Retired Navy pilots don’t do this type of thing intentionally.
I suspect hospitilization, testing for dementia, and pulling his medical certificate might be in order.
At least
Testing for dementia? In the history of Navy aviation is that the SOP for every navigational error made? And there probably is no medical issue, certainly no mention that he was confused or anything. It’ just a guy flying VFR in an area he was unfamiliar with.
Minor issue, and the system worked well to warn JFK traffic of a hazard. He will probably get some sort of the FAA equivalent of a traffic citation.
I don’t know of any pilots who do this type of thing intentionally. Unless he was flying as a sport pilot, which I don’t believe the aircraft mentioned was eligible, he would have had to have had a Class 3 medical in the previous 12 months. They will catch most disqualifying health problems, but no test is 100%. My gut reaction is when he took off he was fine, then maybe had a stroke or some type of event during the flight. This is actually rare, but it does happen. The fact that he seemed “confused” is a clue. From the tone of the article, it would seem the reporter is a little anxious to rush to judgment. Let’s get all the facts first. This man may have done everything right - and had an unfortunate medical event. All of us are human and sometimes we break.-—JM
I suspect home built, empty panel, apparently no radios. I propose that the guy built the plane and was taking/ferrying it to the small airport for further inspections or equipment, and got off course. It is plenty easy to do when everything below you looks like city.