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.
After the crash El Rushbo read something called IIRC “You have sixty seconds left to live”. It describes a disoriented pilot going from level flight to final impact as the narrator says “you have zero seconds left to live”.
The most chilling thing I have ever heard on Rush’s show.
What was even more macabre was Teddy Swimmer Kennedy using his power to order the remains of all the victims to be cremated without autopsies. Then a mass funeral was held on the deck of a Navy ship & the ashes were scattered at sea.
Destroying any evidence.