And others.
For those of you who think JFK Jr. was 187’d:
Think again.
JFK Jr. was a dumb fuck when it came to piloting. When I say “dumb fuck”, I mean that he lacked the judgement to know his own limitations.
He had just started his instrument training and somehow thought that it was a good idea to fly offshore, at night, with visibility so poor that the horizon was not visible. He was not trained to fly in such conditions and his lack of piloting skills killed not only himself, but two other PAXs.
All he had to do was to push on the autopilot. That would have leveled the wings and held the airplane in level flight. His inexperience and incomplete training allowed panic to set in. He died with no understanding of what was happening to his plane, and was most likely accompanied by the screams of terror from his PAXs.
He was a relatively low time private pilot, not qualified for flight into IMC, flying a high performance airplane, at night, in IMC. What could POSSIBLY go wrong?!?!
Even his flight instructor told him he wasn’t ready for these conditions, and offered to accompany him on the flight. JFK Jr. turned down the offer.
As far as the fuel guage goes… fuel guages in small aircraft are only required to be accurate when the tank is empty. They are notoriously inaccurate at other levels. I’ve seen fuel guages that don’t come off of “Full” until the tank is half empty. The primary fuel guage that a pilot uses is his wrist watch. A pilot starts out with a known quantity of fuel expressed in HOURS, not gallons, not pounds. He marks the departure time and makes sure he’s back on the ground before 45 minutes prior to running out of fuel. The 45-minute reserve is a MINIMUM requirement. When I plan my flights, I generally shoot for having 1 hour on board when I land. That gives me an hour to get to another airport if the destination is weathered in or is otherwise closed. I’ve had runways close when I was on a 2-mile final. The twin landing in front of me had a gear collapse on landing. That left me heading for my alternate with whatever fuel I had left on board.
Now, as for an “explosive under the seat”. The imact with the water left most of the airframe was still in tact. I.e. the wings were still attached as was the tail and the engine. All occupants were killed instantly from the impact. That’s when the screaming stopped. They didn’t drown.
As much as one would like to believe HRC played a role in JFK Jr’s death, I seriously doubt that. She did, however, take full advantage of the opportunity to run for Senate. No, it was JFK’s poor judgement that was the true killer. The blame lies squarely and completely on his shoulders.
Like I said… what a dumb fuck!