Pilot’s perspective

Editor’s note: Jane Chastain is a licensed pilot with multi-engine and instrument ratings, who lives on a runway and owns two airplanes. She was flying one of her airplanes during the time of the incident in Tampa.

The suicide flight of 15-year-old Charles Bishop was tragic but, at the same time, reassuring.

It is the sad story of a troubled youth of divorced parents who took his life. This young boy, without a dominant male figure in his life, apparently was depressed beyond anything anyone could have imagined. Bishop, whose family name was once Bishara, may have been searching for his roots when he penned a note of sympathy for Osama bin Laden, tucked it into his pocket and flew into the Tampa skyscraper.

Authorities say the boy’s father has been out of the mother’s and son’s lives for some time. However, studies show that divorce is a long-term problem for the children involved. A quarter or more of the children of divorced parents develop major, lasting problems. Boys, who tend to hide their pain, suffer even more than girls, who show more emotions. Children of divorce often grow up with low self-esteem, tending toward depression and anxiety. They find it hard to tie their emotional problems to something that happened years earlier and this makes their situations seem even more hopeless.

Bishop apparently excelled in school but was a loner. He hadn’t shared his interest in flying with his classmates or his teachers, which is quite extraordinary. Learning to fly is a big deal for an adult, but for a youngster it is huge!

Nevertheless, the lesson in this premature end of a promising young life is that general aviation poses no serious threat to public health and safety. In all likelihood, a small plane aimed at a skyscraper will do less damage than a car driven into the same building – for one simple reason: Most general aviation planes are lighter than cars. Reports are that Bishop’s plane hit just a few feet from a structural member of the building. If it had gone into a structural beam, in all likelihood it would have bounced off and simply tumbled to the ground.

Last week, a paneled van mowed down six bystanders in New York City and it was barely reported in the local papers. Each year cars and trucks are driven into storefronts. Hundreds of people have been killed and scores injured in this manner. However, in the last 20 years there have been only 19 pilots who have taken their own lives in airplanes. That is quite amazing when you consider that there are 640,000 licensed pilots in this country. About 80 percent of those are general aviation (non-commercial) pilots.

Statistically, flying is incredibly safe. Yes, even if your trip is in a small plane. The most dangerous part of flying is your drive to the airport. You are about seven times more likely to be involved in a car accident than you are in flying a light aircraft. There are many more fatalities each year in recreational boating than in general aviation. It is possible to ram a passenger ship with a recreational watercraft, yet no one is obsessing over security at the local marinas.

Pilots are much healthier, physically and mentally, than the average boater, driver, motorcycle rider and tractor operator. Why? The Federal Aviation Administration requires that pilots pass regular rigorous physicals. Anyone with a history of mental problems or using any type of mind-altering drug automatically is disqualified.

It’s not that difficult to steal a small plane, but the overwhelming majority of people capable of getting planes off the ground are responsible and sane.

It’s a lot easier to steal a small plane than hijack an airliner. However, as illustrated by the death of young Charles Bishop, a small plane would be of very little use to a terrorist.