Upon our arrival back to SFO fro Beijing this morning our whole crew were shocked to learn of the death of one of our F/A's in a General Aviation accident just outside of Las Vegas. Besides being one of our colleagues she was also the mother of several young children as was the other couple killed in the crash...seven children now without parents as the result of an accident that probably could have been avoided. The cause of the crash has not been determined however a number of tell tale signs are there. Very hot weather, a fully loaded single engine aircraft, a seven thousand foot mountain, the person at the controls had just 2 years of experience.
http://www.necn.com/Boston/Nation/Pl...214739088.html
http://www.kvbc.com/global/story.asp?s=8577732
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...HLGO.DTL&tsp=1
The reason I'm posting this is simply that I know a number of board members fly GA aircraft...sometimes in hot to very hot weather. Just a reminder, pay attention to your aircraft performance numbers (in the manual)pay attention to your flight planning detail, pay particular attention to your route of flight and look for alternatives to avoid high terrain in hot weather as much as possible. Its not just at take off that density altitude comes into play.
This horrible accident with even more tragic resuts for those left behind probably didnt need to happen. The crash itself simply being the end result of the series of events that led up to it. This is a timely reminder for everyone (whether we fly large or small aircraft) of the critical responsibilities of the PIC and how very very important it is that we pay close attention to every minute detail in planning before we take to the air.
The NTSB investigation will follow and I'l be sure to post their findings.
Fly Safe
MS