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A new MU-2 hasn't rolled off the line for almost 30 years. If you're a pilot you've heard about the MU-2 and its flight characteristics, The aircraft requires
by crikli 12y ago
A new MU-2 hasn't rolled off the line for almost 30 years.
If you're a pilot you've heard about the MU-2 and its flight characteristics, The aircraft requires specific training that once implemented drastically reduced the crash statistics. This pilot made an incredibly stupid decision, flying an aircraft with no real flight time (11.5 is nothing) and he paid for his hubris with his life.
Edit: here's an article on the MU-2 that does a good job to talking about the issue with the aircraft from a pilots perspective without assuming too much flight knowledge on the reader's part:
http://www.flyingmag.com/safety/training/dangerous-airplanes-or-dangerous-pilots http://www.flyingmag.com/safety/training/dangerous-airplanes...
- jgable 12y agoNot disputing the likelihood of pilot error, but note that the pilot had nearly 3000 hours of flight time. From the linked Oklahoma 6 story: "The NTSB says Inhofe [the pilot] had a total of 2,874 flight hours, with more than half of those in multiengine airplanes."
- maxerickson 12y agoOne of the points made in the gp's link is that there are flight characteristics of the MU-2 that are different than other dual engine planes. One loud statement is this: The fact that lack of training is the primary cause of the high MU-2 accident rate is supported by other data. In Europe, where the equivalent of a type rating is required to fly an MU-2, the accident rate is less than half the rate in the United States.
- X-Istence 12y agoHe only had 11+ hours in the MU-2... total flight time doesn't matter.
- mietek 12y agoIt looks like the FAA has decided “pilot experience in other aircraft types cannot be used to comply with MU-2 operational requirements.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_MU-2#Safety_Concerns http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_MU-2#Safety_Concerns