Posted on 01/05/2018 8:49:31 PM PST by ransomnote
A family flight to Key West ended in tragedy Sunday when the small plane crashed and killed all five people on board. Among those was the pilot, John Shannon, a prominent Florida Lawyer.
Shannon, 70, was a former marine who owned an ran an independent law firm in Lakeland, Florida, for 36 years, WTVT reported. The law firm specialized in serious injury, death and insurance claims, according to its website.
Shannon was described as an “accomplished pilot” and was the president of the Lakeland Republican Club. He was also actively involved with the Citric Center Kiwanis Club and ran for the House of Representatives in 2014.
Also killed in the crash were Shannon’s two daughters, Olivia and Victoria, Shannon’s son in law, Peter Worthington Jr. and family friend Krista Clayton. The group was headed to Key West Sunday for a day trip.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibtimes.com ...
The pilot (John Shannon) was, among other things, a Florida lawyer, member of the United States District Court, member of United States Circuit Courts of Appeal for both the 5th and 11th Circuits and is a "member of the United States Supreme Court."
His taking off in a dense fog wasn’t such a hot idea.
What did he know about Hillary, or Deep State overall?
“His taking off in a dense fog wasn’t such a hot idea.”
If you are Instrument rated current and competent it is really not a problem. I have done it frequently. The key word is competent.
At this time we do not know what happened. It may have been something that a competent pilot could not recover from or it could be pilot error. We do not know.
“His real love was his girls,”
The cause of the crash was not yet identified, though dense fog covered the area Sunday morning and authorities described conditions as not conducive to flying.
Interesting contrasts.
Get-there-itis is a deadly killer.
I read this and I gotta hope it’s federal witness protection program. Whole family and complete destruction of the plane does that mean no bodies? “too destructive” to find bodies therefore new life for that family elsewhere? This may be a real plane accident with real victims OR it makes me wonder what it is.
Someone who knew John Shannon as a lawyer described him to me as temperamentally impatient and overbearing.
Interesting thoughts. Have no input either way but I prefer the hope they are alive.
......and don’t forget the cooties.
Forgot to add this:
If you are in a twin engine aircraft near to gross weight (I do not know what he was flying) and lose an engine in IFR conditions immediately after takeoff you can not make any mistakes. If you are in a turbine aircraft with ample power, you just keep on flying due to ample power. If you are in a reciprocating engine you have a problem that demands skill. If you are in a single engine aircraft and lose it, you are in big trouble. As mentioned in my first post, we do not know what happened. The NTSB will find out.
ps
Back in the early seventies a British Airways Trident took off from Heathrow and crashed a few miles away in Stains. The captain had a heart attack after take off. The first officer did not take command of the aircraft until to late. The Trident has a T tail. The aircraft went into what is called a “deep stall.” Due to the climb attitude of the Trident when the wing stalled the airflow across the T tail elevator was blanketed and also stalled. Thus it was no longer functional. It was an unrecoverable situation. The aircraft went into a nose high attitude at full power and the first officer inputting full down elevator. Once it went into the deep stall the aircraft was doomed. British Airways and the CAA (their FAA) ran tests at altitude to replicate the accident in a Trident. However, this Trident was equipped with a drogue chute that could be deployed to get them out of the deep stall. They discovered once the deep stall occurred it was unrecoverable.
This accident changed pilot training everywhere. Much emphasis was put on when the first officer must take command of the aircraft regardless. A sad note about this training is the Air Asia flight that crashed at SFO. It was going wrong for a long time on the approach. The first officer did not take command. This has to due with culture. In Asia the captain is God. In the USA and other Western Nations the first officer would have taken control of the aircraft. He did not! It crashed but fortunately most survived.
twin engine cessna 340
Departure with probably 150 gallons of 100LL, then crashing, would be very destructive. Only a few seconds off the runway, then possibly an engine failure,.... in fog.....
Hard to know exactly without more facts, but I used to work on small aircraft, even a C340 once in a while. Back in the 80s they had an airworthiness directive that pertained to fixing a design flaw in the firewall.
Fuel lines, fastened to the front spar, ran along inside the wing right behind the firewall. The space between wall and the spar was quite narrow. The stainless steel firewalls warp some from the heat of the engine. iirc, the small vertical stiffening angles had to be trimmed enough to allow more clearance. There was a removable panel on the firewall, but it was small, and the trimming was done with small die grinder. I remember one that had vibrated against an aluminum fuel line. It hadn’t scratched it very much, but replacement was required anyway.
Wow... We lost a lawyer.....
That was a helicopter pilot who reported hearing an explosion before crash.
This was an experienced pilot so load estimates come down to human accuracy or human error (my father was a highly experienced pilot).
I just noted the Christmas Eve plane goes down with family and 2 such planes going down on New Years day with family.
oh hell if true.
I realize that is the verbiage taken from his bio page on the firm’s website. The correct language would be that he was admitted to practice “before the x-court”. The last one, being admitted to the bar of the SCOTUS is something lawyers do to enhance their glory walls. My wife did it and it was a fun experience and they give you a mighty impressive suitable for framing certificate. Since a microscopic proportion of all lawyers will ever practice before the SCOTUS, it suggests something to the lay public which is a bit misleading.
I am a lawyer and I must admit that there is a culture of arrogance among lawyers (and doctors) which often plays into these accidents. When it takes other family members its especially tragic.
Supreme court member Christmas Eve in light aircraft with family.
Clinton Library developer dies New Years day in light aircraft with family. (Australia)
Comey connection dies in New Years day in light aircraft with family.(Costa Rica)
Could be tragic coincidence but might be otherwise.
I wouldn't want to be remembered as that kind of a pilot.
"Always current, he could fly anything. He never took unreasonable risks; he always left himself an out."
That's how I'd want my pilot skills to be remembered.
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