Ouch, That Hurts!

I bit my tongue. It’s the curse of a safety rep. You can’t say anything (yet) if even you want to very, very badly. I’ll wait for the NTSB to do it’s job.

Many, many thanks to a loyal reader, The Washington Post and a certain sheriff in Huron County, Michigan.

Sheriff blames controller’s confusion for delayed rescue of downed NY pilot in Lake Huron

”A pilot whose plane crashed into Lake Huron spent nearly a full day in the water because an air-traffic controller and Coast Guard rescuers were confused about where he had ditched his single-engine aircraft, according to a sheriff’s report.”

”Trapp believed he was speaking with a controller in Lansing, Mich. But a private company hired by the Federal Aviation Administration had consolidated the service, meaning that Trapp’s radio transmission was received in Virginia.”

(I think we all know who that private company is.)

”If the flight service had remained in Lansing, the sheriff said, “the controller would have been more familiar with the area and certainly wouldn’t have questioned what body of water this was occurring over.”

Hanson, a commercial pilot, said he has 28 years of flying experience.”

That would be Hanson, the sheriff, who just happened to be a commercial pilot. I’ll do more research tomorrow. But for today, my son is home from college so I have better things to do.

Don Brown
October 9, 2011