Hello everyone. Since this video is still popular many months after I posted it I wanted to write a comment to try to answer some of the recurring questions that people have. The following questions are paraphrased and generalized from viewer comments: --- 1. "Why did you make this video? Do you hate women pilots?" A few years ago I posted a copy of a video a pilot had uploaded to RU-vid which showed some dangerous behaviors and set a bad example for others. The pilot in question got a lot of negative feedback and took the video down, but insisted he didn't do anything wrong on the flight, which is why I re-uploaded it. However, he discovered my copy and lodged a copyright complaint and got it taken down from my channel as well. That pilot was a middle aged white male. When I heard that a modestly-popular RU-vidr pilot had crashed, I watched some of her videos, having not watched them before. What I found was, well, not great. Many of her newer videos disappeared one day so I started making copies of the videos that remained. This one in particular shocked me. But other than the general impression she was disoriented, what exactly was happening in the video was actually very confusing even as a pilot. I had to watch the video numerous times, analyze the sun angle, and watch carefully which buttons she pressed on her autopilot and when she pressed them. After figuring out what was really going on, I was even more in shock. At first glance it seems like it's the autopilot malfunctioning and flying her in circles, but then I realized it was her. Once the rest of the videos were deleted from her channel, I felt it was important to preserve history. But I couldn't just re-upload a copy of her video, as that is obviously copyright infringement, and I had already dealt with that once before. Besides, even if I did, the events in the video were so confusing even to me as a pilot - other pilots might not have the patience to watch carefully and realize what was really going on, and nonpilots had even less hope of understanding it. So I added my analysis and interpretation, so others would see what I saw. And of course this made my use of her footage fair use under copyright law. This video should be a wake-up call to lazy pilots and lazy instructors. Letting standards slip, glossing over the basic fundamentals of flying, over-reliance on iPads and other electronic devices, and prematurely stepping up to more sophisticated aircraft that are above the skill level of the person flying it, are all hazards students, pilots, and instructors should watch out for. I don't hate women pilots. I hate bad pilots. I have seen great examples of good female pilots and unfortunately many examples of bad male pilots as well. Most accidents are the pilot's fault. It just so happens that this pilot plastered RU-vid with videos demonstrating a lack of skill. --- 2. "If her dad is a pilot, why doesn't he help her more?" Her dad is not a pilot, despite what you might have read or seen online. Jenny seemed to bring him along for emotional support, treating him almost like a co-pilot. Unfortunately, he was unqualified to be a copilot and Jenny's need for emotional support would have been better fulfilled by better training to increase her proficiency and confidence in basic airmanship. In fact, it probably would have benefited her to have flown by herself more. By being forced to rely on herself, she might have been more clearly able to recognize and improve deficiencies. (Maybe.) --- 3. "Isn't this her instructor's fault?" In this video, I tried to only analyze things she did incorrectly on this specific flight, which was from January 2023. I tried not to look back into the past flight training history that brought her to this point, or her later flying leading up to the crash in December (other than to say that some of the same general flaws in her airmanship seen here could have contributed). Jenny Blalock had many instructors over the years. I believe she had at least 3, and maybe as many as 5 instructors while pursuing her private pilot certificate. After this, she had a few different instructors give her high-performance and complex aircraft training and training in her Beechcraft. Then she had a few more instructors while attempting to pursue her instrument rating. I definitely believe there are problems with the quality of instruction that this pilot received. However, with having so many different instructors, and also not knowing everything about them, it is hard to judge how to assign blame. In my opinion there is plenty of blame to go around. Let's not forget the NTSB is still investigating the cause of her accident. Interviews with her instructors will probably be a part of the investigation. --- 4. "How did she pass her private pilot checkride if she was so incompetent?" Not every flight was as bad as this one. There were some flights she posted, especially older ones when she still had her Piper Cherokee, where she did a decent job of things. I believe that she was prepared for her checkride and passed it fairly. Although a private pilot flight test is not easy, it isn't necessarily difficult, either. It is quite predictable and the applicant generally knows exactly how the checkride is going to go, what maneuvers they will be asked to demonstrate, and how they will be evaluated. This is because the FAA requires examiners to strictly adhere to the document called the Airman Certification Standard, as well as an FAA order that requires checkrides to be conducted a particular way. The checkride is meant to be objective by design. If the applicant flies within the criteria specified by the Airman Certification Standard, then that person passes and receives their pilot's license. Unfortunately a student that can pass a checkride may not be capable of flying in the real world. This could be due to "teaching to the test" where the goal of the student and instructor becomes passing the checkride rather than ensuring the student becomes a competent pilot. Additionally, a private pilot practical test is only an evaluation of a person's skills at a specific point in time. Other than a "flight review" at least every 24 months, there is no requirement for a pilot to maintain the standard they displayed on test day, to practice their skills, or to use the skills they learned after they are certified. A pilot can allow their skills to become rusty or even choose not to use them at all--for example, by skipping the preflight planning they were taught when they were students. --- 5. "Was TNFlygirl a DEI candidate?" Jenny Blalock was a business owner who had enough discretionary income to afford flight training on her own accord. DEI has nothing to do with her. There is also no evidence she was pursuing a career as a professional pilot. It appears she had a lot of trouble with IFR training, and may have never got her instrument rating. --- 6. "Why doesn't she ask the control tower for help?" The airport she departed from, and the airport she is trying to go to, do not have control towers. With that said, she could indeed obtain radar assistance from Air Traffic Control and ask for help, but she is so far behind the airplane I doubt she would think to do that or could do so successfully. --- 6b. "Could she have collided with a passenger jet?" Airline aircraft have equipment called TCAS that detect the transponders of other aircraft so they can be avoided, even if the aircraft is not in communication with air traffic control. Additionally, an airline aircraft is unlikely to be flying in this particular area at her altitude. However, Jenny's lack of regard for traffic scanning did put her at risk of collision with other small private aircraft without this detection equipment. --- 7. "Why doesn't she just look at the compass? Does she not know how to use it?" She appears to be overly fixated on, and distracted by, the GPS moving map on her iPad rather than basic aircraft control. She is not maintaining directional orientation the way a pilot should because she is trying to use the iPad in its place. It would have been very simple to use her electronic heading indicator or magnetic compass to turn to a proper heading, but for whatever reason, she does not do this. --- 7b. "Why is she so obsessed with the autopilot, especially on such a short and simple flight?" To be fair, her autopilot was previously inoperative and it had just been fixed. The video right before this one shows her using it with an instructor after being repaired. I think she was looking forward to finally being able to use it after having it in the shop for a prolonged period of time. With that said, in later videos it seems that she tried to rely on it excessively rather than improving her abilities. It also appears she never fully learned how to use it properly. --- 8. "What is your background? Why are you so critical of other pilots?" I have been flying for 25 years, mainly in general aviation. I have instructed for about half of that. Just before COVID, I became an airline pilot. I am critical of other pilots for one simple reason: I want everyone, including hobbyist pilots, to fly more safely and with a higher level of professionalism. --- 9. "How is criticizing an inept pilot going to make flying safer?" The hazards present in Jenny's airmanship are not isolated to just her. While few pilots probably suffer from so many flaws all at the same time, the individual flaws are not unique to her and there are probably numerous pilots flying that exhibit at least one or a few of them. Instructors can also learn from this, to take warning signs and red flags more seriously. --- That's all for now. Thanks for watching everyone, and I hope you take a look at my other videos.
Everyone can be a pilot, but that doesn't mean everyone should be a pilot. Driving is far simpler and far more accessible and look how that goes on a daily basis. Some people are just not cut out for operating a flying vehicle and someone should have told her, especially ANY of her numerous instructors. One serious conversation, with egos aside, could have ended things VERY differently, or at least opened her eyes to her deficiencies in hopes of them being corrected before a tragedy happened.
@@m_6866Not everyone can be a Pilot , with 25.000 hours under my belt I can tell you that . Taking close family to flights is a deadly mistake also due to distractions.
She had no idea of the basics , should take way more lessons before even trying flying solo . Or just give up , some people are not capable of flying a plane, it demands not only training but some good sense of spacial orientation, being able to read instruments
Can you imagine if she mistook it for her destination airport? "Dad, we've been in the air about the right amount of time - this has to be the destination airport."
@@honey8784Most pilots don't look at the compass, they just use it to calibrate their DG every now and then and use that instead, as it will be more reliable.
I'm trying not to be judgmental, but it's hard to believe that between the two of them they couldn't clearly discern the difference between eastbound and westbound -- even with I-40 immediately below them. This is quite frankly astonishing. On a bright, sunshiny day -- if you know what time of day it is -- you HAVE to know where the sun should be and (in turn) which direction you are heading. (smh)
I thought that was a little short on the checklist you could go through all that and then maybe the regular checklist too if you wanted to kill a few minutes and tape it.
I don’t know nothing about planes, but don’t commercial airline pilots put the coordinates of the airport that they’re going to so the computer in the plane knows where to go. I know commercial planes are more sophisticated than a single engine prop. Don’t auto pilot like in this little plane just maintain your speed and altitude until you change it. Just asking.
@mkm44 Yes, autopilots in small planes are more basic than airliners but even the old ones will at least maintain your heading (aka wing levelers). The problem is you have to tell the autopilot what instrument to follow - either your GPS or NAV. I believe hers was set to NAV but she had set the coordinates in her GPS.
@@rogerwilco2that's her dad. Hes probably thinking "my daughter is about to kill me" but knows he has to try to stay calm. That or he's already been through this kinda thing with her before
@@Ultorvindex How can you be so sure they're remorseful? Maybe they are in self-protective denial about their enabling of such a tragedy. People's ability to rationalize away their responsibility in such cases might surprise you.
@@Mark-bw1wx Very true. Sad, but true. Humans (almost? all of us) are less than rational beings. We are poor judges of our own abilities. Some worse than others. #Dunning-Kruger
Surely the 40 mile trip cannot take more than 15 to 20 minutes in that Debonair . Twenty minutes into the trip and they can still see the airport of takeoff .They only had to look . I am sorry but seriously I can not imagine two people more confused trying to sort out how to reach Knoxville .Shortly after take off you could surely almost see Knoxville . Poor girl should be flying VFR and not even think of the auto pilot How come traffic control allows you to zig zag around an airport without giving instructions or enquiring what you were doing ?????
I can't believe her dad went through the flight and still got back on with her. My first reaction after surviving that would be to tell my daughter that she needs to take her courses again. Something ain't right.
@@PGHEngineer Exactly.. This is one of those I want my child to be my friend parents.. He should have told her that she wasnt ready.. Hed rather sit there in silence letting her feel good about failing, than uncomfortably help her grow. I can see she wasnt ready and and Im not even an enthusiast.. I'm sick of standards dropping for things that can impact my life.. I want to fly to see my family, do I have to worry Delta hired some bimbo girl boss with an ego that wouldnt allow her to accept that she might be putting others lives at risk?
@@nashonabo821 I understand your point and don't totally disagree. But he was 78 and she was 44? There is little to no parenting at this stage in life. A parent might offer advice but you are way past grounding them or taking their phone away. So yeah, at some point, you have done 99% of the "parenting". At that age, they should be friends also. Several people failed her through her training. But I hesitate to place blame on her Dad.
I went to a major flight academy in the states. One of the students was a model from Switzerland and absolutely gorgeous. The DPE that did her instrument check ride gushed all over her. The oral portion of her checkride lasted MAYBE 20 minutes. The DPE made almost all her ATC calls as well. Obviously making it as easy as possible for her to pass. A week later, I took my instrument checkride and went through what must’ve been a brutal 1.5 hour oral portion with the DPE. Never once made a radio call for me. I later flew with that female student and her knowledge of instrument flying was shocking. Not saying this happens all the time but pretty privilege can make certain DPEs look the other way…
I know two gorgeous pilots. I yelled at both of them, one for scud running and the other for putting the flaps up before power on a go around. It's a huge problem when everyone kisses your butt your whole life.
The fact she had absolutely no idea how to put the aircraft on her intended heading after 400 hours of flight time is inexplicable. Who signed off on her check rides? Unforgivable.
She is dependant on gpss nav mode thinking she can just let the system to its thing. She has no situation awareness of her location and her route of flight. When I started flying with an autopilot, I just used heading mode and altitude hold modes until I got really comfortable with it.
@@steven2145 I have no GPS and I do not want to be depend on Foreflight. I make sure I know where I am going before I step into the aircraft. I use headings and VFR markers and Use freeways to help me from getting lost.
@@steven2145 Unfortunately, she was dependent upon a navigational aid she had no idea how to use. The fact anyone signed off on her ticket is criminal.
I question how can someone come back to the CFI for what their student does after receiving the ticket.. The realization is, how did this student get signed off and how did this student pass the practical?
As someone who has never flown a plane, the most infuriating thing for me is that there is a large compass right there in the middle of everything. If she can't figure out all of the other electronic navigation equipment, JUST LOOK AT THE COMPASS!
Exactly. During training, my CFI would cover up all instruments (simulating vacuum pressure failure). I would have to navigate with just the compass, taking into account magnetic deviation.
I'm convinced her biggest problem is that she never learned how to navigate a car. She likely always punched in a destination on the GPS, and then followed the narrator's instructions. Never had to reason spatially about how to get anywhere. That left her woefully incapable of navigating an aircraft.
@@dafunkmonsterI've been chasing this lady around a few channels. One had some driving footage. Said a lot. Simplest example was her not even getting close to stopping the car at stop signs. I'd say you're on the right track. She owned a couple of construction related businesses too. I can imagine what the people working with her would have to say about her as a business woman.
And she posted videos of her driving in town and it’s terrifying! She was a menace all over the road. Full on blowing through stop signs and intersections, almost hitting people and generally looking like she had no care or clue as to what was going on around her. She should not have been operating and motorized vehicle in public
Yes I saw that she was driving like a lunatic telling her father oh its ok this a California stop. Im all for not driving slow but blowing stop signs and running people off the road is ridiculous. She had that same attitude in the plane. She should have never upgraded planes if she wanted to continue flying. Whoever let her leave with that plane is crazy. That plane was too much for her. Its autopilot did not have auto throttle or trim. She had to manually do that part. From what I understand because im not a pilot myself. The lights on the autopilot like trim up and down were telling her what to do to be set up correctly and she just started pressing buttons like a dial pad instead.
I kind of got the impression that she was TOO confident....she didn't seem to realize that she was screwing up and didn't get on the ball to correct things too much "I've got this" ATTITUDE
I'm screaming inside in the first few seconds of watching Jenny at the controls of this Debonair, _while still on the ground!_ She is lost and hasn't even taken off yet! When I first heard of this crash I thought "how can a _private pilot_ crash a Debonair from over 6,000 feet on a beautiful, clear VFR day?!" While this is still amazing, I now understand! She is not mentally there! There is no management of the most basic things! Altitude, direction, navigational aids, manifold pressure, RPM! She doesn't know how to operate the Garmin or the Century autopilot! The most fundamental clue to proper direction, the setting sun, she is completely oblivious to! How the _hell_ did she pass a private pilot oral exam & check ride?! You couldn't ask for an easier, more stable & forgiving airplane than a Debonair! Yes, it's a complex aircraft, but it flies almost effortlessly! To not be able to save yourself with 6,000 feet under you is astounding, yet it isn't.
I saw another channel talking about her and this incident, and they described the Debonair as being "too much plane" for her. When I saw images of the aircraft, it looked somewhat bigger than most single-engine planes I've seen before. Also, would I be mistaken to think that it was something of an antique? In that it lacked some of the more modern components that simplify the pilot's job. If these assumptions are accurate, then it seems that it was like a sixteen year-old kid getting a huge SUV for their first vehicle on top of it being an older car that doesn't have things like built-in navigation or power-steering. Oh and it's a manual transmission. And they're just naturally a terrible driver. I'm not a pilot, so I'm just trying to conceptualize this in a way that I can understand it, because I've done things like SPIE rigging and have been a passenger in small aircraft like this, but I've never had a pilot make me feel nervous like this video, despite the fact that I have no idea what they're supposed to be doing.
Whilst you’re correct that the Debonair is not a modern aircraft, her particular aircraft had reasonably modern and capable avionics installed as well as an autopilot with full navigational capabilities. Her problem (amongst many) was as that she was very unfamiliar with their use and I would go so far as to say that she would have been better off with an aircraft fitted with no avionics and just used the basics - a map, clock and compass. For your reference, perhaps imagine an elderly relative with limited driving ability and no electronic device experience at all trying to operate a Tesla.
Driving my car, I instinctively know what direction I'm headed based on the sun's direction. When I know the road is about to turn into the sun, I put my visor down without hardly thinking about it. What puzzles me is how either of these two people managed to earn enough money to buy this aircraft. I don't understand how you can be this incompetent, this bad at self-assessment, and still generate enough income to drop that kind of money on a hobby.
@@fematrailer Yes, Debonairs are older, though I wouldn't say "antique." The Debonair, or Beechcraft Model 33 was produced from 1960 to 1995 I think. The name Debonair has a bit of confusing history to me. I'm not sure if it was called "Debonair" all the way until 95? It was really just a cheaper, slower, more economical Bonanza. Yes, it's one of the larger single-engine GA airplanes, and faster. When I checked out in a Debonair I had been flying a Piper Arrow, a complex plane but smaller & slower. I found the Debonair much easier, less work & much more enjoyable than the Arrow. Maybe I just had it easy, but the FBO signed me off to rent their Debonair after only an hour flight & a brief oral. This lady was quite wealthy so I'm sure her Debonair was in superb condition and it did have nice, modern avionics, though not the latest & greatest. I can see how it could be too much airplane for some. What I noticed coming from an older Piper Arrow is the Debonair is so aerodynamically clean it was challenging to slow it down for approach. Wonderful airplane to fly!
I am glad I'm not a CFI/DPE associated with this pilot. I think it's fair to conclude that she's in over her head, but I'm just amazed given how bad this was that she actually posted this online for others to see. I appreciate the constructive tone of your video. It is important to learn from errors, and I’m genuinely sorry she and her dad ended up paying the ultimate price in her quest to fly. I also thinks this serves as a cautionary tale to be humble and realistic about your capabilities. If an instructor doesn’t sign you off for something, take it as a gift that they’re interested in your safety before they let you go by yourself. Sure there are bad Inspectors and DPEs out there, but the vast majority of examiners want to make sure you’re safe. If you get a pink slip, it’s a given that you won’t be happy, but try to really contemplate the failure and why it happened to you. RIP.
It is very easy to get complacent and feel invincible after getting your PPL. It took a very humbling flight review to get me back into the mindset of being careful and that I'm still learning.
@@Rhaspun I've seen comments where people did, but her response was pretty much along the lines of, "Yeah, maybe, but I'll get better, I'm trying my best." Well, she didn't get better...
“I turned this off, accidentally, and I don’t know how to turn it back on” says a lot about her competency to fly a plane 🤦🏻♀️ how can one be so utterly careless about their and others lives? It’s sad that a tragedy has struck first before anyone managed to notice her incompetence and take away her license.
I just don't understand how anyone would attempt to use something like a navigational instrument feeding into the autopilot without having read the manual and practiced using it on the ground. I'd know the ins and outs of that thing before I ever trusted it enough to feed navigational info to the autopilot. And if I were flying in a plane I just bought, one that I had very few hours in, doing a straight-line trip from one airport to another, I'd forget about anything other than, perhaps, altitude or heading hold. Hell, I'd probably just leave the autopilot off and fly the plane manually for the experience and the fun of it. I don't understand the desire to hand everything off to the autopilot. Isn't controlling altitude, heading, attitude, etc. part of the fun of flying?
Just seeing her turning her head to the left and focusing all her attention on her iPad whilst IN a right turn is insane. She's not even looking into the turn
I started taking pilot lessons but then stopped. I realized that it is not just a "hobby" but a very deadly serious business...and I didn't have the time to devote to becoming a truly seasoned pilot. Some people take flying lessons for a "bucket list" thing. Take up knitting or oil painting. Flying can KILL you if you don't know what you're doing. The fact that she posted this is disturbing. It means she didn't realize how unskilled a pilot she was. And, sadly, she and her dad paid the ultimate price. My heart goes out to her and her family.
I got my PPL at 58. My father flew B-26 (WWII) P-51, F-80, F-86 and most models of 1950’s Cessnas. After my 500 hr tail dragger experience…he said dryly “This Dallas/Ft Worth airspace is among the busiest in the nation. Why don’t you just go move hay bales with your grandson? Your hobby is not supposed to kill you.”
@@davidjose9808 I always love the honesty of old pilots who've seen it all. Gravity takes no prisoners. Honestly flying is all I wanted to do for years. But now that I have the $$ I just don't have the time to devote to all the behind the scenes stuff that goes into it (calculating weight/center of gravity, radio chatter, various airspace rules, all the things that make a pilot safe and reliable). So I reluctantly decided as much as I wanted to fulfil the dream, I didn't want my family attending my unexpected funeral...or worse, someone's in my plane ala JFK jr. For what it's worth, I took up another hobby and am now a pretty good guitarist so...
One word ... YIKES! I was a 20 hour student pilot doing solo cross country flights with no issues WITHOUT GPS! If you "plan" your flight then you would know exactly what heading to fly as soon as you climb out! SMH!
My instructor wasn’t a big fan of any technology. He always made sure I filled out a paper flight plan before any cross country (instructed or not) and always made sure I had my map. He would also allow me to use my iPad but would occasionally turn the screen off, wait a few minutes and tell him approximately where we are on our route based off of landmarks and flight time.
I flew through remote areas in the north west of Western Australia using a compass, clock and a chart to navigate and most of the time out of radio contact. Only 600 hours total time and relied very experienced pilots to give me advice on this type of flying and always knew my limits
Her directional awareness is way below an average person, let alone a pilot. Isn't everybody supposed to learn the sun rises in the east and sets in the west as a child? That could be learned in the amount of time she spent off course in this one flight.
we learn that even at flight attendant school lol that's the most bare minimum I genuinely have no idea how she was lost with the sun right at her face...
There was actually an accident in Brazil where the plane took off with the setting sun right in the pilots' eyes, they turned south, thinking it was north, and ran out of fuel over a remote jungle. I guess that's why they train even the cabin crew, now. At least one person will hopefully pipeup with "shouldn't the sun be on the right?"
She is a perfect example of "Johnny can't read". Instead of keeping her on the ground and holding her accountable and insisting that she knew what she was doing, she was just signed off and passed on to the next person who signed her off and passed her onto the next person so they could all get their training hours in. I hope they're proud of themselves.
I hadn't heard about her until after her tragic accident. But one question I have is why no one turned her into the FAA after watching a video like this? How is it that she posted all these videos, demonstrating her lack of knowledge, and no one reported it.
She only had 15k subs, which is about 0.005% of the US population. Taking into account the number of pilots in the US, there is a 1-in-a-million chance one of them was a pilot.
This is like watching an edge-of-your-seat scene out of an action movie where the actual pilot gets killed and the protagonist has to take over the controls with zero experience whatsoever to somehow pull off a long shot miracle for survival.
I'm not a pilot, but even I am stunned by what I just watched. Flying in random directions when there was a magnetic compass right in front of her tells me that she should never have been at the controls of an aeroplane at all. Sorry to say it, but flying like that I'm surprised she lived as long as she did.
There wasn’t a compass… there were like 4 or 5 even. The tablet, the phone, on the GPS and on the instrument panels. But hey, I don’t live in Gringolandia, so I don’t care! CRT, DEI, “equity”, “equality” and non-meritocratic quotas AAAKBAAR! 👌🏻
@@V0YAG3R my point was that even if she was bad at understanding and using technology there was a (supposedly) foolproof magnetic compass right in front of her. If she couldn’t use that either, then she definitely should not have been pilot in command. Flying around in random directions above an airport is dangerous for not only her but for any other traffic.
"Usually the last thing a pilot would want is for a passenger to start playing around with knobs and levers when they don't know what they're doing"... in this case, I don't think it makes any difference.
This is so sad. I only have 15 or so hours as a student pilot and I get such anxiety from watching this video. I'm sure her confident nature is what led to her apparent financial success, but I don't know how she could be so cavalier about something so serous as flying an airplane.
@@FamiliarAnomaly statistics are actually better ...not worse. It's just we are getting first hand views that we aren't used to seeing. It's not everyday that those who shouldn't be in an airplane demonstrate it on video.
"Let's see where it takes us" is not something any pilot should say. If you activate ANYTHING in your cockpit, you should know exactly what it does, how to use it, what it's for and what it's about to do you or your airplane. The fact that she was doubtful about her autopilot and she had so many issues using it and fully understanding its use means she shouldn't have been using it. From what other videos and the NTSB report reflected, it was a Century 2000 autopilot without automatic trim control. Considering the nice day and light winds and no automatic trim or throttle control it should have only been used as a way for you to keep on course, or not used at all. Hand flying in this weather would have been super simple and possible.
I think we take it for granted just how professional and highly trained commercial pilots are. Imagine scenes like this when you pay to use a commercial airline.
@@vinny3410It absolutely is true. If your hiring priority is the racial compositions of your pilots, and not merit, then it is a recipe for disaster for which there will be a high price.
I think at 2:40 what we're seeing here is her actually trying to get the aircraft back on centreline. Prior to her newer videos getting taken down, I noticed she would attempt to use the aileron to maintain centreline. She would even 'lean' toward the direction the aircraft needed to go. It was honestly a miracle she did not hurt anyone prior to her accident. Hopefully, the investigators can recover any footage from the cameras she had on board at the time and get a clear insight as to what exactly what went on during the flight and what decisions were made by her as PIC.
Some endeavors require a skillset not everyone has. This is one possible outcome of 25+ years of participation trophies, ego stroking, and "you can do anything..." mantra will get you. No one willing or able to tell her, "You just aren't cut out for flying."
Some people just cannot learn anything more complex than simple, basic existence. I once had a student who could not learn and remember one physical motion for even a matter of seconds. The semester instantly devolved into incessant reminders: “move your hand like this.” We repeated this instruction every few seconds, every week, for 15 weeks. He never, ever retained it. It was incredible. Sheer torture for me, but he was never aware we’d ever discussed it. Apparently people get through flight training with similar handicaps.
Its clear to me after 15 years of driving a car, that some people literally think in slow motion. Like they cannot process information at a normal rate of speed. Everything they do is slow & or delayed, but in a lackadaisical or frantic way. I call these people "slomoes". If you are paying attention, you will run into some of these people in the wild, though the road is their natural habitat.
The biggest shock for me arising from this tragedy and her very public inadequacy is the scary negligence of CFI’s - she turned that poor machine like a drunk child and was always behind the airplane - way behind. RIP
Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous. But to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect.
How was someone so evidently incompetent even allowed to get a licence to fly a plane with passengers? It doesn't help when the passenger blames the autopilot,it is only doing what it's programmed to do, why she didn't get training to use it is incomprehensible
It’s 100 different miracles that she didn’t cause some kind of horrific mid-air collision. Really disturbing someone like that could be up there flying a plane.
I've never piloted a plane, but honestly given a week or so with an instruction manual and a flight simulator I reckon I might be able to fly this plane as incompetently as she did. This is just shocking.
Honestly - within a few hours of being in the air you'd be taught the basics of holding straight and level flight, turns, maintaining a heading, maintaining speed, climbing and descending, throttle control. You wouldn't be perfect, but if you knew you had to head east, you would certainly know that the runway you're departing from is heading to the northeast, and that you would just need to turn slightly to the right, and follow your compass.
Years ago there was a story about a passenger that got scared while flying opened the door at 1k feet and jump out, if I was in a plane with her I could understand that decision.
In the end, it makes one wonder, how did she ever fly the cross-country flights required for her PPL. Also, how did an examiner ever consider her qualified to pass her check ride? Impossible to believe she had approximately 400 hours total time when the crash happened.
It's amazing she lasted along as she did. It's apparent that the "plane is flying her", not the other way around. Flying in circles aimlessly, oblivious to everything around her. How did she ever get a pilots license?
I don't know, but it sure looked like an over- reliance on technology to do the flying for her. She never once looked down to the ground for a landmark. And, she lived in this area and trained in that area too!!!, OMG, WTF.
Thanks for making this video. I’d seen a bit about this crash and a lot of people calling her a poor pilot, but I didn’t know if they were nit-picking after the fact. Your video made it clear for a non-pilot like me that she really was clueless. She had no idea how instruments worked, no sense of ownership or responsibility, no sense of the terminology or context in which pilots operate, her focus was on the wrong things, she wanted the auto-pilot to do all the work for her but she clearly hadn’t read the operating manual for it and was trying to work it out by trial and error. It’s scary that she passed her pilots test. Ty clearly she did so on a different plane.
The ADS-B data of this particular flight is terrifying. My heart goes out to the family they left behind but this was absolutely an accident just waiting to happen.
11:50 “That dad gum gps is wrong”. I am blown away. She’s gonna run out of fuel doing circles above the airport she departed from just trying to figure out which way her destination is. Whoever gave her a pilot license should be charged with a crime.
Makes you wonder .. how many other 'Jenny Blalocks' are out there right now in the skies who purely by good fortune havent had their lack of skills come back to haunt them.
I took three lessons in a 172, had to stop due to business expenses that took priority. Although I wasn’t entirely sure where I was, I knew we did a flight following to the northeast of our departure airport and kept some understanding of what general direction to get back to the airport. My instructor always gave me altitude and heading instructions and that’s how I understood initial navigation. It honestly scared me to not know exactly where I was, even during those first lessons. I can’t fathom the confidence to take off and not have an understanding of the aircraft, its systems, or navigation. Was she really that naive? Overconfident? Wrapped up in the social media aspect? Did she buy a plane that was out of her league? So many questions left unanswered but yet so many lessons to be learned.
Simply staggering. I've seen other vids on this accident and snippets of her vids but this is unreal. And the fact that she seemed comfortable posting vids like this one indicates that she had no grasp either of just what a bad pilot she plainly was. (I'm not a pilot, though I do have an interest in aviation, but if you'd handed me the controls after take off I'd have known which direction to go in and been able to point it there and keep it going that way with ease. It's incredible that she couldn't even grasp this basic idea.). If I was her dad I'd have told her to quit and stayed firmly on the ground if she still insisted on flying. Accident waiting to happen.
It's really sad that her instructor signed her off when she patently didn't understand the very basics of airmanship and navigation. I believe that her instructor gave her exactly what she needed to lose her life: confidence but insufficient competence. It's tragic. Instructors need to be sure that their students are able to fly to a standard which enables them to not only fly safely under ideal conditions, but also fly well enough to analyse and correct problems, even when the situation is confusing and/or or stressful. I also note that some of her videos have been deleted from her channel. I'm glad that this one has been captured and made available for everyone to see.
This is a good analysis of a flight where a pilot is completely overwhelmed by a bunch of electronic gadgets they don't understand. I stopped flying with an old friend who spent 90% of the time staring at an ipad. Made me very nervous. It would be interesting to see a video of her landing procedure.....obviously, she managed to land this plane many times without a crash. She wasn't completely lacking in skill, just awareness.
I saw a video of her landing and she looked far from in control, the plane did what it wanted and she was wondering what happened, like she was a passenger. That's actually when I became worried about her future.
At around 9:00 you can see that the GPS unit was set to VLOC and not GPS, so hitting the NAV button was not going to take her to the next waypoint in the flight plan.
After watching many different videos of this girl prior to her death I've concluded she had no business ever being a pilot and anybody involved in certifying her should be investigated. DISGUSTING.
Poor situational awareness and extremely poor decision making and ground tracking ability. Instruments aside, they could have simply tracked I-40 easterly until they reached Knoxville area where she should have been familiar with her hometown airport. Her second clue was being in the afternoon the sun should have been at her back which would indicate she was heading east. She NEVER used her compass or HDI or even tried to use her VOR. Two GPS's, a tablet and cellphone and still spatially and directionality disoriented. All this confusion and she only began 40 miles from home airport. I hate to disparage the dead, but this woman had NO BUSINESS flying such an advanced aircraft since she wasn't even capable of basic navigational skills required to pass VFR private Pilot certification.
I noticed the way she flipped his visor out of her way, and it added to the evidence we're dealing with a narcissist. She's never been told no her whole life, who wants to bet? So she's never been held accountable, and she thinks mother nature herself wouldn't dare cross her.
I am not a pilot. I play flight sims occasionally just for shits and giggles. Sometimes I just get in any old plane and take off and try to go somewhere and hit some buttons and turn the autopilot on to try and fly for me and it all goes wrong and the plane gets all mixed up and crashes. That’s what I do in computer games. This girl did it IRL.
The more I watch these videos of her the more astounded I am I don't want to beat up on the girl but she should not have been flying that plane. Without some more training. She is so far behind the curve. Whoever signed off on her check ride needs their qualifications re-examine
I think that's why all her videos have been made private. In the ones with an instructor, you can clearly see both who they are and that they are not instructing.
This caused me to reflect on the many times through the years I tried to give girls directions using north, south, east, and west, only to have them say something like: “No, no, don’t confuse me with that stuff I just need to know left or right.”
As long as I’m somewhere I’m familiar with I can tell you which direction is north with my “internal compass”. Some people just don’t have that at all, could be a genetic thing
That's the point, she also had "instruction" from her father too even though he clearly had fuck all idea what he was doing. They claimed he was "self-taught". They would also both fire instructors who told them they were being idiots.@@loldoctor
@@MrElis420 I see your point and I could see how someone in his position could have manipulated the situation to encourage reckless behavior on her part, thereby putting them both at risk. But the buck stops with the pilot, who shouldn't be relying on a "self-taught" anything. That's what led to their unfortunate end.
Yes, though I think with a bit of nuance in that in her replies to critical comments, she never really argued they were wrong, but rather accepted them but with a lighthearted "yes I make mistakes, we all do, i'm learning, i'll get there in the end". However, she only seemed to consider each issue raised in isolation and acknowledged she needed to be better at it. But she seemingly never joined it together into a big picture that there were so many issues with her flying, that if confronted with multiple issues in the same flight she'd get so far behind the plane, it would likely mean big trouble.
She somehow got signed off for solo, checkride, got her ticket, endorsement for complex, endorsement for high performance, and amassed 400 flight hours, without having the slightest clue what she was doing. I’d be pretty damn nervous right now if I was a CFI or DPE associated with this lady. Unbelievable.
From everything I recall from my flight training here in Canada we were required to be up to a standard of competency, before they would send us for our flight test. We did not have to be perfect but did have to be safe and not too far off the mark. This looks so scary, not a matter of "if" more like just a matter of "when" something bad would happen. They really do need to understand how this pilot could be unleashed onto the public, for the good of everyone.
That's part of what makes me wonder what she was like without her father and without the cameras, and hence her RU-vid audience, in the cockpit. I have a suspicion that her relationship with both of these might have been of an unhealthy sort. She almost certainly soloed a plane at some point with some level of competence, or at least with her attention more on flying than on no fewer than four different gizmos with GPS and map display, not a single one of which she can use to figure out whether to go east or west. She must have done better than that at some point, and something must have happened to make it worse. I suspect it might have something to do with a persona for her father or for the camera.
@@Evanstonian60201 I think the first thing that made it worse was upgrading to a plane (Beechcraft) she wasn't ready for. The second was always having a security blanket, first her instructors, then her dad, even though he was not qualified. The way she asks him for help and the way he randomly offers up uninformed advice is something I have never seen before. I think this is why her viewers were under the impression he was a pilot when he was not.
Even the person who sold her the Beech 33 is even somehow responsible for this catastrophe. I’m sure he didn’t just let her take it for a test fly and must have seen a severe lack of competence. Its appalling.
Never even sat in a cockpit once, but I know if I was flying east that's the first thing I'd look at. And weaving around like that close to a runway is just terrifying. A split second glimpse of another plane, a last thought of "where'd they come from?", and it's all over.
playing sims I think i can understand the mindset. i was invested in flying the plane manually at all times and when i had to do things like learn BRAA for navigation it took me way too long to bother to look it up, only to realize it was piss simple. if you lack the foresight to inquire what something does you probably shouldn't fly... i probably shouldnt either, but i'd still try for a bit if the opportunity was there.
yes if you take off at 20 degrees you add 180 to go back ,, if you take off at 210 you subtract 180 to go back ,,,learn the 360 deg ,,and when to add or subtract,, numbers , its grade 4 stuff ,,darn everyone should know this
As a pilot, I was screaming on the inside when she said, "Let's see where this takes us." That is a cardinal sin in aviation. I'm so stressed watching this.
what she is doing is like a mindless vehicle driver stuck in a rotary and not know which exit to take... she has no clue what her plane is doing... kind of like how kids now are taught how to drive... but she can't call AAA for roadside assistance... this is bizarre...
i'm not a pilot and i said wtf at that part, and where she couldnt figure out how to turn the garmin back on ....... like jesus christ take the stick level shit
Couldnt she just forget about the auto pilot and maintain altitude, direction? I mean, if you need to go up you increase speed, if you need to go down you decrease it. Its perfect weather, like driving in a straight line. I aint no pilot, but how hard can that be for someone who is?
We should all be honestly thankful she didn't fly into a passenger jet or something like that. She really was an accident looking for a place to happen...
When she turns on the autopilot after multiple attempts of finding a heading, saying "let's see where it takes us" is the perfect summary of her flying career. She is always behind and reacting to what is happening, never in control.... Has she even looked at the compass once? It is literally THE thing that gives the answer.
@@banjwolfIf nothing else, seeing the airfield you departing from coming back around again...that *ALONE* must be a clue, but then she's not even looking out, I'm not even sure what role she was playing in that aircraft... almost like a passenger.
She was supposed to be going east after noon. The fact she doesn't IMMEDIATELY realize she's going the wrong direction when she states "I can't see a lick" because of the sun in her eyes, tells me all I need to know about her. Edit - Something just occurred to me. this wasn't the flight that killed them. Even after this flight, her father STILL got back into the cockpit with her.
@@lorizeppelina2286 I initially assumed her dad must be a pilot, she was taking him up with her so often, but no - he was even more clueless than she was! And those white knuckle rides with the spoiled daughter he clearly never said no to, would inevitably cost him his life.
I was thinking the same thing. When this video said the sun was in the South-West and I, even as a non-pilot, would know that the sun should be behind me if I was heading in any Easterly direction. The fact that she even spends any time flying toward the sun is so scary, and as many have said there is also the compass directly in front of her. It is literally in her direct eyeline when looking forward. Going by the map the destination is almost directly East, so about 90 degrees heading would work for most of the flight.
This is truly shocking. Throughout over 50 years and 40,000 hours of flying, I have never before seen such spectacularly cavalier incompetence, even the pilot laughing in self critique at the hapless and dangerous lack of command of anything. Sad, unnecessary and tragic.
I'm convinced someone with only Microsoft Flight Sim experience could have saved that airplane had they been with her. I'm not a pilot but flew with my Dad a lot in a Cessna 152 when he had his private pilot license. Never did I not know exactly where we were, where we were going and how we were going to get there. Crazy that someone could be "in control" of an airplane and be this lost and clueless about how to fix it. edit: particularly when she's lost in sight of the airport she just took off from. It really is shocking and unnerving that no one stepped in and stopped her. Although it sounds like maybe her first CFI might have tried but she fired him and found someone else.
100% avoidable. Neither her instructor nor DPE did any favors by signing off on a solo or PPC. A checkride failure isn't personal, it's there to keep unqualified people out of the cockpit - for their own good, as well as those on the ground. This didn't have to happen; disappointment is better than death. I hope the FAA takes a close look at both the CFI and the DPE.
@@joeg5414 Yeah, sun angle is a big clue. Not real precise but if the sun is directly in your eyes, that would tell the average person where you need to turn to get back on track.
God, I feel so bad for the dad. I looked into it and he was not a pilot and never had been; he was also 78 at the time of the crash, which surprised me because he looks a lot younger here. As bad as I feel for Jenny too, I’m baffled by her lack of survival instinct-how does it not hit you at some point that you’re in over your head when the stakes are so high? May they both rest in peace.
@@tigershoot Apparently she was aware of it to some degree; not sure if that makes it better or worse. On her socials she acknowledged the areas she had trouble with and actively sought advice from pilots.
Her instructor that signed her off should be prosecuted for unprofessional conduct . How she survived this long is amazing . How can you fly around an active airport totally haphazardly and air traffic control does not contact you and give you instructions to join the circuit or get the hell out of there. As n South African it looks to me like the open border and woke culture have finally found its way to air control and airmanship discipline . RiP people Tennesee Fly Girl you should never have been pilot in command with the demonstrated airmanship capabilities!
@@guyanomaly If she had any awareness she would realize that if basic cardinal directions were confusing to her she had no business flying a plane. There was absolutely zero chance that this woman could ever become a competent pilot. I wouldn't trust her to navigate a bicycle, not to mention a plane.
@@tigershoot What you have defined is Dunning-Kruger. She is so unaware of her complete lack of ability to even recognize it, and she think she is much better than that.
She was so fixated on all of her gear: the iPad, the autopilot, and the GPS. But she seemed to ignore the important device that was right in front of her: the compass.
Take a step back from that and what about understanding the direction/runway you took off from the airport, and the direction you will immediately need to go? That's one of the first things I'm thinking of before I take off.
I can't believe the amount of time she spent messing around with what ultimately are just gadgets. I once heard a pilot say that job number one is ALWAYS fly the damn aircraft, because if you don't, everything else can very quickly become very irrelevant.
So fixated but yet still lost, its all telling her what is going on but she seems to understand NONE off it, no way has she ever used any of that equipment before, it like she assumed that auto pilot just knows where she wants to go, like telepathically or something.
Don't really even need that. First, Just fly the plane manually. But yeah, even if I had a nice plane like that, with all the gadgets and gizmos, I probably wouldn't even use them on a 40 mile flight. When in doubt, fly the damn airplane.
I think the social media aspect is crucially important here. She set up a channel to document her experience learning to fly, even calling herself “fly girl”. She made it her identity before she had done anything else. So her ego was wrapped up in being a pilot even when it was clear she was not suited to it. Quitting was not an option because then she’d have to admit she isn’t “fly girl.” Additionally the idea of being “on stage” is going to make her think about things other than learning, such as her appearance, sounding good, cameras working, etc and not focused on learning or flying. Same goes for her instructor.
Bingo - her videos were more important to her than learning to fly, which she never gave herself the chance to do before crashing. What George Orwell failed to predict is that we'd be paranoid that nobody was watching us, and that we'd buy the cameras ourselves.
... Cameras could not possibly be a distraction, it's dumb to think her appearance would have worried her so much tobthe point of distracting her from learning, if you've ever done any flight training you'd know the atmosphere and with some logical analysis you would know that none of what you mentioned matters. Instead of making up dumb reasons spend more effort realizing the real problem. She needed more time with an instructor to become fully in control, instead they just let her off.
@@jasonMB999this is incorrect. Have you ever taken a flight lesson? Distractions are a major topic to teach new students. The social media and cameras were a factor. Just learn some aviation 101 information and you’ll keep up. It falls under “peer pressure” category.
