c/aviation · by supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz · 38d

It Appears That the US Military Accidentally Killed Everybody on Board a Civilian Medevac Flight in New Mexico

https://futurism.com/science-energy/us-military-gps-jamming-signal-medical-flight

26 points · 3 comments · view on lemmy.world

3 Comments

calliope@retrolemmy.com · 6 pts · 38d (2 replies)

This feels remarkably dishonest.

This Futurism article completely ignores the human error that caused the crash, laid out by the original Wired article, the details of which are behind a paywall.

The pilots slowed their descent, even climbing a little, but it wasn’t enough. They kept flying straight toward the mountain. “When you are in that state of mind, you climb as high as you can,” Krentsa says. “And you circle. You stay in one place until you figure out where you are. You don't just keep pressing forward, blindly.“

But that’s what the King Air pilots did. They flew straight into the rising slope and hit it at full speed. All four occupants died instantly.

“You don't just keep pressing forward, blindly.” Oh yeah they did! It’s everyone else’s fault though.

SkyezOpen@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 38d (1 reply)

There's also no way a NOTAM wasn't posted and GPS fail should be a trained emergency procedure.

JustAnotherPodunk@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 38d

There was. It's almost a permanent notam around that area. Everyone in the area is familiar with the possibility of an outage, but the time it happens is unpredictable. Just because a notam is in effect doesnt mean the jamming is occuring. Just that it could be. It's an area I personally refuse to fly without vfr conditions. And I never fly it at night.

This crash was pilot error. There's little doubt. But there were needless factors on behalf of the system that helped create this problem that were not the pilots fault.