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thejessitaylor · 7 years

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The night I should have died

On a Saturday afternoon in 2004, while traveling down the 405 freeway in Long Beach, California, I saw a sign on the side of the road that said, “Experience the miracle of flying, demonstration flight $49”. So I pulled in and asked to fly. Within a matter of minutes Boden and I were airborne flying over the Palos Verdes Peninsula and the Pacific Ocean. I was hooked. I knew from this moment forward, aviation would be part of my life.

There was something so freeing being in the air above the ground, sailing from place to place, and falling in love with life all over again. It was amazing leaving southern California in the morning, flying fishing the Owens River, and being home before dinner. Life now has a fourth dimension that most only dream of having.

To become a certificated pilot or private pilot, the Federal Aviation Administration has a set of standards you must train for to meet and accomplish. Standards that include takeoffs, landings, steep turns, and short field takeoffs just to name a few. One of the most difficult skills to perfect is instrument flying skills, meaning, flying by reference to instruments only. A normal flight for most pilots is done by reference to the ground and the outside world by cross-referencing with the instruments inside the airplane. During instrument flying, all of your attention is solely on 6 different instruments. Instrument flying can be the difference of life and death to most pilots.

This is a story of how I almost lost my life during flight training. It is very difficult to even think about these events to this day. Each moment of this flight is forever stamped in my brain and I often recall these memories during stressful moments in the air and on the ground. In fact, this one flight shaped my life, my flying, and how I handle stressful moments today.

One evening my flight instructor and I met at the airport as the sun began to set to complete part of the night time flight requirement for my private pilot certificate. As normal, we briefed the flight and what was expected of me and my skills. At this point I had around 30 hours accumulated mostly by practicing takeoff and landings, and cross country flying. The objective of this flight was to fly for about an hour and a half, practice instruments flying, and then come back to Long Beach for some takeoffs and landings.

After a quick preflight and fuel up, we taxied out for takeoff on runway 25 in Long Beach. We headed southwest towards the practice area down the Los Angeles River channel over the Long Beach harbor. Night flying has always been one of my favorite times to fly, seeing all of those beautiful lights scattered across the ground. And watching cars moving about their night time activities. From here life was simple and not complicated. It was peaceful from up above it all, looking down at life on the ground.

As we made our turn to the West out over the ocean my flight instructor asked me to put on a view limiting device that made it so I could only see inside the airplane, forcing me to fly by reference to instruments only. Once the device was on, my instructor asked me to start a climb to 6,500 feet at 1,200 feet per minute. Once we got to 6,500 feet, my instructor looked down at the Los Angeles basin and saw the marine layer coming in far faster than forecast. So he said, we needed to head back to the airport, but he needed time to set up an instrument approach back into Long Beach.

My flight instructor began setting up for an approach back into Long Beach. He instructed me to fly heading 180 degrees, descend to 4,500 feet, slow to minimum controllable airspeed with full flaps. So I completed the task at about 45 knots. He then instructed to go into slow flight and make one 360 degree turn back to a heading of 180, and do a power off stall recover and lets go back to the airport. Once I established slow flight, my instructor began looking down to load the approach into the GPS. As I completed the turn, I began to stall the airplane and at the same time I rolled through my wake turbulence which is the disturbed wind I left behind in the previous turn causing the airplane to roll left. I turned right and put in left rudder, which caused the airplane to go into a cross controlled stall and immediately into a spin.

The nose of the airplane dropped into the darkness of the night over the ocean. My instructor yelled, “Recover, recover, recover”. I tried to find the direction of the turn while pulling the power off and gaining control of the airplane, but since it was night and in a spin, the recovery was almost impossible. My instructor yelled again, “My controls”. Looking at the altitude we passed through 2,700 feet and falling fast into the darkness of the ocean. We then went into the clouds sealing our fate.

As we spun towards the water I knew that this was probably the last moments of my life. In those moments I began thinking about the news story to follow, my parents and family finding out I had died, and what life was going to be like for them without me. I thought about the heartbreak and sadness of friends and my family having to identify my body if one could even be found. In all my life I would have never imagined dying in an airplane. Something that for so many years I had feared. In fact, it wasn’t even until my 21st birthday that I took my first commercial flight.

The world was spinning around me as if I didn’t even exist, and in the blink of any eye I would be dead. And in a matter of years I’d forgotten by time, never having truly lived or completing the long list of things I needed to accomplish in my life. This was the end, and I was completely conscious during the entire thing. With the airspeed over 140 knots and the altitude nearing 1,000 feet as quickly as we enter the spin our wings began to roll level the altitude began to stabilize, and we dropped below the clouds as the lights of the Long BeachHarbor glowed across the windshield.

My instructor had recovered the airplane.

How? To this day neither of us know exactly how, but we just know it did. We then made our way back to the airport and not a word was said. We parked the airplane, and I took off for home. That night I spent in cold sweats and restlessness thinking about the entire flight. If I fell asleep flashbacks of the spin woke me up in a gasp of nightmare. So I laid in bed trying not to go to sleep so that I didn’t have to live the event again.

The next morning I called my instructor and told him I was done training. It was fun while it lasted, but I just wasn’t meant to fly and would never lose my fear. He asked me where I was and said, “Come to the airport. Let's talk”.

Walking through the hanger smelling the fuel, the oil, the new leather in the airplanes caused a pit to grown in my stomach and my memory began flashing through last nights flight. My instructor stood at the opening of the hanger holding a parachute standing next to one of the aerobatic airplanes. He said, “Jess, meet Boden he is one of our senior aerobatic instructors and wants you to go up and get some pain training.”

Tears began to fill my eyes as anger filled my body. Why in the hell would he want me to go flying after last night? Trying not to be rude I followed Boden into the classroom to begin briefing our flight. Before he started, he looked at me and said, “ What happened last night was scary. I’m sure you thought you were going to die but that’s not the end of the story. You lived, and now its time to learn to conquer that fear of flying and get back in the air to what you know you love.”

He was right, getting back up in the airplane was the best thing I could have done. To this day I’m certain that if I hadn’t gone flying the next day, I would have never flown again.

A few years after that I received a phone call from my private pilot instructor who told me that Boden had died in a plane crash. After the final NTSB report was published, I found out that he died performing the same maneuver I fear. The spin.

I’ve attached the full report of the fatal crash, one that could have been mine. Each day I am more thankful than ever for my life and the ability to do something I love so much. As every pilots knows many have died before us attempting to get where we are today. Never take one day for granted.

NTSB Identification: LAX05LA283

HISTORY OF FLIGHT

On August 31, 2005, approximately 1250 Pacific daylight time, an Avions Robin R.2160 airplane, N216RN, impacted the ocean following a loss of control and subsequent flight crew bailout near Avalon, California. The airplane is presumed destroyed. The certified flight instructor was fatally injured and the pilot-rated student sustained minor injuries. The airplane was operated by California Flight Center of Long Beach, California, as an instructional flight under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91. The flight departed Long Beach Airport at 1221, and was destined for Avalon Airport on Catalina Island. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and a flight plan was not filed.

According to personnel associated with the operator, Long Beach Flight Standards District Office, and Los Angeles County Life Guard personnel, the flight departed Long Beach and headed toward Catalina Island. The flight entered an aerobatic box over the San Pedro Channel and performed some aerobatic maneuvers. During a telephone interview with the NTSB investigator-in-charge (IIC), the surviving student indicated that the instructor performed a hammerhead stall, followed by a loop. At some point in the maneuver, the airplane entered a spin. The spin's rotation increased and became violent. The instructor attempted to recover, to no avail. Around 2,500 feet, the instructor informed the surviving pilot that they "must get out of this airplane" and jettisoned the canopy. The student unbuckled his 5-point harness and exited the airplane. The student noticed the airplane, with the vertical and horizontal stabilizers still attached brush by him very fast in a nose low pitch attitude. He then deployed his parachute and noticed the airplane in the water along with the instructor's parachute.

The student impacted the water and began clearing himself from the parachute. He then inflated his life preserver and began calling for the instructor pilot, but received no response. The student estimated he was in the water for approximately 1.5 hours before the crew of a privately owned and operated yacht picked him up. They called ahead to the lifeguard unit, who in turn met the yacht. A US Coast Guard flight and marine unit was dispatched to the accident area and found the instructor pilot in the water. His parachute was out of the storage sack but his life vest was not inflated.

The student submitted a written statement regarding the event. It indicated that once they entered the aerobatic box and cleared the area, he performed a series of 3 loops under the instructor's guidance, followed by 2 flick-rolls. The student described all of these maneuvers as "successful." Then, under the instructor's guidance, the student performed a series of 2 spins, both of which were to the left.

The student then relinquished control of the airplane to the instructor and reached into the checklist pouch and removed his handheld camera to film the next series of maneuvers. The instructor proceeded to perform a hammerhead maneuver followed by what the student believed was a loop and then a spin. The student stopped filming when he suddenly realized that they were "violently spinning towards the water." The student believed he counted 7 or 8 spins to the right, but wasn't positive about the direction. He realized they were spinning too much and that they were rapidly losing altitude. The instructor told the student to remove his feet from the rudder pedals. The student added that he believed he was resting his feet on the pedals, but not pressing on them. He removed his feet from the pedals and brought his knees up to his chest.

The instructor continued with his attempt to stop the spin, but then the propeller eventually slowed and came to a complete stop. The student looked at the instructor, who in turn, looked at the student and "calmly said, 'Let's get out of here.'" The instructor then jettisoned the canopy and air rushed into the cockpit. The student twisted his quick-release mechanism and jumped out of the airplane. He mentioned again that he felt the vertical stabilizer rush past him. The student estimated that their altitude at that point was no more than 1,000 feet above the ocean.

Once clear from the airplane, the student pulled his parachute's ripcord and looked up to see the parachute open. When he looked down, he observed the airplane impact the water to his left. To his right, he saw the instructor's parachute opened and floating on the surface of the water. The student added that as he drifted up from the airplane, he did not see the instructor drift up and never saw him with his parachute open floating down to the surface of the water.

Review of radar data provided by the Southern California Terminal Radar Approach Control facility revealed that the airplane was at the following positions during its last 9 radar returns:

PERSONNEL INFORMATION

Flight Instructor

The flight instructor held an instructor certificate for single-engine airplanes. He was an airline transport pilot with a multi-engine airplane rating, and a commercial pilot with a single-engine airplane rating. He was also type-rated in Learjet 60 airplanes. He was issued a first-class medical certificate on July 21, 2005, without any limitations or restrictions.

A review of his logbook revealed he accumulated a total of 2,309 hours of flight time. He logged about 776 hours in multi-engine airplanes, and 1,524 hours in single-engine airplanes. The flight school where he was employed estimated that he accumulated at least 250 hours in the accident airplane make and model. His logbook revealed that in the last 30 days he logged 95 total flight hours, of which 17 were in the same make and model as the accident airplane.

The instructor pilot was in the right seat during the flight.

Student

The student had a private pilot license with a single-engine airplane rating. His last medical certificate was obtained in September 1999. According to him, he logged about 310 hours of total flight time.

The student was in the left seat during the flight.

AIRCRAFT INFORMATION

The Avions Robin R.2160 is an all-metal, two-seat airplane, built in France. The airplane is equipped with a 160 horsepower Lycoming O-320-A2D engine. Though it is certificated as an acrobatic airplane in France, in the US it receives an experimental certification.

A review of the approved flight manual (AFM) revealed that when the wing flaps are retracted, intentional spins are approved; however, no baggage should be carried. The AFM indicates that the loss of altitude per 1 turn spin is about 250 feet. Spins in the Avions Robin should be "entered from a power-off full stall with slight nose up attitude." The spin recovery technique listed in the manual indicates that the pilot should:

- Apply and maintain full opposite rudder

- Maintain stick back until rotation stops (stick back position accelerates the recovery).

- Ailerons neutral

- As rotation stops neutralize the rudder and smoothly recover from the dive. After 3 spin turns, recovery is performed in 3/4 of a turn.

A note following the spin recovery procedure indicates that "only one action is important: Keep the rudder fully in the opposite direction!" The AFM also indicates that in spins lasting longer than three turns, the engine may stop. For 4 turn spins (or more) recovery takes 1.5 turns.

Review of the aircraft's maintenance records revealed that the last annual inspection completed on the airframe/engine took place on December 22, 2004, at an airframe total time of 7,359.1 hours. On August 18, 2005, the airplane/engine underwent a 100-hour inspection at an airframe total time of 7,555.01 hours, and an engine total-time-since-major-overhaul of 1,025.1 hours. As of the morning of the accident, the airplane had accumulated 7,562.1 hours.

WRECKAGE & IMPACT INFORMATION

The airplane and engine were not recovered following the accident due to the depth of the water at the point of impact and the inability to locate the wreckage. Small pieces of debris were recovered and examined, but they were of little pertinence.

The flight instructor's parachute was recovered and examined by an FAA inspector. According to his statement, he received the parachute after it had been placed in a plastic evidence bag and recovered from the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office. The canopy and suspension lines had been cut by recovery personnel near their attachment point to the harness. The parachute appeared to be a "normal" deployment. The pilot chute was attached to the parachute and was fully deployed. The ripcord was not in the cord housing, but was present and appeared to be in good condition. Due to the suspension lines being cut by recovery personnel, a determination of entanglement could not be made. There were no rubber bands present in the harness, pack, or on the suspension lines. The inspector noted that the parachute had been inspected and repacked 16 days prior to the accident, on August 15, 2005.

PATHOLOGICAL INFORMATION

The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office conducted an autopsy on the flight instructor. According to the autopsy report, there was a "deep laceration of the right upper chest extending to the right shoulder". The cause of death was due to multiple blunt traumatic injuries.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The wreckage has not been recovered as of this report's writing.

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