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Heart over Mind: The Death of JFK, Jr.
airlinesafety ^ | July 2015 | Nolte

Posted on 07/16/2015 8:25:35 AM PDT by pabianice

Why Did Kennedy Crash?

In the last few minutes before Kennedy's little single-engine airplane went into the heavy seas off Martha's Vineyard, its radar track showed all the evidence of a mind wobbling in the tortured confusion called vertigo. This confusion steered Kennedy down a horrifying spiral to his death on that hot and hazy night in July. If you've ever felt the searing pain of belly-flopping off a diving board, you might rightly suspect that hitting the water at high speed is an impact not much different from colliding with a granite cliff.

The kind of bafflement and panic that killed Kennedy arises in a mind as it struggles with the contradictory signals of its inner ear and its rational faculty. Reason and emotion are at war. The inner ear evolved over millennia to measure one's movement in relation to the fixed sensation of gravity. Gravity always acts as a vector pointing straight down to the center of the earth. The inner ear is equipped with tubes of liquid that shift in response to any movement while the mind compares these signals against this fixed sensation of gravity. This balancing apparatus signals the pilot's mind and says, “You are strapped into a seat that is now as level as if you were sitting squarely at your kitchen table.”

By contrast, at the same moment he was feeling perfectly right-side-up, the aircraft instruments, when correctly interpreted, conveyed the message, “Your wings are tilted steeply to the right of level, the nose of this airplane is pointing way down, and your airspeed is already howling past the red line.”

(Excerpt) Read more at airlinesafety.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Education; Miscellaneous; Society
KEYWORDS: jfk; jfkjr; johnjohn; kennedy
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This is all technically correct. It is also beside the point. Kennedy crashed because he believed what he wanted was more important than what he knew but chose to ignore. I was flying professionally along the Cape the same time Kennedy died. Although it was technically VFR, in reality, it was like flying inside a light bulb. Solid grey everything: the sky, the water, the land. No horizon at all. We flew IMC in VFR for obvious reasons. Now add darkness and voila! Total blackness broken only by ground lights which looked exactly like stars. This was a problem we faced in flying Navy P-3s at night, when the lights on sonobouys in the water looked just like stars. P-3s had, of course, two pilots and years of Navy training to their credit. Kennedy had, well, ego combined with getthereitis. He was dead before he took off.
1 posted on 07/16/2015 8:25:35 AM PDT by pabianice
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To: pabianice

JFK Jr. died because he was looking at the NY Senate seat that was promised to a certain lesbian former First Lady.


2 posted on 07/16/2015 8:26:40 AM PDT by Old Sarge (Its the Sixties all over again, but with crappy music...)
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To: pabianice

I always felt very bad for his In-Laws. They lost two daughters because of him.


3 posted on 07/16/2015 8:26:59 AM PDT by PghBaldy (12/14 - 930am -rampage begins... 12/15 - 1030am - Obama's advance team scouts photo-op locations.)
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To: pabianice

Why did he crash? He was a Kennedy. He was the golden boy. He thought he was invincible. And he decided to fly beyond his abilities and killed himself and two others as a result.


4 posted on 07/16/2015 8:27:45 AM PDT by bigdaddy45
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To: Old Sarge

That was my immediate thought back when it happened.
I still believe that is what occurred with JFK Jr.
He was more or less ‘Ron Browned’.


5 posted on 07/16/2015 8:29:46 AM PDT by lee martell (The sag)
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To: lee martell; Old Sarge

Oh please. He was a crappy pilot.


6 posted on 07/16/2015 8:31:17 AM PDT by bigdaddy45
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To: bigdaddy45

He also was on crutches due to a broken foot IIRC.


7 posted on 07/16/2015 8:32:56 AM PDT by PghBaldy (12/14 - 930am -rampage begins... 12/15 - 1030am - Obama's advance team scouts photo-op locations.)
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To: pabianice

I believe that this was a case where privilege led to hubris which led to being the legendary ‘bold pilot’ who exceeded his competency. I cannot help but wonder if he might have survived if he was alone in the aircraft where he could pull himself out without embarrassment. Ego can get in the way of logic and being able to say “I’m in trouble!”


8 posted on 07/16/2015 8:33:22 AM PDT by SES1066 (Quality, Speed or Economical - Any 2 of 3 except in government - 1 at best but never #3!)
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To: bigdaddy45

And a stupid one to fly in that crap knowing it’d be that bad.


9 posted on 07/16/2015 8:38:00 AM PDT by b4its2late (A Liberal is a person who will give away everything he doesn't own.)
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To: Old Sarge

This is, and always was, my belief.


10 posted on 07/16/2015 8:39:25 AM PDT by Paulie (America without Christianity is like a Chemistry book without the periodic table.)
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I remember back when that happened, Egypt Air had a $50 special to take you from JFK to JFK Jr


11 posted on 07/16/2015 8:41:49 AM PDT by dsrtsage (One half of all people have below average IQ. In the US the number is 54%)
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To: bigdaddy45

Seems liberals are pretty crappy pilots huh? McCain and Harrison Ford both come to mind. Waiting to see if Travolta follows suite.


12 posted on 07/16/2015 8:42:02 AM PDT by AmericanCheeseFood
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To: bigdaddy45

And what happens to people who inconvenience Hillary! and her promised power?


13 posted on 07/16/2015 8:44:40 AM PDT by Old Sarge (Its the Sixties all over again, but with crappy music...)
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To: AmericanCheeseFood

McCain yes, Ford his engine quit...not so much a crappy pilot having time in that very type of aircraft...its a brick

Kennedy: made several poor choices... wife and SIL showed up 2 hrs late, and yelled at him...airplane was put away... then pulled back out...after the screaming... his flight instructor bailed due to another commitment...he was not even IFR rated... he got cowed into a bad decision.... then he did not even use the autopilot... it was a very typical Long Island summmer VFR eve.. ie Soup,

Read the NTSB report... several links in the accident chain were couple before that prop turned....


14 posted on 07/16/2015 8:50:20 AM PDT by Article10 (Roger That)
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To: pabianice

Kennedy’s can’t fly or drive over bridges at night.


15 posted on 07/16/2015 8:51:43 AM PDT by isthisnickcool (Say what you will about The Donald, but he has all the right enemies.)
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To: pabianice

Yep. Had he known how to fly instruments he’d be alive. With all his money, he didn’t bother to get IFR rated, and he paid for it.

I’ve had many moments when my senses told me that I was in a bank, dive, climb, etc., but flying the instruments kept me alive.

And its not just flying the attitude ball, its knowing what makes sense and what doesn’t. e.g. IAS shouldn’t be dropping or increasing in level flight under constant power.

JFK jr was a hack pilot who tried to sneak by with minimal skills. It didn’t work.


16 posted on 07/16/2015 8:53:52 AM PDT by SampleMan (Feral Humans are the refuse of socialism.)
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To: Old Sarge

How about Obama? He’s still walkin’ and talkin’. And he not only threatened it. He took it away.

You can argue about the others, but Kennedy did himself in.


17 posted on 07/16/2015 8:53:53 AM PDT by bigdaddy45
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To: SES1066

“wonder if he might have survived if he was alone in the aircraft”

And I’ve always wondered if the two female passengers didn’t panic to the extent that pandemonium could have broken out inside the cabin.


18 posted on 07/16/2015 8:59:25 AM PDT by equaviator (There's nothing like the universe to bring you down to earth.)
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To: AmericanCheeseFood

McCain a crappy pilot? Why would you say that? Because the Vietnamese shot him down with a SAM?


19 posted on 07/16/2015 9:01:54 AM PDT by equaviator (There's nothing like the universe to bring you down to earth.)
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To: equaviator

I googled it. Best not to be around him when he is flying.

http://www.factcheck.org/2008/09/mccains-plane-crashes
McCain did lose two Navy aircraft while piloting them.
One crash was found to be be McCain’s fault, the other due to an engine failure of undetermined cause..

A third was destroyed on the deck of the carrier USS Forrestal when a missile fired accidentally from another plane hit either the plane next to McCain’s or, less likely, his own aircraft, triggering a disastrous fire that killed 134 sailors and nearly killed McCain.

A fourth plane was lost when he was shot down over North Vietnam on a bombing mission over Hanoi.

A fifth alleged “crash” turns out to be a misinterpretation of a flight accident that did not result in the loss of the aircraft. McCain admitted to causing that incident through “daredevil clowning” but returned safely.


20 posted on 07/16/2015 9:06:27 AM PDT by minnesota_bound
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