and blaming the student is just mind blowing.

All your debriefs are excellent -- thorough, thoughtful, insightful. Thank you for trying to keep us safe! It must be a downer to investigate so many deadly accidents but the flip side is you're saving lives.

People like Junior were one of the reasons that I did not continue on with my private pilot's license. There were too many egotistical instructors who thought they were superior/walked on water. I couldn't see myself paying to be enclosed in a small cockpit with a$$holes like this. I instead invested the money in an MBA which has served me better in my life. Love your reviews, Hoover!

I have been a instructor for 30 plus years, I could not even finish watching this, breaks my heart.

Junior and his Dad seem like real jerks and bullies. The attitude from Junior towards the student was abusive and terrible.

Thank you for your insight. I was a CFI for years and I loved teaching. The time builders were the worst. I’ve been flying an Airbus for 7 years, but miss instructing.

Honestly I'm not losing sleep over the fact this dude is no longer an instructor. I can't imagine how devastated the students family must be. I hope they get some sort of compensation

It’s quite scary to think Junior could have been responsible for hundreds of lives one day.

Really appreciate your debriefs, you are always so respectful while not holding back the facts. I was truly amazed at the behavior of Jr, I can't imagine being a student with that kind of hostility being directed towards me AND put out on social media. I'm not a sensitive human at all in the sense I don't get bothered by people's feelings about me, they are either true which means I do some soul searching, or they are false which makes them another useless opinion. But this would have rattled the cage of any young man in that situation. Truly terrible that was his last hours of life, having another man bully and belittle him. Jr's dad shows the environment his son was raised in. Lack of accountability.

20 years ago my only instructor was 89, had flown a B-17 in WWII, loved that guy! He would be frustrated with me early on, trying to land, I was way too stiff. He grabbed to controls, banked it back and forth hard, saying, "it's not going to fall out of the sky! Dammit! take control of it!" lol, never forgot that. and always greased landing after that also!

Junior can’t write well enough to make fun of someone else’s intelligence. The Dunning Krueger school of flight is not a good one.

my flight instructor was 23, just graduated university with a aeronatics degree. To this day, he was the most professional, knowledgable, flying prodigy i've ever met, and it was a pleasure and honor to learn from him.

Hey Hoover, another excellent presentation here, as always. I wanted to echo your suggestion to read the article you linked in description, because it’s fantastic. Thank you, sir.

I have just discovered your channel this week. It's GREAT!

wow i’m not even 5 minutes into this video and i’m already disgusted. i don’t fly but i’m a paramedic student and i can’t even imagine how i would feel if i found out my preceptor was taking videos and making fun of me like this behind my back during training. this poor student didn’t deserve any of this. RIP ❤

It sounds like Junior is a chip of the old block. Senior's comments don't inspire any confidence in his judgement.

Great videos Hoover, I do like them. Keep up the good work. Just want to chime in on the whole "time building" issue with instructors briefly. Part of that problem is in the 1500 hour rules meant to make pilots safer and more proficient come time to apply at the airlines. What this has done though, is box low time pilot graduates from these schools, into a corner where about the only job they can get is being an instructor until they reach 1500 hours. It's the great irony of this fairly new rule. So you have a guy that comes out of school maybe with 300 hours tops now turning around and teaching 0 time student pilots. It's a recipe for disaster. Vs what used to be the case, you had guys instructing who basically wanted to and were generally more proficient at it who had other options but chose this career at least for a while. This is by no means an indictment on all low time instructors, some will go on and have great careers and are smart, diligent people. But in life, there are tradeoffs. The FAA has, by virtue of this new rule, deemed this is worth it. Certainly not their goal I realize but it's the trade off here. Unfortunately, my guess is this will get worse before it gets better and subsequently addressed. The bigger irony of the 1500 hour rule is it came off the heels of the Colgan Air crash where both pilots were well over 1500 hours of experience. I believe the F.O. was at about 2500 and the Captain was north of 3000 hours.

When someone is calling someone else and idiot it’s just trying to cover up that they are the idiot instead

I was such a slow student. My CFI understood that I was doing this for a hobby and that I like to master a skill before moving to the next. I thoroughly enjoyed the slow pace. My CFI was very supportive and patient, and made extra money too since I spent so many hours with him. I cannot imagine having an instructor like the one in this video, or if he called me Forest. How unprofessional. That CFI had no business being a flight instructor, and shouldn't have even been allowed near a plane with a personality/attitude like that. This accident was not the student's fault.

How tragic it would be to know your loved one/child/partner was stuck up in the sky with this abomination of a human by his side for his final moments. Utterly devastating.

Great channel!!!! I kook forward to every video.

Excellent video!! It's so sad about the loss of life. (RIP) Please keep up the great work!!! ✌

Moral of this very, very sad story: if you should ever see your flight instructor banging away at their phone during a flight, immediately return to the airport and find another flight instructor.

Maybe it's for the best this "instructor" didn't make it to the majors. With his attitude, we might have seen a worse disaster on the news. Condolences to all affected. Especially the student's family and friends.

You are a good man. Thank you for your professionalism. ( Could talk about my flight experience but that's not relevant. ) Keep going!

Your incredible at teaching the underlying points that somany miss THANKS

If he was shaming his best friend publicly it'd be a dirty thing to do, but a guy putting his trust in him and PAYING him?! Speechless

As a flight instructor for many years I am absolutely speechless.

Thanks for the video

Thanks !!! Just found your channel !

My CFI is literally 19yo but he is so mature and professional. This situation is disgusting and so tragic.

I land at BWG all the time out of JWN, this hit close to home and is also a terrible tragedy. That poor student didn’t deserve this and the instructors friends and family defending him are clueless.

I am so glad you are showing this video and explaining exactly how this Jerk of a person who should have never been allowed to have been flying anybody around and seeing picture of him with his father you can just see these guys have been Bully’s the father getting on and saying anything other then apologizing for his son and saying it was ok for his son to be a jerk and bully on social media his bully son if he has any estate should be sued by this innocent students family!

Makes me very thankful for the excellent CFI's my husband and I have had. The broken system and this horrible CFI got this student killed- just awful!

It is absolutely mind blowing that the instructor is just posting on Snapchat while on the job. Not just posting on Snapchat, but making fun of his student for everyone to see. I’m realized surprised there’s not more comments about that. That’s crazy! How can he even think that’s remotely ok?

RIP to the student, shame on that unprofessional instructor.

As somebody looking for my first CFI right now, I will be sure as hell to watch out for any signs of a bad instructor like this. Thanks for teaching us all how to stay alive up there!

Sheesh…The proverbial, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” The way you articulate your thoughts & opinions, Hoover, is captivating. 👊🏽

Well, on a positive note, Junior won't be teaching anyone else to fly.

Junior and his father seem like real class acts. Shame his dad wasnt in the left seat instead of the poor student.

Excellent and sensitive analysis, perfectly highlighting the systemic problems with civil aviation in the US right now. Really well done 👍

Great video and yes, social-media can be a real "sewer" at times!!!

The father did a great job of explaining to all of us why his son was so toxic. Not trying to speak ill of the dead.. Just pointing out that he probably missed a few steps teaching his son discipline, considering he's talking about accountability with the student pilot while completely looking past the fact that his son botched his only reason for being there.

I had a situation just like this. My 3rd flight instructor berated me for every mistake (mostly minor mistakes) I made and made me very angry, but I never said anything because I struggled with confidence at the time. On our last flight together he got mad at me for asking a question, and I was so angry with him that I nearly made a fatal mistake on a go around at a busy airport. I was so irritated with the instructor that I forgot to put my 10 degrees of flaps up and was close to a stalling the airplane. After recovering from that I nearly turned into traffic on the downwind leg. Got a better instructor later and the bad instructor was fired 6 months later. Lack of assertiveness is one of the dirty dozen in fatal accidents. Make sure to speak up in these types of situations. Look for red flags like this in flight instructor. It may save your life.

great channel. AF vet NDI background. F-15s was my first frame I worked on at RAF Lakenheath. Get up the content!!

Love what u do here and even though the profession is different I 100% agree with ur point. Retired trauma nurse here. In my day school was grewling. Then a shortage happened and schools began focusing on passing boards over actual knowledge of the body and disease. I’ve witnessed things that r so wrong yet nobody cares. So many of these areas. It’s a scary corner cutting instant world and it’s dangerous.

I hope the student’s family have a good attorney. That flying school should never have let that ‘instructor’ in a plane with a student. All my instructors were supportive and informative. They never said a disparaging word or displayed demeaning gestures. They were all professionals.

It is...rich...for the (supposed) father to say "We demand excellence and professionalism" when his "son" shows neither by taking personal videos and posting them to "Snapchat" while he is being PAID to be a CFI.

Thank you for your service!

How many FAA accidents investigation reports have we seen where a hostile cockpit was a contributing factor to crash!!! Joking or not "Jr" demonstrated juvenile behavior. Thank you Hoover for another thoughtful analysis 🫡

Im so so sorry for the student that he got such a irresponsible, incompetant, mean- boy "instructor". Mean-boy's carelessness killed them both. Good recap Hoover.

I’m an instrument rated private pilot and live about 35 miles east of the crash site. My son is an FO for a major and flies a 737. We were absolutely stunned that these two even attempted this trip. After days and days of perfect fall VFR weather, on this date the weather was a no go for night VFR. All day long the Louisville TV weather people were explaining why we’d have severe storms that evening. No way Junior didn’t know it was not the night for this trip. No way.

Bingo. Bingo. Could not possibly agree more. An excellent analysis.

I'm glad that you mentioned maturity. It was already on my mind before you mentioned Junior's age because I had seen it in some of the text in the video earlier. While I agree with you that there are 22 year olds who do have it together enough to be a flight instructor, I know I had a lot of maturing left to do when I was 22. I was a smart alec and I had a hot temper and it cost me a good job. But nobody died. Learning what I did about Junior's father in this video I feel like these two young men were victims of two broken systems; Pilot training and Junior's family

As a former CFI this one hurt. I feel so bad for the student having to deal with an instructor like that.. bottom line is this: If you don't care about whether a student learns or not, DONT BE AN INSTRUCTOR!.

Junior seems like a high school flunky that had to repeat his last year. He is as mature as a toddler resisting toilet training.

Hoover, I'm not a pilot, and do not wish to be one, but I love planes and how pilots must ensure their aircraft interact properly with the physical forces of nature. And that's why I appreciate your thoroughly knowledgeable, professional and eloquent Briefs. Thank you.

Excellent video. I have nothing to do with aviation however I have learned so much. Thank you.

Junior absolutely should never have been allowed to be an instructor. Judging by his Dad’s response, I do wonder how much his upbringing played a part, or if it was just immaturity.

2 minutes in and I'm already disgusted. That guy had no business teaching anything especially not flying. How do you get into such a position without understanding such basic concepts of decent human behaviour.

My instructor did everything with me. Beginning to end of every lesson. I started flying in 2010. He was always patient and answered questions. To this day I respect him.

Finishing my commercial rn with the intention of getting to the airlines I am simply not in a rush to get my 1500hrs. This video helped me realize the significance of my future job and I will use this story to become a better a pilot and soon to be instructor.

I'm actually friends with a guy who was friends with the deceased flight instructor. All I'm saying is he was an ATP flight instructor, and they tend to just be rushing to the airlines. The best flight instructors are the ones trying to be a good instructor. Not the ones just trying to build hours. Choose your instructor and flight school well. Don't take ANY chances.