[butterdezillion]

I’m not a pilot so this doesn’t mean anything, but if I was a pilot and heard a bang in the engine of a single-engine plane and it was just as easy to call for help as not, I would have called for help as soon as I heard the bang, especially if I knew I’d have to make an ocean landing and was only at most a half mile away from land, where rescue crews could be there quickly and save people from drowning in the wreckage if called soon enough. Why didn’t the pilot call for help when he heard the bang?

[WhiskeyX]

In addition to Post 11, see Post 12 and its link:

See link from:

History of Hawaii Cessna accidents
Friday, December 13, 2013 6:42:34 AM · 12 of 13
mad_as_he$$ to WhiskeyX

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3101347/posts?page=6#6

NTSB: Witnesses to fatal St. Marys crash saw plane flying lowBy CASEY GROVE
casey.grove@adn.comDecember 10, 2013
2013-12-11T03:35:07Z
By CASEY GROVE Anchorage_Daily_News

Just before the plane crash last month in western Alaska that killed four people and injured six, witnesses on the ground saw the Cessna 208 fly low over the St. Marys airport and out of view.The witnesses were so concerned about the single-engine passenger plane’s low altitude and the direction it was flying that they tried to radio the pilot. There was no response.

http://www.adn.com/2013/12/10/3223462/ntsb-witnesses-to-fatal-st-marys.html

Loss of radio communications in the event of an engine failure has been a problem in the past.

[CFIIIMEIATP737]

The LAST thing a pilot should do in an emergency is call for help. First, you fly the airplane. Second, you decide if you need to perform a memorized emergency checklist or a written checklist dealing with emergency or abnormal procedures. Next, you navigate the aircraft to a spot to land. Last, you advise air traffic control.

Air traffic control cannot help you deal with the emergency. That’s why you don’t call them first. The pilot should know his divert options at all times, but if not, air traffic control can advise of possibilities. And air traffic control can, if it is a controlled airport, clear out traffic to give the emergency aircraft priority.