Jessica Dubroff Retrospective

[Palmpilot]

Twenty-five years ago this month, a seven-year-old girl came to a sad end while, at the urging of the so-called "adults" in her life, she was attempting to set a record as the youngest person to fly a plane across the United States. This article recalls the events surrounding the ill-fated flight.

https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/jessica-dubroff-child-pilot-bay-area-history-16113058.php

Wikipedia article on the subject:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Dubroff

 

[denverpilot]

There’s never a good reason to launch into a thunderstorm in Cheyenne.

 

[sourdough44]

Much of the time we’re dealing with percentages, not zero or 100 either. One needs to keep the margins reasonable for the operation at hand.

 

[Wagondriver]

Stupid.
The girl was not a pilot, she was a pawn. Her deadbeat parents wanted the fame and notoriety, and I'd guess they thought there was money in it for them.
The CFI?, he was a special kind of stupid. Over gross, field elevation of 6200'. April. Poor weather. Requesting a special to take off in an overloaded not particularly high performance airplane, stupid!

 

[Brad Z]

This was back when the local and national news were the social media of the day. I’m not sure if things would be better or worse now if they tried the stunt with a seven year old 25 years later.

...of course now it would be illegal to attempt such a endeavor.

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

In this age of social media, we have CFIs taking off in overloaded planes full of Instagram celebrities and allowing the student pilot to kill them all at night.

 

[Brad Z]

I read the article. I didn't realize what a bunch of weirdos her parents were. Poor kid. My son just turned 6. He loves planes, we talk planes, he loves flying. No, I'm not giving him flight instruction at this age.

One thing interesting and somewhat esoteric that the article didn't quite get right was that it mentioned that Congress passed "the Federal Aviation Reauthorization Act of 1996, which included a statute prohibiting anyone under the age of 16 from manipulating the controls of an aircraft if that individual 'is attempting to set a record or engage in an aeronautical competition or aeronautical feat.'”

That's not exactly right. 49 U.S.C. 44724 states:
- - - - - -
(a) Prohibition.—No pilot in command of an aircraft may allow an individual who does not hold—

(1) a valid private pilots certificate issued by the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration under part 61 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations; and
(2) the appropriate medical certificate issued by the Administrator under part 67 of such title,
to manipulate the controls of an aircraft if the pilot knows or should have known that the individual is attempting to set a record or engage in an aeronautical competition or aeronautical feat, as defined by the Administrator.

(b) Revocation of Airmen Certificates.—
The Administrator shall issue an order revoking a certificate issued to an airman under section 44703 of this title if the Administrator finds that while acting as a pilot in command of an aircraft, the airman has permitted another individual to manipulate the controls of the aircraft in violation of subsection (a).

(c) Pilot in Command Defined.—
In this section, the term “pilot in command” has the meaning given such term by section 1.1 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations.
- - - - - -

Note that it doesn't say anything about being 16 years old in the statute. It also doesn't define terms like "aeronautical competition" either, leaving that to the FAA to define (which it hasn't seen the need to do, but of my knowledge).

So folks, next time you go on a flying club poker run, don't let your non pilot friend, or heck, your buddy with a sport pilot certificate, manipulate the controls of the aircraft, lest you have your pilot certificate revoked, lol. (hint, this is why we don't want Congress writing regulations).

 

[bflynn]

So, if you're the pilot in command and your medical certification comes from Part 68 (Basicmed), you must forbid yourself from operating the controls of an aircraft while attempting to set a record / engage in an aeronautical competition or feat?

 

[denverpilot]

So folks, next time you go on a flying club poker run, don't let your non pilot friend, or heck, your buddy with a sport pilot certificate, manipulate the controls of the aircraft, lest you have your pilot certificate revoked, lol. (hint, this is why we don't want Congress writing regulations).

Sport Pilots didn’t exist until 2005.

 

[Brad Z]

Sport Pilots didn’t exist until 2005.

But recreational pilots did. And technically letting them manipulate the controls on a record setting flight would run you afoul of the law as well. Either way, a very poorly written piece of law.

 

[Kevin Holbrook]

I lived in Cheyenne when that tragedy occurred. Haven't thought about it in a while.

The crash was about a block from my house. I was working night shifts at the time, and had made it home to bed. The storm had awakened me, and I heard the accelerating engine as the plane dived into the ground. Hearing that, and being so close to it, haunted me. I remember seeing a green David Clark earcup thrown from the wreckage.

The regional airline for United flying Beechcraft 1900's delayed departures and arrivals that morning because of the weather.

Child abuse

 

[Palmpilot]

But recreational pilots did. And technically letting them manipulate the controls on a record setting flight would run you afoul of the law as well. Either way, a very poorly written piece of law.

The original proposed legislation was even worse. If I recall correctly, it would have even prohibited people under 16 from receiving flight instruction. The alphabet organizations got Congress to back off somewhat.

 

[PaulMillner]

Stupid.
The girl was not a pilot, she was a pawn. Her deadbeat parents wanted the fame and notoriety, and I'd guess they thought there was money in it for them.
The CFI?, he was a special kind of stupid. Over gross, field elevation of 6200'. April. Poor weather. Requesting a special to take off in an overloaded not particularly high performance airplane, stupid!

There was evidence the mixture was full rich, as well...

 

[denverpilot]

The regional airline for United flying Beechcraft 1900's delayed departures and arrivals that morning because of the weather.

Believe that was Mesa back then.

Continental Express also ran up there in various aircraft.

Most of the press was the extra newsies from Denver stations who drove up and a handful of national folks but since it was a middle of nowhere stop amongst many, it wasn’t a huge crowd.

The outcome of that staffing setup was we got nothing but that story for two weeks down here afterward newscast after newscast.

I remember it taking a while for online discussions in the places those happened back then to come to the obvious two word conclusion you stated at the end of your post — while like you, those of us around here knew it the next day.

It used to take a while for stuff to get around. Nowadays there’d be twenty different video angles of it from 20 cell phones and people in other countries would know about it as fast as everyone here.

Strange world changes since then.

While the basics haven’t changed.

Launching into a morning thunderstorm in Cheyenne is a dumb way to die. The CFI absolutely knew better and gave in to schedule pressure.

I can’t imagine how annoying the “comments section” would be ten minutes after that happened if it happened today. Different world almost.

Other than that whole thunderstorm and physics part. That never changes.

 

[Aviatorbrew]

I saw this on a tv show, why planes crash or something like that, it was way before we decided to move to Cheyenne. After I moved here, I heard the story and it put the story back into my memory.

It was so dumb to do that, the weather here can get crazy fast! Our forecast is only good for about 2 hrs.

If it was lean, that was really dumb too, we are at about 6200 ft.

What tragedy for the girl and criminal for the parents and cfi

 

[Everskyward]

I was flying in northern Colorado that day, and I remember seeing the storm in the distance.

Since the parents and the CFI were from coastal California, I'm wondering if they had any idea how nasty these thunderstorms can get. Pescadero gets some pretty bad weather, but not many thunderstorms.

 

[Aviatorbrew]

Oh, they were from cali? I’m from central cali, The weather there is totally different, after moving here, I realized that there was so much more to learn about weather and winds here. A forecast here is good for about 2 hrs,

 

[ColoPilot]

It wasn't in the article, but I thought Jessica was in the backseat for one of the legs from California to Wyoming? It was more about the publicity for the parents I think -- very sad.