And the federal (regime) agency that’s supposed to investigate says they probably can’t retrieve the wreckage so there won’t be any proof if there was...
But it looks like they’re setting things up to say Fuddy died of a heart attack after the crash. None of the stories seem to add up though, and the pilot needs to explain why he didn’t call for help. It seems to me that the company owner/CEO has been giving contradictory info and protecting the pilot.
“But it looks like they’re setting things up to say Fuddy died of a heart attack after the crash.”
Fuddy’s death in the circumstances of this forced landing into the sea is not unlikely. In fact, what is extraordinary was the survival of the other eight souls aboard the aircraft. The pilot is reported to have sustained some serious injuries including cracked ribs, which makes his own survival highly fortunate given his injuries. We don’t know the extent of Fuddy’s injuries sustained on impact with the sea, but they could very likely have been as serious as the injuries to the pilot or worse. If so, Fuddy’s injuries, the effects of systemic shock, exposure in the water adding to the shock to produce hypothermia, and unaccustomed strenuous activites could well have resulted in anything from a heart attack to shock, unconciousness, and drowning. The fact that the others aboard the aircraft survived may have been due to lack of the sort of impact injuries sustained by Fuddy, inducing shock and hypothermia, or other differences in their conditions. Bottomline, Fuddy’s death as a result of the injuries sustained by the hard landing in the sea are quite plausible, regardless of any other contributing causes, suspicious or not.
“None of the stories seem to add up though, and the pilot needs to explain why he didn’t call for help.”
There have been quite a number of Cessna engine failures and forced landings worldwide due to electrical discharge damage (EDD) and other causes, such as fuel line vapor locks. EDD in particular and engine failures in general can sometimes result in failure of the radio transmitters. We also need to note how the pilot was probably too busy to attempt the troubleshooting of a radio system or fiddle with the transmission frequencies in an emergency of this nature. The aircraft had just taken off, so it was still at too low of an altitude to give the pilot enough altitude for gliding, time for maneuvering, or getting good radio transmission conditions. They needed an altitude of 4,000 to 6,000 feet ASL (Above Surface Leval) plus the altitude of an emergency landing strip to have time to maneuver properly. In the absence of that, the pilot had his hands full just trying to get them safely down into the sea. This was even more difficult because the landing gear striking the water was sure to nose them into a hard crash in the sea. This hard crash was almost certain to result in some serious impact injuries to one or more of the people in the aircraft. The pilot deserves praise, because he clearly averted what could have been the death of them all by impact and/or drowning.
“It seems to me that the company owner/CEO has been giving contradictory info and protecting the pilot.”
That is common under the circumstances. You know from personal experience how difficult it is to get first responders, journalists, and others to put together the fragmentary accounts into some kind of sensible much less accurate forms.
It should also be noted the airline is up for renewal of its Federal subsidy of the route to Molokai versus other airlines bidding on that route. This “accident” does not help his airline to win the contract in January 2014.
It might have just been an accident and no matter what actually happened, it will ruled to be an accident.
Like with Perry Inhofe, son of Sen. Jim Inhofe, who was killed when his Mu-2B crashed last month or Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone in 2002.
Lots of crashing going on, so many it seems "normal" to a casual observer or close enough.