Posted on 02/02/2008 9:58:13 PM PST by BurbankKarl
Jeanette Symons was a Bay Area telecommunications wunderkind and a devoted mother to her son and daughter - she'd moved them out of San Francisco a year and a half ago so she could raise them in the country, where they could ski and bike and enjoy carefree childhoods, friends said.
Symons and her son were flying back to their home in Steamboat Springs, Colo., on Friday, after a week at a ski camp in Maine, when the jet she was piloting crashed a few minutes after takeoff. Both Symons, 45, and her 10-year-old son, Balan, died in the accident, friends said Saturday.
She was an experienced pilot and commuted regularly - at least a few times a month - in her own jet to Oakland, headquarters of her latest business, Industrious Kid. Two years ago, the company launched Imbee.com, a social networking site similar to MySpace or Facebook that is geared toward young children and preteens.
"Jeanette was a dear friend and a mentor," said Tim Donovan, a co-founder and vice president of marketing for Industrious Kid. "She was incredibly successful in her professional and her personal life. It's just such a tragedy to see this happen."
Investigators have not officially confirmed the identity of the two people who died in Friday's crash outside of Augusta, Maine. But Symons was the registered owner of the Cessna Citation C-525, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, and the bodies of the female pilot and a boy were found at the crash site. The pilot had filed a flight plan from Augusta to Lincoln, Neb.
....
"What puzzles us is why she declined the de-icing," Perry said. "The results were really inevitable. You just can't fly an airplane without de-icing."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
she declined the de-icing ?
not good
“What puzzles us is why she declined the de-icing,” Perry said. “The results were really inevitable. You just can’t fly an airplane without de-icing.”
She was probably in a rush. Many times a flight is a success or failure before it takes off
She left a 7 year old daughter.
Very sad.
Jeez.
2006 photo: Jeanette Symons, CEO of Industrious Kid, set up a self-contained, child-friendly network for daughter Jennie (shown) and son Balan in their Zephyr Cove, Nev., home. Photo by David Calvert, special to the Chronicle
You mean, a pilot can decline a de-icing when it is necessary?
RIP.
Is there a dad mentioned anywhere?
The article states that two commercial flights took off that day after de-icing....no one else was willing to take off.
What could possibly be more important than de-icing your aircraft when it’s recommended you do so?
Such a tragedy.
Are the kids adopted?
There is an article where she was homeschooling them with her mother.
Uhh, think Air Florida and the 14th St. Bridge. Prayers...
Why was the jet crash private?
I was in DC then. The pilots were not that well trained in cold weather procedures. She having flown out of Steamboat
numerous times just must have known better. Unbelieveable.
RIP Jeanette and Balan.
But why would they go to maine for skiing when they live in Steamboat?
The Saberliner is another nice old jet a single pilot can fly... it uses many parts from the old Sabre jet of Korean war fame.
(The Global Hawk uses Citation engines and landing gear)
Citation
Sabreliner
No deicing...she probably checked weather and calculated she wouldn’t need it, based on rate (approx 3000-3500 fpm) of climb and level of known icing. Plus, she has deicing. (need to get “N” number to check on type).
She had over 15 years piloting experience, over 3 in that CJ. Checking on fltplan.com I see the taxiway she was headed for is closed Nov-May, accounts for her going through the ditch.
I give pilots with that much experience the benefit of the doubt until the facts are published.
Ta, the pilots of AF had the option for a second deicing and passed; I have no idea what requirements/options are for private jets, I’d guess you have to request it. Sorry they didn’t make it. The NTSB web site will have the preliminary details in a month or so and the final maybe in a year.
Then why would it be optional?
I heard on the radio tonight the kids were adopted.
“She was a very good pilot, very well practiced and meticulous,” said Donovan. “We’ve all flown with her over the years, many times.”
She was an idiot. The article says the weather conditions were freezing rain (”icy rain”). That calls for de-icing AND an application of thicker anti-icing fluid. It’s amazing to me she even got to 3,000 feet.
Most companies don’t take off with more than light freezing rain. You can’t de-ice with the onboard de-icing systems — they’re only meant for inflight use. She was crazy to try taking off in such conditions, especially considering the clear ice formed by freezing rain on supercooled surfaces is difficult to detect, changes airfoil characteristics, and adds huge amounts of weight.
She probably had a lot of hours of fair-weather time — which likely contributed to her excess confidence. Operating in bad weather under IFR in icing conditions, is best left to the professionals, not doctors and internet gurus.
William Perry is the president and owner of Maine Instrument Flight, which operates Augusta State Airport. Perry said despite heavy sleet and freezing rain Friday night, Symons declined to have her jet de-iced before takeoff.
“She said she didn’t need it,” Perry said Saturday. “She declined the de-icing and off she went. … Presumably, she would have done a pre-flight and known she was covered in ice. Every car in the parking lot was covered in ice. …We just can’t begin to understand why this happened.”
Perry said there were other odd circumstances before Symons took off.
“She was parked in a normal parking area, then she turned 90 degrees from the way she was supposed to be going and went across the field and through a ditch,” he said. “(She) propelled the aircraft just blasting the engines to get through the ditch … and took kind of a meandering route to the end of the runway.”
Perry said there was “absolutely no indication of any impairment” such as alcohol.
“She just seemed to be anxious to go,” he said. “It’s very odd — our guys couldn’t believe it.”
http://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/2008/feb/02/jet_crash/
My guess is something was going on somewhere else that had her mind blown and she wasn't thinking clearly. It also might have been a less important issue, and she'd flown so much she was overconfident. I've also known of people who committed suicide with their vehicles. Her conduct could fit any of the patterns.
Could be — too many things just don’t add up.
It's the pilot's discretion.
This story reminds me of an event that happened when I was a young line guy at our county airport. I was summoned to deice a Cessna 420 light twin early one Sunday morning when an ice storm was approaching. The pilot was delayed because his passengers were late due to icy roads. I asked the pilot several times if he wanted me to shoot his plane with deicer again, but he refused, saying it wasn't necessary. About an hour later they tried to depart and never made it off the runway. They overran the end of the runway, the displaced threshold and wound up in the trees off the end of the runway. Fortunately, everyone survived with only minor bumps and bruises. The airplane was a total wreck, though....
The weather up here was bad that day. Freezing rain from Boston up to Bangor. Freezing rain is probably the worst winter weather in which to operate airplanes. Airlines are not even allowed to operate in freezing rain. To attempt to do so without anti-icing on the airplane is suicidal.
Private pilots are not required to de-ice. In fact, they are not even required to file a flight plan.
Commercial flights and charter flights, however, are different since they are operating a business.
By RICHARD SANDOMIR and MATTHEW L. WALD Published: November 30, 2004 One area of investigation, a federal safety official said, would be whether the failure to de-ice the plane, a twin-engine Challenger 601-1A, led to its inability to become airborne. Mr. Holloway said "the pilot declined de-icing." But he said investigators did not yet know whether ice was the cause of the accident.
This woman had the soccer mom mentality that she was climbing into her SUV and going off to the market...
“Symons declined to have her plane de-iced before takeoff, a decision that surprised employees given the conditions”
Arrogance has killed a lot of pilots, over the years....
I had one experience with ice over Lake Michigan years ago, amd will NEVER fly into known icing again.
Ice was the cause of that accident in Montrose, Colorado. Inexperience or worse was the secondary cause.
That pilot in Montrose was a warm weather pilot with little cold weather experience...and in a hurry.
The failure to de-ice the plane was deadly in Montrose then and in Maine now ?
The secondary cause was...
There was an ice storm in the Northeast that day. 200 crashes on the New York State Thruway. I didn’t have to work and stayed in the house all day. Sounds like lunacy. If ever there was a day required deicing (or more rationally, delaying for a day) it was last Friday.
bump
I’m wondering if maybe there was something worrying her about her daughter at home in Steamboat, causing anxiety about getting to her quickly. Very sad.
or more rationally, delaying for a day...
One rarely has to be somewhere.
Do you have any other reason for saying that, other than that the deceased was an accomplished female jet pilot?
Accomplished? A DEAD pilot is accomplished?
Hell, it was a Friday. The only thing at stake was her weekend.
With all of her jet-commuting, her carbon footprint had to have been super-Bigfoot size.
If Congress was truly serious about global warming, they'd tax the crap out of these private jets. But that's not going to happen, because these same politicians now get around in these same jets.
That she was accomplished is not in dispute. Would you be posting your same strange comments had she been a jet pilot in our armed forces? Do you know much about flying?
There are many DEAD pilots in my family. I assure you they were accomplished. You make me sick.
Narrative:
The CJ1 corporate jet crashed into the woods in a rural area. The weather reported at Augusta at 17:53 local time was light freezing rain and fog with a temperature of -6 deg C.
According to the FAA the pilot declared an emergency when the plane was climbing throught 3000 feet. She said there was a problem with the plane’s attitude indicator. The controller assisted the pilot in getting back to Augusta, but the airplane entered a dive and crashed.
An acute case of Getthereitis?
How about we LOWER taxes on aviation, not raise them? Your comment smacks of Democrat class warfare rhetoric.
Feeling unworthy because you can’t afford one for yourself?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.