Haze, limited experience likely problems

Kennedy was licensed a little over a year ago and got his new plane this spring.

By BILL ADAIR

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 18, 1999

When John F. Kennedy Jr. flew to Martha's Vineyard, Mass., on Friday, the weather was deceptive.

It was clear enough that Kennedy and other pilots in the area could fly under visual rules, which meant they did not need to be guided by air traffic controllers. But the steamy summer weather had left a thick haze over the entire Northeast.

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John Cox, a St. Petersburg airline pilot who flew into Philadelphia about the time Kennedy departed from Caldwell, N.J., likened the conditions to "looking out from inside a bowl of milk." It was the same story throughout the Northeast on Friday, with visibility of only 4 or 5 miles.

The haze was so thick that Kyle Bailey, a pilot in Caldwell who saw Kennedy depart, canceled his own plans to fly to Martha's Vineyard about the same time. "I felt it was a little too hazy," he said on CNN. "I didn't want to take a chance over open water."

As officials from the National Transportation Safety Board begin investigating the crash of Kennedy's plane, it's likely they will focus on the weather and its possible role in the crash. Investigators also will look into Kennedy's experience as a pilot and whether there were any mechanical problems with his Piper Saratoga II HP.

Kennedy, the son of President John F. Kennedy, got his private pilots license in April 1998, according to an FAA official. He had owned the single-engine Saratoga for only a few months.

His lack of experience could be important because seasoned pilots are better able to respond to sudden problems.

"It's the same as a doctor or an air traffic controller for that matter -- there's only so much you can learn from the books," said Joe Formoso, a controller at Tampa International Airport. "The more time you've got, the better you are."

Said Alan Petrillo, a pilot at Jet Executive Center at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport: "Experience gives you a wealth of practical knowledge you can draw on in the event something doesn't go right."

The Piper Saratoga is a propeller plane with a cruising speed of about 190 mph. It has seats for two pilots and four passengers and can carry 200 pounds of luggage.

Kennedy's plane, which was manufactured in 1995, was probably configured with some of the newest navigational equipment and weather radar.

Pilots on Saturday described the six-seat Saratoga as "docile" and "a forgiving airplane," because it tolerates a pilot's mistakes.

"It is not difficult to fly," said Petrillo.

One possible complication is that Kennedy was recovering from a leg injury and appeared to be limping when he was preparing to take off, according to Bailey, who saw him at the Caldwell airport. Pilots need their feet to control a plane's rudder pedals.

The Saratoga was more advanced than the planes Kennedy had trained in -- faster, with retractable landing gear and probably with more sophisticated navigational equipment. Kennedy should have been familiar with those aspects of the plane after flying it for several months, but the Saratoga's more sophisticated cockpit meant he had more tasks to complete before landing.

"It was a very complex airplane to fly compared to the one he had flown in his training," said Bob Bixler, a commercial pilot from Tierra Verde who flies from Albert Whitted Airport.

By flying under visual flight rules, Kennedy was not required to file a flight plan with the FAA, although many pilots choose to file one anyway.

The Coast Guard and an FAA official said Saturday that there was no radio contact with Kennedy after the plane took off. That isn't unusual for flights under visual rules, which requires pilots to "see and avoid" other aircraft instead of relying on air traffic controllers.

Kennedy took off at dusk, but it was probably dark by the time he reached the coast of Martha's Vineyard about 9:40 p.m. That, combined with the haze, could have made it more challenging to judge the location of the airport.

"He was a good pilot and as familiar with this airport as someone of his experience could be," said Arthur Marx, chief pilot for Flywright Aviation at Martha's Vineyard Airport, where Kennedy and his first plane, a Cessna Skyline 182, were seen frequently over the last year.

The haze does not go away at night, pilots said. That can create a situation where pilots are relying on their navigational equipment to find the airport. For an experienced pilot, that is easy. But for someone with relatively little experience, it could be a challenge.

Cox, the St. Petersburg pilot who is a safety official with the Air Line Pilots Association, said the haze "can play games with your depth perception. What looks to be close can be very far, what looks to be far can be very close."

Another problem are some very common illusions that sometimes fool even airline pilots in dark and extreme situations. The Civil Aeronautical Medical Institute at Oklahoma City has done extensive research on the illusions, which can make the mind believe an aircraft is turning, climbing or performing some other maneuver when it is actually in level flight.

Kennedy likely was flying into what pilots call a "black hole" while searching through the haze for the first pinpoints of light on Martha's Vineyard. Human beings tend to become disoriented when they are suspended in blackness and have almost no "visual cues."

It is easy to believe that up is down. That's why planes have instruments, and pilots are told to believe their instruments rather than their senses.

David Learmont, longtime safety editor of Flight International, has called for a review of night flying. He has called nighttime visual flying "a trap which catches many aviators and ought to be reviewed. Good visibility exists only when there is strong moon or starlight, and even then the visual clues differ in daylight."

-- Information from the Washington Post was used in this report.

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