This Is Based On Hearsay

I have the following from normally reliable sources, but I cannot swear to it. For that reason, the name of the airplane manufacturer, the pilot, and the airport are left out. A man operating as single pilot of a jet overshot a runway and ended up about 800+ feet off the other end of the runway. Initial reports say that he had an out-of-date medical, ignored audible warnings of an unstable approach, landed too long on a runway that was marginally short for the aircraft in the first place (when he finally touched down he had no possibility of getting it stopped), and incorrectly used the thrust reversers. Folks, if true, here is proof—one more time—that the ability to pay for an airplane does not prove that one has the judgment, skills, and experience to fly it. The pilot had his wife and daughter on board. If not for an alert bystander who helped them escape from the burning plane, they might not have made it. That seems like poor judgment to me, but what can you expect of a pilot who was operating without a current medical in a single-pilot jet? By the way, this was not normally a single-pilot airplane, but the pilot "had obtained a waiver two months before the crash allowing him to fly it by himself." Good gawdamighty! We'd love to post your comments. Just click the comment tab at the top.