742
Student pilot successfully lands plane after instructor jumps to death mid-flight (www.dexerto.com)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world
209 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Flight instructor: "Do your best, lol."

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 18 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Simple, people assume "student pilot" means doom without realizing how far along people fly with instructors.

I think it's much to assume the surprise is about gender instead of the word "student".

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    I suppose. However this line then doesn't sit right:

    [The] student pilot named Rosario already had a private pilot license but was still building up her flying hours

    Strictly speaking she was in the role of a student, but it's not like she didn't know what she was doing. If she already had a private pilot licence, what else is there to assume?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 8 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    She was flying with a flight instructor in the role of student. I think that's enough for a lay person to take those words at face value, not knowing what a PPL means. Even if they searched it up, they'd see 40 hours of flight time, and that's similar to the requirement to give a teenager a driver's license, and it may be hard to square that with landing a plane, which is a very intimating task to people who have mostly never flown an aircraft.

    I've seen similar stories about incapacitated flight instructors and celebration of student pilots making it out safely, and I think the reporting is similarly "surprised" about a mere "student" getting out unscathed whether male or female.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago

    To reinforce the point: This is a very stressful situation to place an experienced pilot in where essentially your copilot commits suicide during the flight. I'm sure there are a lot of experienced pilots who might make a mistake in the shock of that scenario.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent