If the investigation rules out everything and defaults to pilot error that would upset me so much. I have such a respect for you pilots and I know these things happen, but it's such an unfortunate way to lose a life. The pilots who knew Jeff swear that even if the investigation points to pilot error, they won't believe it. He was so thorough and a natural at flying.

Thanks for the input on this accident and may you all be safe.

Many of us have extensive experience with friends who have died in aviation accidents. It can be hard to accept that pilot error is the single greatest cause of all accidents.

This makes us understand that all of us are capable of error regardless of skill level. We all regret your loss and those of our fellow aviators.




"During 2004 in the United States, pilot error was listed as the primary cause of 78.6% of fatal general aviation accidents, and as the primary cause of 75.5% of general aviation accidents overall. For scheduled air transport, pilot error typically accounts for just over half of worldwide accidents with a known cause."

Important to realize that "pilot error" does not mean the pilot was screwing off or incompetent. Human beings are prone to error and if they are placed in a challenging situation, it is just human nature that they may not react correctly or understand the situation. If someone can nail power off 180s 9 out of 10 times, great. Does that 1/10 times mean they are a bad pilot and incompetent? Not necessarily. "Pilot error" is a very broad term, it does not mean "pilot incompetent" as may be perceived. Think about car crashes, no matter who is at "fault", you could say pretty much all of them, all parties involved, were a result of human error.

Thanks for the explanation. It makes a lot of sense.

I have talked to other pilots and they said to consider throttle rollback. If that happened shortly after take off he would have to lean to the right between the seats to correct the problem at night. This could explain why the plane veered to the right slightly after take off. I showed pictures of the path of the plane at the crash site as he clipped off tree tops and continued forward into a large tree. He said it looked like Jeff had control of the plaine as he went down. This could happen with throttle roll back. They reported that his right arm was severed off of his body. Maybe because he was stretching it away from his body trying to correct the throttle rollback?

Another pilot reported experiencing throttle rollback in the caravan before take off 3 times in one plane. The problem was corrected after the FCU was changed. Are FCU's supposed to be changed out with routine maintenance?

If your lawyer is conducting an investigation for you, he may want to "discover" the maintenance logs for the crash airplane in order to get your copies. You will get pushback from company legal firm if there is no suit in place because they consider this type of request a fishing expedition. Your theory may be quite relevant though, and I hope it turns out to be a mechanical issue rather than something else.

Thanks, I will check with my aviation lawyer.

Caravan crash 1/15/2013
 

I am the father of Jeff Salles, the 26 year old pilot that died in this terrible crash. We have finally got an answer from the NTSB investigation, although it's not something I wanted to hear. Jeff had a Garmin GPS on that flight and every flight he flew. The NTSB recovered the chip and retrieved the information. It basically revealed that immediately after takeoff, he banked slightly to the right and the nose was angled 2 degrees down. The info from the crash site was combined with the Garmin and put in a Caravan flight simulator. It showed he would have felt like he was climbing when he was actually headed down 2 degrees at 145 kts. The most probable cause was spatial disorientation. It was pitch dark and he had taken off at this time of night twice before. A friend of ours, who is a military pilot, said something may have distracted him that he felt was an eminent danger for him to roll to the right (west), which took him away from the way he was supposed to head (south).

It was pitch black in a small town airport and no horizon for visual reference. He filed for IFR and was excellent and adamant about reading the instruments. He always told his students to "trust your instruments" That's why I couldn't believe he got spatial disorientation. Our pilot friend told us it happens to the best of pilots. Something like a light on the ground up ahead in the pitch black could be perceived as an approaching aircraft. If he took his sight off of his instruments for a few seconds at less than 250 ft above ground and 145 kts, he may have noticed the problem too late to correct it.

This hurts me so much. I was and still am proud of him to achieve captain as a pilot. He was so happy with his girl friend, also a pilot with the same company. There was so much life ahead and it was gone in 54 seconds. My heart is totally broken.

I just wanted to update the pilots on this forum, especially the 1 or 2 that knew him. He was a wonderful son and my wife and I miss him dearly.

If anyone wants to contact me personally, please feel free to use my business email. [email protected]. I would love to hear from you.

Thank you all and please be safe.
Gerard Salles

We feel for your terrible loss and thank you for following up on what befell your son. Spatial disorientation is a deadly phenomenon in flying, particularly for single-pilot crews. The FAA has specifically targeted the dangers in its training syllabi for new pilots. By sharing your son's tragedy, hopefully others will be able to understand the dangers a little better and take the subject to heart. You are to be commended for caring enough to find out what happened to your son, and for sharing what you learned with us.

Thanks for updating us on the investigation into your son's accident. As someone previously mentioned, and I would like to re-emphasize, a finding of pilot error does not mean that an individual was a bad pilot. Aviation history infact is filled with good pilots that made a fatal mistake, and some that were just lucky to survive. Spatial disorientation can sneak up on the best of us, causing confusion difficult to overcome, and can be unforgiving, especially that low to the ground.
You can be confident that your son was a good pilot, especially seeing how he passed a part 135, IFR, single pilot check ride. Try to focus on his accomplishments as a pilot, as he had to have quite a few to make it this far, rather than this one flight.