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| DC Cessna pilot disoriented; student saved them from being shot down |
| 2005-05-14 |
| EFL. They came within seconds of being shot down - RTWT The pilot who caused a midday panic in Washington on Wednesday failed to get briefings about the weather and restricted airspace and became lost minutes after leaving a Pennsylvania airport, Federal Aviation Administration records show. Hayden "Jim" Sheaffer, 69, froze when he saw a Black Hawk helicopter appear near his right wing while flying toward the White House and had difficulty operating his small, single-engine aircraft, officials said yesterday. It took the valiant effort of Sheaffer's student-pilot companion, Troy D. Martin, who had only 30 logged hours of flight time, to take over the controls and land the plane at an airport in Frederick, officials said. The FAA plans to take the most extreme action against a pilot since new airspace rules were put in place in 2003 and will revoke Sheaffer's pilot certificate, according to aviation officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the order had not been finalized. The FAA does not plan to take similar action against Martin, 36, because he is a student pilot and does not have a pilot certificate, sources said. New details are emerging about what took place in the cockpit of the Cessna 150 during the noontime drama that led to the evacuation of more than 35,000 people from the U.S. Capitol, White House and Supreme Court. A log prepared by federal security officials shows how tensions escalated to the point where a fighter jet was "about to use missiles" to shoot the plane down. If Sheaffer plans to fly again, he will have to start over with flight school lessons. Those lessons cannot begin until a year after the revocation order. "Our investigation is ongoing," FAA spokesman Greg Martin said. "It's clearly a very serious incident that warrants careful and thorough review of all pertinent information." Sheaffer and Troy Martin have been unavailable to comment since federal authorities released them Wednesday. They were forced down about 90 minutes after they took off from an airport in Smoketown, Pa., near Lancaster, headed for an air show in Lumberton, N.C. Some neighbors said they were mystified about the whereabouts of the two men and their families. At the Sheaffer home in Warwick Township, Pa., no one answered the door or telephone. About 10 miles away, at Martin's residence in Akron, Pa., a note on the door asked reporters to go away. No one answered the door or phone there, either. A next-door neighbor, Cindy Hamill, said of the Martins: "This family's in crisis." The FAA is planning to cite Sheaffer for "careless or reckless manner so as to endanger the life or property of another," records obtained by The Washington Post show. Sheaffer can appeal the revocation with the National Transportation Safety Board. Within hours of the scare, authorities said that the pilots were lost and disoriented. But the account provided in FAA documents casts Martin in a different light. "It shows a tremendous presence of mind to be able to take the training he had and, under a very stressful situation, to bring that aircraft to Frederick," said Chris Dancy, spokesman for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, a group representing private pilots. Dancy said Martin was probably about halfway through his student training, as most student pilots take about 60 to 75 hours to earn their certificate. |
| Posted by:rkb |
| #7 Right-o OldSpook. Sounds like absolutely NO flight preparation other than checking out oil and gas. Prior Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance (Principle of the Seven P's). |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2005-05-14 20:01 |
| #6 Appropriate punishment. You sit left seat, logged as the PIC, its your ass. You have to wonder what the hell this guy was doing - didn't navigate, didnt get the WX/METAR for his travel, didn't check NOTAMs, didnt file a proper flight plan, wasn't monitoring the radio, didnt switch immediately to guard freq when he saw the military aircraft that close... World of mistakes there. One thing you CANNOT do ever when flying is to freeze at the controls like that. The guy deserves to have his ticket pulled. If it werent for his sudent pilot, he'd be in a smoking hole in the Maryland countryside. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2005-05-14 19:18 |
| #5 loss of bowel control after the choppers and F16's with flares, I bet |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-05-14 15:58 |
| #4 Stroke? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-05-14 14:43 |
| #3 It almost sounds like the instructor had unknowingly been on some sort of drug that caused disorientation. |
| Posted by: Phil Fraering 2005-05-14 11:53 |
| #2 Good presence of mind on the part of the student, to take over when his instructor lost it. The kid'll do fine. |
| Posted by: Mike 2005-05-14 11:42 |
| #1 God protects children, fools, preachers, and student pilots. This student was one lucky guy, having his head on straight when he needed it most. The basic thing that everyone should learn when learning to fly are three words, in order of importance: Aviate--fly the plane, keep it under control. Navigate--know where you are going. Communicate---talk on the radio. Knowing the seriousness of violating airspace, when the two found that they were lost, they needed to: 1. Fly the plane in a triangular pattern or circle or something to show that they were under control and not heading intentionally to restricted space. 2. They needed to declare an emergency. Get on the universal emergency frequency of 121.5 on their radio and ask for help. Wallowing along lost in such sensitive areas and not declaring an emergency almost cost these guys their lives. ***shutters*** |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2005-05-14 11:24 |