Just me? GA in the News

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apr911

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apr911
Is it just me or has GA and aviation been in the news an inordinate amount lately?

The midair in Florida, the crash in Cape May, the CFI landing on a road, the training flight that lost power and landed on an interstate in Florida, the midair in Alaska, the banner tow plane in Ft Lauderdale... The list seems quite long for just the last few months...

Then of course there's the non-GA issues with the 737-Max.
 
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There really isn't that much news out there as summer approaches. You tend to look for GA news. Summer is here and pilots are rusty. Just three guesses.
 
Traffic accidents do not even make the news unless there are multiple fatalities. GA accidents make the news because they are so infrequent, and because to Joe Sixpack, aviation is a mystery while cars are familiar.

Bob
 
When they run out of material frighten their audience with, they lean on GA to take up the slack.

Four people killed by a drunk driver two towns over won't make the news unless there's graphic video. But someone has a single grainy phone pic of a C150 down in a field without a scratch after an engine out and it will be a featured story with ever news outlet within a 10 state radius.
 
True the news prints what the news wants to print but I guess my observation was more that there seems to be quite a high number of incidents this year.

Then again I just ran a search on the NTSB Database and had 522 total accidents and 112 Fatal accidents YTD compared to 588 total and 129 fatal accidents in the same period of 2018. That being said, its unclear how many accidents in the database can be attributed to the different causes.
 
Weather is getting nicer and more folks are flying.
 
What I've noticed (and remember, I work in The Media(tm)(r)(c)(yo)) is that every incident involving a Boeing jet now will point that out, usually in the headline. In the past, if there was an incident, the AIRLINE would be the headline. Since the Lion Air and Ethiopian crashes, the headlines have changed from "American Airlines flight makes a forced landing," to "A Boeing 737 was forced to land ..."

Don't get me started on my brethren in the news departments at most radio and TV stations. Just ... don't.
 
I think the general public believes all aviation is positive controlled, as in IFR.
I don’t think most have a clue about taking off VFR from an uncontrolled field and basically doing whatever you want.
 
Kritchlow said:
I think the general public believes all aviation is positive controlled, as in IFR.
I don’t think most have a clue about taking off VFR from an uncontrolled field and basically doing whatever you want.
Click to expand...

"The pilot of the Cessna that crashed was flying without a flight plan."

Is awesome when it's being said of a Bonanza that made a precautionary landing. With 100% implication that something was fishy about the pilot's intent.
 
ircphoenix said:
It's also a function of being a pilot. You just notice it more.

Kinda like buying a car and realizing just how many of your car are out there.

Or knowing someone who is pregnant, then noticing that it seems like every other woman you see is pregnant.
Click to expand...

True and I am aware of the phenomenon but I've been a pilot for almost a decade now and while I've certainly been more keyed in, this is the first year/season I've seemed to think there has been a spate of accidents in a very short time span. Obviously my perception is off since the numbers do show we are down for the year.

I guess the stories have just been striking closer to home recently... I heard about the McKinney, TX crash through a non-aviation friend who lives a couple doors down, the Cape May crash because I live in the area (and was flying/sharing frequency with KWWD <75NM, close enough that they could be heard) and I've been flying regularly in Central Florida where I heard about the banner tow pilot, the interstate landing, the midair, oh and I forgot about the recent 135 flight that went off the runway and into the River at Mayport NAS and another recent one regarding a multi-engine out near winterhaven.

The one Alaska mid-air made national news due to the vacationers and involvement of another frequently vilified industry, the cruise lines and the story couldn't resist mentioning it was the X number (think it was 3 or 4?) mid-air in Alaska this year. Plus I've been chatting more with my former CFI in CA so I've been getting some notices for that area too and my involvement in POA is up.

Guess I've reached a critical mass of visited airports/areas flown and friends in aviation where the number is still small enough to keep tabs on the things but large enough where I am hearing about more stories than ever despite the fact the numbers show a 10% decrease.
 
bobmrg said:
Traffic accidents do not even make the news unless there are multiple fatalities. GA accidents make the news because they are so infrequent, and because to Joe Sixpack, aviation is a mystery while cars are familiar.

Bob
Click to expand...

And the fact that the accident airplane flew 'without a flight plan' adds a sense of criminality to the event, making it news worthy.
 
And how every single engine GA either high-wing or low to the media is a Cessna. And if they aren't calling every airliner out there a Boeing 737 Max they are messing it up completely: "The Airbus 747 NG had a near miss..." (actually 3000' separation...) or "Passengers were shaken when the Boeing A-380 Neo descended at over 2,000 fpm from 35,000 feet...."

The news is unwatchable. Especially when it comes to aviation-related news.
 
If it bleeds, it leads. Even if the blood is really ketchup (catsup).
 
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