Student Pilot Falls From Plane
 

I just soloed a 16 year old girl on Saturday ( 16 years and 8 days )with nearly 70 hours of dual time and her father told me about a student while flying with the instructor fell 2500 ft out of the plane. I refuse to instruct or even fly without a 4 point harness. Student Pilot Falls From Small Plane Near Collegedale; Search On For Body - 03/29/2013 - Chattanoogan.com http://www.tfponline.com/news/2013/mar/30/missing-student-pilot-who-fell-airplane-found-brad/

So how does someone not know to buckle-up? I thought that is part of pre-flight check list?

Tragic indeed. But in addition to not being secured, why was a student flying an experimental craft?

Gravity: Not just a good idea, it's the law!

Wow. Very sad.

Natural selection.

My first time up in a GA aircraft was through a demo ride at Chandler Air Service here in AZ. The C152 they took me up in was more duct tape than airframe.

At about 7500' my door popped open.

Suffice to say I always wear my seat belt!

Very sad and completely avoidable.

Just out of curiosity, is the instructor liable for making sure his student was belted in?

Wow, that would suck. I suspect that's about 20 seconds of terror.

The instructor, as PIC, would be accountable to insure that the passengers are buckled in, unless the student was getting up to go to the restroom.

Once went up in a Citabria, and was allowed to "assist" with a few barrel rolls and loops.
Better than (most) sex.

We wore parachutes. Full inspection and full instruction on the ground.
"Do this to save your life".

Pilot said "If I say go out that door, you go out that door." "If you are blocking me, I will push you aside using any means".
He meant it.

Thats what i figured. I remember my instructor wouldnt even let me flip a switch until I was belted in. Besides, flying in a R22 with the doors off, I made sure as hell I wasnt going anywhere!

I learned to drive in a doorless Jeep CJ. Wearing seatbelts was not optional, it was absolutely necessary to stay in the vehicle. I imagine it would be same as that aircraft.

It would d@mn hard open my doors against the slipstream in my Piper Pacer far enough to get out. No way in hell anyone could accidentily fall out. My Pacer has shoulder harnesses installed, but I rarely wear them as I cannot reach the manual flap lever on the floor while being restrained by them.

Of the thousands of ways to die, this would rank very low on my list.

From the local media reports, he was an experienced pilot who had just purchased an experimental plane and was learning to fly it. Still no excuse for not being belted in.

+1

Falling is WAY up there, just below being eaten by a predator. (Sharks are just below bears, btw, cuz you usually drown before the fun begins. I read a story about a teenage girl on a hike with her stepfather in Russia that spent over an hour on the phone with her mother while the bear chewed her to death.) :eek:


Drowning and immolation are relatively peaceful, from what I hear.
Falling from the sky, with, or without an airplane has to be horrific.

Interesting way to murder someone. "I don't know why but the airplane suddenly pitched forward and the student, I don't know why, wasn't wearing the lap belt and somehow the canopy flew open, I don't know why, and he was gone."

Yep, but not very good for advancing one's profession as an instructor.