Piper Cherokee 140 - Suffolk, Va - 7Jan 23

In my experience, bankers are very conservative in their decisions. OTOH, it would not be the first high level executive to make fatal mistakes in piloting an aircraft.
Not the type to take a big risk for a hundred dollar hamburger.
I've found that aviation tends to bring out the latent ignorance in people, especially those just beginning the craft and those that come from highly successful backgrounds. I knew a person who built a company from a hole in the ground (seismic) into a mega million dollar enterprise, sold it, bought it back, and took toward a billion dollar company all by 40. Unfortunately, he just couldn't get it in his mind he shouldn't be doing inverted high speed passes, with pax, in his L-39 at tree top level. That is until one branch got in his way and he went out in one rather large smoking hole in the ground. Nobody could understand how such a brilliant, successful person could make such a stupid mistake.

FYI: The implication the mechanic hadn't released the aircraft is usually tied to there was no approval for return to service entry in the logbook. That's how I took it. Regardless, it falls to the pilot per Part 91 to verify that write up is in the record after maintenance was performed. So this guy was batting 0-2 on this flight.
As for this case, I'm pretty sure it's still SOP to tag out unairworthy aircraft. I wonder if that was done.
Unless this shop was a CRS or the mechanic had previous 135/121 experience he might do it, but there is no SOP to tag. I would if it wasn't obvious but that was engrained from my 135 day job. Most 91 mechanics don't.
 
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