Originally Posted by bocastephen
As a commercial pilot myself, I have to agree with Paul here....this guy needs his license pulled, a hefty civil penalty, and a verbal thrashing from the local FAA FSDO.
The prohibited airspace zones were in effect over these buildings long before 9/11, so 9/11 aside, there is no reason why anyone could ever think it's ok to fly around within prohibited airspace. To think you can do it post-9/11 just means you are really braindead.
We will be lucky if the boneheads in Congress don't jump on this event as another chance to curtail or ban general aviation.
He is lucky he wasn't shot down. However, I believe the questions about an instant-shootdown in the event of an aircraft entering this airspace have now been answered.
Well said,
Bocastephen and others!
According to what I just heard on the news it was a student pilot and a passenger. I don't know if the passenger was a CFI, but I would hope the media would mention it if this was the case.
The student pilot made a huge mistake and unless he was with a CFI, which misguided him, he has no business flying again.
He's lucky he wasn't shot down; it took flares to be shot in his line of sight. By properly scanning the sky for other aircraft, he should have seen the F-16's at some point prior to the flares and known something was wrong. At the same time he should have realized he was in an area where he didn't belong.
Furthermore, he had no business flying through, let alone near, the DC restricted no fly zone. It seems he had no ATC contact and his transponder was not properly set in accordance with WAS area operations.
I hope this doesn't end up causing further restrictions being placed on
responsible private pilots who use airports in the WAS area. It took time getting DCA re-opened as well as having guidelines established for use of private airports in the WAS area. I sincerely hope this doesn't cause further restrictions or grief for the responsible private pilots, or the re-opening of DCA for private operations.
Best,
SDF_Traveler