What was he thinking?

[OneHungLow]

Any other examples, aviation wise or not where one might ask "what was he/she thinking?"

[OneHungLow]

Mike Hughes...

[Boac]

Do we know why the Navajo was filled with fuel? Was the flight to be that long? Perhaps with the leaking tan it was like the Lightning - "Fill 'er up, chief, and I'll try and get airborne before it all leaks away".

As they say, Mad Mike' would have 'died doing what he wanted to do' (120mph??) .................. perhaps it was 'assisted suicide'?

[OneHungLow]

Do we know why the Navajo was filled with fuel? Was the flight to be that long? Perhaps with the leaking tan it was like the Lightning - "Fill 'er up, chief, and I'll try and get airborne before it all leaks away".

As they say, Mad Mike' would have 'died doing what he wanted to do' (120mph??) .................. perhaps it was 'assisted suicide'?

I believe he, i.e. the Navajo pilot (an ex-military' aviator and ex-senior airline pilot with thousands of hours with a major carrier) intended to fly +- 250 nautical miles through Kansas City and Wichita airspaces, all the while with gear down, leaking fuel, engines low on power and out of phase, presumably in ground effect! I mean what could go wrong, as it did from the off?

What were the FAA thinking of in authorizing this suicide ferry flight?

[Boac]

BUT! You don't need 140USG to do that? The world is full of loonies!

[OneHungLow]

BUT! You don't need 140USG to do that? The world is full of loonies!

True. Maybe he was of the "you can never have too much fuel unless you are on fire" mindset! Well he soon was on fire! Poor bugger! Lunacy might very well have been the root cause of this disaster!

[OneHungLow]

What were ATC and the pilot of this helicopter thinking of tracking/across/down the active with a fixed wing aircraft on short final!

[llondel]

For the last one in that set, with the A380, I remember flying a 747, probably a Virgin one, to SFO, and was sitting next to a woman and her young son. I told him to look at where the wing is on the ground, relative to the window, and then look again when we got airborne. It is definitely noticeable in the bigger aircraft when you've got helpful local fixed references.

[Woody]

For the last one in that set, with the A380, I remember flying a 747, probably a Virgin one, to SFO, and was sitting next to a woman and her young son. I told him to look at where the wing is on the ground, relative to the window, and then look again when we got airborne. It is definitely noticeable in the bigger aircraft when you've got helpful local fixed references.

Especially noticeable on a 787

787

[OFSO]

Aka the scream liner, for those of us living under LHR departures.