for whatever reason, I don’t see this being an issue at all unless he hurt someone, damaged someone else’s property, or filed an insurance claim for it.
People wreck their cars all the time. Mostly its by accident but sometimes its through stupidity. I have personally witnessed a friend wreck his car when we were 17 years old but he never filed a claim for it and he didn’t damage anything but a tree in his back yard.
How is this any different? Its not. So unless he damaged other’s property, or harmed someone, this is completely government overreach, once again.
Except the government owns the skies. They clamp down strongly on stupid acts in the air, figuring there is a greater threat to public safety.
He engaged in intentionally reckless behavior that very well could have injured someone, started a forest fire, etc. It was dumb luck that didn't happen. Do we really want people who are willing to engage in such reckless behavior flying around? It's no different than people who drive drunk. We don't want them on the road endangering people so we yank their licenses even if they haven't yet injured anyone.
He’s in the air. Reckless behavior in the sky does indeed put lives and property of others at risk. A backyard tree is not the same thing as that.
Also, who is going to go pick up all the pieces of the crashed plane?
Loss of license and a stiff fine seem appropriate here. Also, he should be made responsible to recover and dispose of the crashed plane at his own expense.
“How is this any different?”
It is. He deliberately crashed an aircraft and lied about it to accident investigators. That thing could’ve landed on someone. Look how high it is? That plane went MILES before coming down. He failed to operate the aircraft in a safe manner therefor he 100% deserves to lose his pilots license and never fly again. Cars are different. Your friend was not on a public road and did not launch his car in such a way that it came down randomly. And he did not post it on the internet and lie about it. The sky is public, not private land. If you can’t fly in a safe manner then you shouldn’t be up there.
Well, if you were camping where that airplane hit you might see it differently. And, the FAA needs to be sure that all the aircraft in the air are under control. Not an overreach.
The pilot community called for this guy’s scalp.
He violated multiple Federal Aviation Regulations(FAR). So, yeah, it is a problem.