The Cory Lidle Tragedy

Whenever there's a high-profile airplane crash, dozens of concerned friends and family members call to tell me that small planes are proven death traps. The aviation community grieves the loss of Cory Lidle, as does his family and baseball fans everywhere. But here's one pilot's view.

First, let's back off the hysteria. No mode of transportation is completely safe. My guess is that at least a dozen cars a month run into buildings somewhere in America; people panic and hit the gas instead of the brake, they're going too fast for the conditions, they're distracted, etc. The same kinds of things can happen to pilots too.

Lidle was a relatively inexperienced pilot. New automobile drivers are involved in a disproportionate number of accidents; so are new pilots. He was flying a fine but rather sophisticated plane, the Cirrus SR22. There's a saying among pilots: "A fool and his money are soon flying more airplane than he can handle." It's too soon to know if that applies to Lidle, but it was a factor in the John F. Kennedy Jr. crash a few years back.

Lidle was engaged in low-altitude maneuvering flight, which is the most dangerous phase of flight. It demands special attention to detail. It sounds like he was doing some sightseeing, which by definition is distracting. When you're flying low and slow and get distracted, things can go south pretty quickly. From the early reports, Lidle was banking when the accident happened. At high bank angles, the airspeed at which the wings lose lift increases. If you're not paying attention, you can easily fall below critical airspeed. When that happens in a steep bank, a spin is likely. The SR22 has great spin-recovery characteristics, but it often takes 1,000 feet of altitude (and no tall buildings in the way) to pull out of one. Is that what happened to Lidle? It's way too early to tell, but that's where my best guess is for now.

Before his death, Lidle assured his family and friends that flying was perfectly safe. Obviously, he was as wrong. But so would be anyone who says that driving a car is perfectly safe. Like drivers however, there is much that pilots can do maximize their safety factor, like knowing their personal limitations and staying within them, allowing for a generous margin of error in all phases of flight, avoiding high-workload or distracting situations, etc.

Cory Lidle's death: a tragic accident. Given the right conditions, it could happen to any pilot. Just like a tragic car accident could happen to any driver. Will it make me a more careful pilot? Absolutely. Will it keep me from flying? Absolutely not.