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I’d say it’s understandable though that he prefers to jump. The risk of personal injury is probably much lower that way. Still many reasons to doubt that there

I’d say it’s understandable though that he prefers to jump. The risk of personal injury is probably much lower that way. Still many reasons to doubt that there even was an engine failure, but that’s a separate question.

bcrosby95 5y ago
I'm not a pilot so I have no clue what is or isn't understandable. But based upon what other pilots are saying, it appears to not be a reasonable reaction in this case. Beyond that, if you're flying an airplane, I think you have some responsibility to not jump out at the first sign of trouble.
- userbinator 5y ago
  Beyond that, if you're flying an airplane, I think you have some responsibility to not jump out at the first sign of trouble. As the saying goes, "The captain goes down with the ship."
- bjornsing 5y ago
  > Beyond that, if you're flying an airplane, I think you have some responsibility to not jump out at the first sign of trouble. I agree, and in the video it looks like he abandons ship very quickly. But there could be a section of video edited out. EDIT: It doesn’t help his moral case that he’s carrying a selfie stick though, and is filming himself as his plane is potentially landing on someone.
theli0nheart 5y ago
Licensed private pilot here. Absolutely not understandable at all. Planes are natural gliders. The only reason to jump out of a plane is if you have 0 chance of landing it safely. Unless you have no other recourse, land the plane. I don’t know if all pilots are trained to do this, but my instructor literally turned off the engine multiple times during training and had me land without power. Whoever made this video did it for show; incredibly irresponsible.
- bjornsing 5y ago
  I’m not a licensed pilot, so I’m just arguing from my intuitive understanding of the risks involved. > The only reason to jump out of a plane is if you have 0 chance of landing it safely. I understand that’s the responsible professional attitude. But if it was me in that plane and I saw a 10% risk of serious bodily harm / death in trying to land and a 0.1% risk in jumping, it would be tempting to jump. As I understand it the landing attempt here would probably be on a dry river bed or a dirt road. That’s not the same thing as turning back to an airfield. There’s serious risk involved.
  - akiselev 5y ago
    > I’m not a licensed pilot, so I’m just arguing from my intuitive understanding of the risks involved. > But if it was me in that plane and I saw a 10% risk of serious bodily harm / death in trying to land and a 0.1% risk in jumping, it would be tempting to jump. I think your intuition is wildly off base w.r.t. the risks of general aviation and sky diving. If you exclude experimental aircraft like fighter jets and kit builds, general aviation isn't much more dangerous than riding a motorcycle. The leading causes of death are misjudging the weather and miscalculating fuel because most of a pilot's training isn't in how to fly a plane but how to troubleshoot it midair or land safely if that is impossible. An unplanned skydive in a mountainous area in Southern California during Santa Ana season? Now, that's risky. (Edit) For perspective, Nevada sky diving companies won't even jump over Black rock desert because of the wind and that's a desert so big and flat that it's used for amateur rocketry in the 100k+ feet range.
    - bjornsing 5y ago
      > If you exclude experimental aircraft like fighter jets and kit builds, general aviation isn't much more dangerous than riding a motorcycle. Sure, but now we’re talking about a situation where your engine has already failed… That’s very different.
      - akiselev 5y ago
        > Sure, but now we’re talking about a situation where your engine has already failed… That’s very different. What to do on engine failure is one of the first things they teach you after basic flight lessons. After that many instructors will even simulate surprise engine failure by cutting off the engine at random while the student is trying to learn about some other emergency situation. Engine failure is part of the check rides every pilot needs to pass to get a license.
NikolaNovak 5y ago
That may be perspective from outside but not I think for actual pilots. I have not finished my flight training yet but already I've had enough prep to be way way way more comfortable gliding a controllable predictable metal cocoon designed to protect me, over parachuting :O. I think for all but experienced pros, parachute is a guaranteed personal injury. Movies are way way off when it comes to ability of a random person to safely parachute even in most controlled situation.

bcrosby95 5y ago

I'm not a pilot so I have no clue what is or isn't understandable. But based upon what other pilots are saying, it appears to not be a reasonable reaction in this case. Beyond that, if you're flying an airplane, I think you have some responsibility to not jump out at the first sign of trouble.

userbinator 5y ago
Beyond that, if you're flying an airplane, I think you have some responsibility to not jump out at the first sign of trouble. As the saying goes, "The captain goes down with the ship."
bjornsing 5y ago
> Beyond that, if you're flying an airplane, I think you have some responsibility to not jump out at the first sign of trouble. I agree, and in the video it looks like he abandons ship very quickly. But there could be a section of video edited out. EDIT: It doesn’t help his moral case that he’s carrying a selfie stick though, and is filming himself as his plane is potentially landing on someone.

theli0nheart 5y ago

Licensed private pilot here. Absolutely not understandable at all. Planes are natural gliders. The only reason to jump out of a plane is if you have 0 chance of landing it safely. Unless you have no other recourse, land the plane. I don’t know if all pilots are trained to do this, but my instructor literally turned off the engine multiple times during training and had me land without power. Whoever made this video did it for show; incredibly irresponsible.

bjornsing 5y ago
I’m not a licensed pilot, so I’m just arguing from my intuitive understanding of the risks involved. > The only reason to jump out of a plane is if you have 0 chance of landing it safely. I understand that’s the responsible professional attitude. But if it was me in that plane and I saw a 10% risk of serious bodily harm / death in trying to land and a 0.1% risk in jumping, it would be tempting to jump. As I understand it the landing attempt here would probably be on a dry river bed or a dirt road. That’s not the same thing as turning back to an airfield. There’s serious risk involved.
- akiselev 5y ago
  > I’m not a licensed pilot, so I’m just arguing from my intuitive understanding of the risks involved. > But if it was me in that plane and I saw a 10% risk of serious bodily harm / death in trying to land and a 0.1% risk in jumping, it would be tempting to jump. I think your intuition is wildly off base w.r.t. the risks of general aviation and sky diving. If you exclude experimental aircraft like fighter jets and kit builds, general aviation isn't much more dangerous than riding a motorcycle. The leading causes of death are misjudging the weather and miscalculating fuel because most of a pilot's training isn't in how to fly a plane but how to troubleshoot it midair or land safely if that is impossible. An unplanned skydive in a mountainous area in Southern California during Santa Ana season? Now, that's risky. (Edit) For perspective, Nevada sky diving companies won't even jump over Black rock desert because of the wind and that's a desert so big and flat that it's used for amateur rocketry in the 100k+ feet range.
  - bjornsing 5y ago
    > If you exclude experimental aircraft like fighter jets and kit builds, general aviation isn't much more dangerous than riding a motorcycle. Sure, but now we’re talking about a situation where your engine has already failed… That’s very different.
    - akiselev 5y ago
      > Sure, but now we’re talking about a situation where your engine has already failed… That’s very different. What to do on engine failure is one of the first things they teach you after basic flight lessons. After that many instructors will even simulate surprise engine failure by cutting off the engine at random while the student is trying to learn about some other emergency situation. Engine failure is part of the check rides every pilot needs to pass to get a license.

NikolaNovak 5y ago

That may be perspective from outside but not I think for actual pilots. I have not finished my flight training yet but already I've had enough prep to be way way way more comfortable gliding a controllable predictable metal cocoon designed to protect me, over parachuting :O. I think for all but experienced pros, parachute is a guaranteed personal injury. Movies are way way off when it comes to ability of a random person to safely parachute even in most controlled situation.