yesterday’s learjet crash — explained — if you want more analysis, which i don’t think is really necessary, but he did add a little more color if yer having trouble picturing it — again, RIP — i think what did ’em in was losing their horizontal stabilizer — that’s almost certainly what turned them into a missile
I tell you what, I was in a little jet like that for the milk-run between Belize City and Punta Gorda, Belize nearly 35 years ago. The cockpit was not blocked off from the passenger compartment and I was right behind the pilot. We’d just taken off from the last stop before the end of the line when the pilot got news of a swiftly approaching thunderstorm. It had not been there when he’d checked in at the other stops, but it sure as heck was now.
No sooner had he informed me what was up, than that sucker started to hit. We were experiencing what it’s like to be one of those little rubber balls tethered to a paddle right away. Pilot says, “Whaddaya say we turn around and go back to the last stop?” and I’m all, “Yyyuuupp!”
We do, and we land, and he helps me out of the jet, and I ask him, “Did we just almost die back there?’ and he’s all, “Yyyuuupp!”
I said all that to assure you I’ve been there, and that ain’t no foolin’ around.
