3 Teens Die in "Joyride" Plane Crash, Mother Deflects Blame

[PhilDernerJr]

I'm blown away by this.

A 17 year old teen took two friends up in the family's Twin Commanche, crashed and unfortunately died. It turns out, the kid didn't even have his PPL, much less his multi-engine rating....yet for some reason his mother had given him a set of keys to the plane, and said he's flown it many times before! THEN, as if she is not to blame at all for negligence and crapy parenting, she says "It's just three kids making a wrong decision," as if her giving an unlicensed teenage pilot keys to a twin-engine plane was the right decision.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/deadly-ala-plane-crash-joyride-18113447#.UOSv5W80V8F

I really hope she gets some negligence charges on her and get sued by the dead friends' parents.

[steve1840]

Its stories like these that absolutely make me dislike people more and more..Nobody wants to take responsibility for their own actions anymore. This reminds me a little of a vehicle accident that happened in my hometown a few years back when 4 teenagers were killed when they wrapped one of their parents cars around a tree. None of the kids in the car had their license and the owner of the car knew that they had it. Meanwhile the kids were high as a kite and driving like idiots. And same thing, the parents deflected the blame away from the kids saying the road needs to have the curves taken out of it as that was the cause of the accident....couldn't have possibly been that the kids were driving near 100mph on roads with hills, dips, and curves with huge trees (like the ones that killed them) inches off the side of the road.

People need to start taking responsibility for their own actions and the actions of their teenage kids. Actually start being parents for a change..

Phil....sorry to rant, and hope I didn't get too carried away....feel free to remove if you feel its needed.

[PhilDernerJr]

Steve...that's perfect, no problem here!

[Matt Molnar]

Why would anyone have given this kid personal access to a twin when he doesn't even have a PPL? Something is wrong with this story...either he had his PPL and was seeking a twin-engine endorsement or the mom is lying and he stole it.

[JHNA57]

According to a report on AVWeb, his mother says he had flown the plane before and he was "one test" short of his PPL.

[steve1840]

According to a report on AVWeb, his mother says he had flown the plane before and he was "one test" short of his PPL.


That's still no excuse for handing an adolecent the keys to a plane.....just like giving a kid the keys to the family car before they have their license....just not responsible parenting.

[megatop412]

So...he took off in IMC and at NIGHT...that's a little more involved than your basic PPL. Even if he had a multiengine rating being instrument rated is a whole other hill of beans