NTSB: Wind blew Lidle plane off course

AP via Yahoo! ^ | 11/3/2006 | LESLIE MILLER

[cll]

cll: Lidle and his instructor regrettably failed to correct for said wind.

[llevrok]

Wind blew Lidle plane off course

Could also be - Wind blew Lidle little plane off course

[rottndog]

Wind or not, the cause was pilot error.

What a shame.

[Recon Dad]

I'm sorry for his family, but because you have enough money does not mean you should fly a plane.

[ml/nj]

They could have asked me. (See my 10/16 - five days after - FR post about this.

ML/NJ

[Spktyr]

Weather compounded with pilot error, actually.

[Ready4Freddy]

I remember your post, ml/nj, and assumed that they had contacted you! ;>)

[AmericaUnited]

A light wind was cited by federal investigators Friday for blowing a small airplane carrying Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle off course and into a New York City high-rise on Oct. 11.

Huh?! What happens during 'medium' to 'heavy' winds?

[Jacquerie]

I don't know about the civilian NTSB, but in military safety investigations the weather is never cited as the cause of a mishap. Failure to predict poor weather or to account for it is called human/pilot error.

[Niteranger68]

If it were me, my flight instructor would have been older than 26.

[rottndog]

Failure to predict poor weather or to account for it is called human/pilot error.

Exactly right. I keep wondering...why did he try to make a u-turn to the left (into the buildings), instead of to the right (towards the river)?

[Spktyr]

The FAA accepts a lower level of competency from civilian pilots, and they do cite weather as part-cause for accidents (like the microburst that slammed that Delta jet into the ground short of the runway at DFW a couple of decades back).

I agree, if this had been a military flight it would have been listed as pilot error.

[Dead Dog]

I'm sorry for his family, but because you have enough money does not mean you should fly a plane. In this case, he was doing what anyone else with cash and lack of PIC time should do, get an instructor.

The reality is, airplanes are easy to fly, and easier not to crash. But when your time is up, it is up.

[Spktyr]

Not sure, but as it was a prop plane, perhaps the pilot was attempting to turn with the engine's rotation so as to turn faster? Someone check which way that engine rotates...

[nevergore]

Wind blows big planes around as well.....

[Moose4]

Apparently standard procedure is to make a left turn--if the winds prevail out of the west (which would be their left flying up the river) it would make more sense to turn left. Plus, if they turned right, they'd end up over whatever land is on the east side of the river, and I think the edge of the river is the controlled airspace boundary.

Basically, they flew into a dead-end canyon and had to turn around, with the "dead end" being the entry to the controlled airspace around Laguardia. Lidle turned left from too far out over the middle of the river, probably one or both pilots realized the screwup when they saw the buildings looming up, yanked it too hard, stalled it, and recovered (the "wing bobble" some witnesses saw), but couldn't turn away from the building.

}:-)4

[OldFriend]

Very tragic for both families and those injured in the apartment house.

[rottndog]

OK, that explains it. So the real problem was that they misjudged how close to the buildings they were when they started the turn and/or how much room the need to safely execute the turn. Maybe this is where the wind came in as a factor.

[pabianice]

I don't believe it. This is just too stupid for any NTSB analysis. Light winds do NOT make airplanes fly into buildings.