Just toss your pride in the back seat and declare an emergency. No more confusion, just follow the vectors and alt changes. No paperwork, just say help! I was a controller for over 40 yrs, pilots declaring does not piss anyone off. Pilots, when in doubt, declare, nothing happens except you are the number #1 focus and priority. The controller will ask a few questions so they're fully aware and then it's all about getting you down safely.

If only there had been a pilot on board, this disaster could have been averted.

I cannot believe that they took off after not diagnosing a master alarm. Absolutely unforgivable.

This flight was doomed from engine start. Not a checklist within a million miles. No CIGAR. No pre-takeoff avionics configuration. No departure briefing. No line up check. No after takeoff or cruise checks. Almost lost it on takeoff. No approach brief (that goes without saying) Absolute disaster from the beginning. The pilot was so far behind the airplane, it’s a miracle he’s survived as long as he did. It’s so sad for the poor innocent people on board.

I have read a ton of CVR transcripts and accident reports over the years. This one is one of if not the worst I heave seen. This wasn’t a bad day this was just absolute incompetence, failure to plan, failure to level the wings and sort it out to live another day. RIP

I've been flying 28.5 years and what I witnessed in this transcript was beyond comprehension. I couldn't even call these two individuals in the cockpit pilots. They broke every rule in aviation and sounded like they were absolutely clueless. RIP to the 8 victims.

These boys were way past declaring an emergency. They just needed to fly the airplane , wings level and 60% throttle should have done the trick. And if you need to navigate then ease the nose over to the Big W /270 degrees and land will soon appear. The pilot should stop talking and only fly with wings level and trim for zero clime or descent , 60% throttle. Old pilots were taught this when they were young pilots. Pilots who fly in bad weather are buried in sunshine.

They proceeded in spite of over 3 minutes of master caution without diagnosing that??? OMG. No hope.

Trying to reengage the autopilot again and again and again is foolish. Fly the plane and ask ATC for help. That's what they are there for.

Wow I can't believe they were so unprepared in this advanced aircraft. They were behind the plane since takeoff. RIP for all who died.

They were behind the aircraft even before takeoff. Who in their right mind ignores a master caution while still pressing on. ?

I do not think there were any PILOTS in the plane that day, sad😢.

1st rule Fly the plane 2nd rule Fly the plane I think you get the plan

I'm not a pilot, but if my brake light came on in my car, I wouldn't plan on driving it a few 100 miles. This is just unbelievable.

Some people mentally are just not capable of being a pilot. I am astonished this pilot ever managed to pass the written portion of the test. I cannot see anything he did that was even merely adequate. The outcome is not surprising.

I worked for a jetliner company for 20 years, as an acoustics guy, I helped playback voice recorder data recovered from crashes involving our aircraft. Its a sad, solemn thing to listen to a person's last words. I never got accustomed to it.

There are a lot of things that can affect our performance and behavior. We, the armchair quarterbacks, cannot understand how someone could be checked out in a sophisticated airplane like the Pilatus and *not* know what a particular warning horn was, nor how to remedy it. Furthermore, we cannot understand why he would not have entered even a basic VFR flight plan into the FMS, knowing (as he surely did) that there was special-use airspace along his route of flight. It's puzzling - how could a supposedly-competent pilot make these errors? It is very clear that the PIC did little-to-no flight planning. Seems like they just got to the airport, loaded up, jumped in and went. Clearly, this PIC (the father) was sick. He mentioned that he had a lot of back pain - so much that he was taking oxycodone (which he even admitted on the CVR). The day prior to the flight, he reported to his regular doctor that he still had pain in his hip, leg and back. He had told his oncologist (cancer doctor) that the back pain was from "breaking concrete." The guy was 67 years old and 221 pounds, so...maybe he was out swinging a sledgehammer...maybe not. PLUS! He became positive for COVID-19 just the month prior to the accident. From the coughing we hear (read) on the CVR transcript, he was still suffering from the effects of it. Maybe he had a worse case than he was admitting? The frequent frustrated exhalations on the CVR make me think he was expending quite a lot of energy just managing his pain, and that was probably diverting his attention away from the task at hand. He sounds really distracted. He initially didn't want to curse in front of his (adult) son, but as things get worse and worse and his frustration increases, he lets the F-bombs and other curse words fly. Man, I've been there! Thankfully, just not in the cockpit of a big plane with a bunch of passengers whose lives depend on me. His son, only a 20-hour student pilot but acting as "copilot" for this trip was evidently not all that familiar with how the FMS worked, especially when it came to entering flight plans. Sometimes unqualified copilots can be more of a hindrance than a help. The PIC ends up having to his own job AND monitor the other guy, making sure he does the right things. It actually 'increases' the workload instead of decreasing it. I'm no accident investigator, but I believe that this pilot was impaired in some way that compromised his ability to manage what should have been a short, simple flight. Was it the back pain? Was it the oxycodone? Was it the COVID? Was it something else? According to the NTSB, they never recovered his body, so we'll probably never find out. But if ever there was a pilot who probably should have grounded himself until his COVID and other pain issues were resolved, it was him. Sad.

Very sad to imagine the confusion and frustration they were experiencing. Thank you for putting this together. It will be interesting to see what the NTSB comes back with.

Thanks for the video. May I make a suggestion? Your information is good. Perhaps you could allow your pages to remain in place, especially those with long commentary, a bit longer. I consider myself a good reader, yet there was insuffecient time to read the print at a moderate pace, before the next frame. I look forward to more of your work.

Don't know how these two guys ever got their pilot licenses and their type rating. They didn't know a single thing about the aircraft they were flying and its navigation systems. It actually seemed they didn't even know the basics of aircraft flight.

In 1978, my ancient, Korean War pilot & CFI hammered "Aviate-Navigate-Communicate" in that order. Years later, in USAF UPT we were taught: "1. Maintain Aircraft Control, 2. Analyze the Situation, 3. Take Proper Action..." how in the heck any rated pilot can take a perfectly flyable aircraft with 4300' of altitude; then stall and crash it should be beyond comprehension. Accidents involving seemingly controllable aircraft with ample altitude is deeply concerning. It raises crucial questions about the effectiveness of current training, pilots' basic understanding of systems and the potential presence of systemic factors contributing to these tragedies. With the current push to rush new pilots through the system to fill open airline flight decks, we must collectively examine these events with a critical and objective lens to ensure the future safety of our skies.

Wow, so sad. I don't know the PIC's experience but given that he was in the PC-12 I suspect it was significant. Nothing about this flight went well. There seemed to be no preparation and no competence with the avionics. Basic IFR principles weren't followed as this wasn't flown on an instrument flight plan, only flight following. I get the impression that the pilot didn't even have a plan of where they were going except for "just follow the coast". This shouldn't be used to blast the pour souls that were lost that day but a warning for the rest of us. Everything has to be set before launching otherwise you are starting the flight behind the airplane. Know your avionics cold, never expect the person you are flying with to be able to do anything for you (great if they can help but you must know everything about the plane). If W&B was ignored, when they got slow he may not have been able to push the nose down and his attempt to add power only lead to an accelerated stall. In potentially IFR conditions along route (even if VFR on top) just file a flight plan, it's not any more work and far safer. Lastly, while not "legal" for IFR flight, if they just had some redundancy in the cockpit like Foreflight they likely wouldn't have lost situational awareness that exacerbated their already stressed response to not being able to program their avionics. RIP

If you can't properly OPERATE the AUTOMATION in modern High Preformance Aircraft you don.t belong in the Left or Right seat. instructor to pilot (Fly the ##### airplane) Stop ######## with the (Radio/Vor/Nav/ect.) just Fly the ##### airplane. How many times did I hear that?

It's absolutely unbelievable how this situation developed into a crash... May they all rest in peace.

For a start. All Route Data Entry is completed BEFORE Engine Start. Secondly, you absolutely NEVER, Ever attempt to go flying with a continuous Master Caution or cockpit Warning. It’s there for a reason. I’d have just shut down and gone and got Engineering to come and look at it!

You did an amazing job putting this video together. It is artfully done, and absolutely horrifying. thanks!

It’s incredible to me how anybody could get a license to fly an airplane and do such a horrendous job at staying in the air. Wow

It appears they never even seen a picture of the aircraft they were flying, much less flying it!

Flying a plane is not like getting in your car, starting it, and following Apple Maps through a complicated city of roads. As a truck driver, I do my pre trip inspection, do the required paperwork, plan my route, drive, check mirrors, surrounds, make sure gauge’s are within normal range, drive repeat. None of that stuff was followed here for flight.

I am addicted to Air Crash docco's. This (on the face of it at least) is easily the most insane crash scenario I have ever heard of. Reading comments from @ThatBobGuy850 (Thankyou - great narrative) The pilot had cancer and was taking oxycodone (he said it on CVR) and told his Dr the day prior he had pain in his leg, hip and back. Why did he think he was medically to fly in that state and at 67 years of age. I doubt he would have passed any medical assessment to fly. His son was the co-pilot but with only 20 hrs student flying time; the aircraft was complex, there was restricted airspace enroute; no fly plan was lodged. The master alarm sounds as soon as they start the aircraft; Instead of shutting the aircraft down, they shut the master alarm off undiagnosed!! Once airborne from outset they could not enter a flight plan and this ongoing failure preoccupied them throughout the flight. Why didn't they just declare emergency and allow Flt Control to direct them down?. There was no hope for the poor flight crew and passengers. It will be very interesting to hear what the NTSB final report says.

Having a nice moving map onboard showing where they were all the time, they forgot to just hand fly it

As a retired airline pilot, I have to say I have never seen such confusion and total lack of profiency in both the operation of the avionics and autopilot and the basic flying of the aircraft. I’d love to know where these guys got their training or lack thereof.

The autopilot disconnect not muting was indicative of an issue too. Had that happen when the autopikot goofed on the NG and had to turn off the audible alarm behind pilot seat. You cannot begine to think reasonably with that thing wailing in your headset! Prayers for all aboard and their family.

I agree the flight plan should have been entered prior to departure. We don't know the expirience or ratings of pilot(s) or recency in instrument flight. They were not qualified for these circumstances. RIP

Someone had an IFR panic attack...

While the pilot problems are definitely key, I have noticed no one has addressed the some other issues. 1. Restricted airspace along a busy flight corridor 2. Points for two different approaches that are similar enough to get confused with each other. 3. Restricted airspace overlying an instrument approach fix. While there is plenty the pilot could have done to prevent his problems, could the elimination of one or more of the problems no one is talking about been the difference between a really bad flight and those deaths?

They were bind this aircraft a full week before this flight. Incredible. I've got to see the NTSB report. Those poor people.

Swiss cheese model at work here I belive. Master caution before departure probably indication of some sort issue with aircraft combined with a pilot that had a medical issue that affected his ability to operate the aircraft safely. RIP to all.

Wow, that was incredibly made. The music, the presentation with the flight sim, it was so engaging. Outstanding work, SUBSCRIBED AND HOPING FOR MORE!

This brings me back to my IT days - when folks would do absolutely no work to learn the tools they needed for their job, and then blame the tool. These pilots were trying to figure out how to fly their plane after it took off.

My father was a USN ATC in the late 60s early 70s out of South Weymouth NAS. THE base is gone now but those were good times., especially when the Blue Angels came to town in Skyhawks.

So this pilot: 1) didn’t use procedures, ever. 2) Didn’t know how to work the airplane 3) didn’t take sound recommendations from the student copilot 4) didn’t question or think critically about alarming conditions 5) was horribly unprofessional in cockpit communications 6) didn’t have the humility to ask for help 7) apparently routinely flew with degraded situational awareness (I hate when this happens, like it’s normal sometimes) 8) was either scared, or unable To hand fly the plane, and thus resorted to chaos when autopilot wouldn’t behave 9) had no concept of owning a situation, putting a plane in a safe place and figuring out a plan 10) created a toxic and negative cockpit environment by constantly cursing and being dramatic about small problems 11) wasn’t familiar with stall recovery I might be missing some. A lot of these are really easy to empathize with and see yourself making the same mistakes under the right circumstances, but this guy didn’t have any business operating an R/C Airplane, let alone a complex high performance aircraft.

I don't understand why he was trying to force the autopilot to fly the plane so freakin hard?? Jesus, it was almost like he was having a massive brainfart for the whole flight! First rule is to "Fly" the plane?

Moral of this story-don't fly a plane if you don't know what you're doing.

Wow ! This is soooo bad - These guys are so far over their heads . Just $$$$$ !

Been saying the since jfk jr. If they just called a qualified pilot. Could have saved them all.

Was this there first time in an airplane? Holy Christ

Defying gravity is for the well-prepared and the highly-skilled.

I used to drive public transportation (buses) and I took myself out of service due to illness/fatigue several times over the years. I wasn’t willing to risk public safety by operating a vehicle on the ground. I can’t understand why this flight crew ever taxied without resolving the Master Alarm first.

Not sure how the times ended up wrong the cockpit voice recorder time stamps, the plane crashed about 2:01pm.

I found myself almost screaming "turn off the damn autopilot and fly the freakin airplane!!!"

The wrong people in the wrong plane at the wrong time .

Typically we see a pilot who can’t fly the airplane and then the autopilot disconnects and it’s over. This pilot was different. Not only did he not know how to fly the airplane, he also somehow didn’t know how to enter the flight plan and use the autopilot. Pretty remarkable.

We all come with a number, so upon entering any ode of Transportation Check everyones NUMBER see they aren't the same.

Rest Easy Crew and Passengers. One certainty is our Coast Guard will always be ready for a search and rescue call.

Cant imagine how the passengers must have felt during all this. Probably couldnt hear much I suppose since pilots wearing headphones but they had to know something was very wrong! Almost seemed like they didnt have a full understanding of how their autpilot and nav systems worked. Im no pilot but mess around with msfs 2020 enough to know Ive had trouble using gps systems in flight planning etc. The troubles they seemed to have sound like the sort of issues ive had when wondering why the plane wasnt turning to correct heading because plane was in Nav mode instead of hdg mode... but what do i know! I think Id of been letting atc know i needed help. But then Id never attempt the real thing either. Very sad for all affected!

From what I gather, the health condition of the PIC was not good. If your not on your game, even though you passed the last medical months back, you need to pull yourself aside.

Aviate, navigate, communicate! But the PIC said navigate, all the while he couldn’t even aviate!

Just so you know, # means expletive language.

Would a pilot of this make and model , please answer one question does this plane have a level button on the auto pilot. This video doesn't answer many questions. How many hous did the pilot have? Was he ifr current? How many hours in actual ifr? Well if you have the 4 or 5 mill to spend, you can buy yourself anything you want

It seems like they didn't have any proper navigation plan so depending on the equipment and weren't flying the plane

As one of many pilots watching this I'm sure, I can only say is "WTF OVER?" Its hard to believe these 2 yahoo's were able to get the turbine started.

What a senseless act that cost everyone’s life! No preflight briefing, checklist, waypoints not bugged into the computer until airborne, when lost did not ask ground for assistance/ vectors to avoid the restricted area, and again not asking for vectors when they couldn’t enter CIGOR waypoint! Pilots. It familiar with the aircraft instruments. Essentially the pilots murdered everyone on board with their gotta get there incompetent mentality.

We can get into the weeds on other factors for sure... But with the recent Jenny Blalock crash... and this one... one thing is clear... If your auto-pilot isn't doing what you want... SHUT THE DAMN THING OFF and FLY the plane straight and level. Once you're straight and level and at a consistent speed, you've got all the time in the world to sort through your problems. Simplify the problems... Engine working and giving you power? Can you hand fly it to something approximating straight and level? Airspeed sufficient? Are you about to hit something, or fly somewhere you don't want go? Right there... if you resolve those issues... you'll have stabilized your situation and can work on the next problem... getting down with your hide intact. Just consider the auto-pilot dead from then on... get on the horn to ATC... declare an emergency and request vectors to an airport and set the thing down and get parked. You can figure out what went wrong after you're safe and sound on the ground. Getting too hung up on misbehaving avionics, while you let your relationship with the airplane devolve into a 1 versus 2 tag team match, pitting YOU versus the team of The Airplane and Gravity, is a really good way to end your flying career as freshly made cat food.

Few hours of Flight Training. Don't Stall the Airplane. #1 rule flying. He was not prepared and sounds like it was loaded to the Max. Center of Gravity issue or Flight Trim got away from him.

I am 60 yrs old. First time my children introduced me to Call of Duty the script could have read like this. A clueless fumbling about with IT I did not understand and so I got killed. Should have ignored all the blinking lights and just used my military training from way back.

I'm 59. I get frustrated with tech. "Why won't the printer talk to the computer?"... So I keep bashing the keys and swearing until it does... This is exactly what this guy was doing. He got focused on trying to force the tech to work instead of simply flying the plane straight and level. In reality, 67 year olds should not be flying high tech machines. They are out of their 1970's comfort zones of knobs, levers and switches.

Sigh, I hate seeing this. These pilots were so far behind the aircraft, it is unacceptable that this crew took the aircraft up. You fly like you train, and these two obviously had poor training. Fly the fucking plane, aviate, navigate, communicate. Very sad.

Thank you for posting this tragic but fascinating video! I realize you may not know this, but I am curious whether the pilots were father and son. I’m just wondering why the copilot was calling out “Dad!” Of course, he could have been calling for his parent in fear and panic, but usually men call out for their mothers. (I don’t know any stories about who women call on in such situations.)

MASTER CAUTION? "Meh, turn it off" FLIGHT PLAN? "Nah...."

Tragic outcome of this flight had nothing to do with the decision to fly. Rather, had to do with an unfortunate chain of negative events that simply overwhelmed the pilot and the aircraft's ability to recover from them.

Nice music choice, thanks.

I'm a flight enthusiast but certainly no pilot. In this situation can you not just get the plane to level flight, keep it there for a minute or two, and then re-assess everything? I must be missing something.

When he flew it up into a stall, the kid knew enough to tell him to push it down, meaning push the nose down to regain speed and get out of a stall condition. They'd been better off trying the whole thing without Mr. Expletive Dad at all. Mind-bogglingly bad pilotage.

When my "Check engine" on my car comes on, I won't put it in drive until I know the reason. Yet they took off not knowing? Unreal!

Very sad. All RIP.

I am amazed by these types of incidents. It's like the guys knew nothing about flying an aircraft. And the fact that they would ignore warnings while taxying and stuff, crazy.

What aircraft was this?

I am not a pilot, but neither of them had any business flying if they don't know how to enter waypoints into the nav system and don't know how to get out of a stall. They were so consumed by the nav workload the neglected to watch their speed and altitude. as if neither was flying the plane and both were working nav? sad, but they should have been paired with an instructor.

This is sarcasm, yes, but were these 2 guys actually licensed pilots? This flight was nothing but chaos and disaster from the get-go. R.I.P. guys.

Thorough understanding of FMS and all the alienautics comes from proper training, and these "pilots" should have never been signed off to operate aircraft. The PIC should have been acutely aware of deficiencies in knowledge & skills and should of sought out competent training.

I kept wondering what the hell the co-pilot (-2) was doing. Turns out there was no co-pilot. The person in the right seat was a student pilot, and the pilot's own son. Sad to hear he kept saying "Dad" on the way down. Also, if a cockpit recording of TNFlyGirl is found, I think it will be a lot like this one. Trying to get the avionics to fly you out of a bad situation. All the way to the ground.

How did they pass a check ride. The airplane and its systems were completely unknown to them.

Complete incompetence! This pilot, and it’s hard for me to even call him this was a complete ABORTION! 15 Million Dollar settlement was enough. This man killed these people.

In all my years of flying I have never witnessed such incompetence and arrogance.

OMG, not prepared at all, no frequencies on a knee board. Let alone the MASTER warning during start up & taxi! Once airborne copilot seemed more aware than pilot. They had a chance, but that ended at wheels up

I'm not a pilot. It boggles my mind how these two could be responsible for flying a plane

My question is who gave the PIC a type rating? He has a commercial and was an AGI with a student in the right seat who with only 20 hours seems to have more of an idea of what’s going on with the airplane than him. This guy feels like a guy who didn’t have a checkout in the airplane let alone a type rating to fly the PC-12 single pilot.

Incompetence displayed at 110%. Neither of them should’ve been in the cockpit.

can you imagine the passengers in the back listening to the pilot screaming and cursing for minutes, as the plane's G forces jostle you around and the sun keeps coming in and out? absolute horror!

needs a thorough investigation into training/checking/type rating process. these guys weren't fit to fly a 152!!!

We always get warnings, but we always seem to not listen to them That's the cadillac of the skies your Ifr and got an emergency get to vfr And notify what you're doing It looks like these guys didn't know what they were doing Or they didn't know the airplane at all That's why you Should have a handheld it will get you out of. trouble

makes you wonder if heaaring the warning might have helped them or maybe they would have had better luck letting go of the controls turn off the Auto pilot and let the plane get them out (I jest but insane as it sounds , it would be a better choice than what they were doing. Cockpit dash fixated, stressed, ZERO situational awareness inside the plane and outside, to the ppoint i could have probably got out of that and ive only flown sims for fun, but understand stall and the light in the seat up stick forward to get some forward momentom and lift on those wings. Helps if you know up from down out the window but i think they tried to go up when they should have nose down and gone with it to get some speed and lift on the wings then stay just below horizon . BUT IM NOT A PILOT SO IGNORE EVERYTHING I SAID, BUT THATS WHAT the 4 hours in flight sim GAMER in me WOULD DO. Never assume your cre4ating lift and bring drag and stall if you have enough height to sort out an engine fail hell WW" lost one wing and losing blood in the dark mil pilots have got out of far worse than these had in front of them, panic stress just gave them a mental block but my my this shouldnt have happened whatever it was. unless he had a stroke and the other pilot did too

Just because you can afford to be a pilot doesn't mean you should be🤷

Why do the NTSB used the phrase "fatally injured" instead of died, or killed?

The worst thing is two pilots with this level of incompetence took up family with them

Stunning incompetence.

Good video. Notes to make it better would be reading out of transcript highlights. Without any dialogue it just seems a bit neutral.

Just another reason why the Swiss made Pilates and French made TBM should be considered by the FAA as aircraft necessary for type ratings. Anybody with a PPL can fly either of these aircraft yet they’re complexities are way beyond the original design of the basic PPL. I don’t think a type rating would have to be an annual recurrent as it is in a turbo fan,however every 36 months would certainly be appropriate on a recur basis. I know this comment ruffles a lot of feathers, because there are so many pilots that are completely confident, but then again, others slip through the cracks, as is obviously evident here, and in other situations. Rest in peace.

Those who gave this pilot an instrument rating should be ashamed of them selves. Clearly the pilot wasn't qualified for this. And to be honest I doubt he even should be qualified as a pilot. Period. To be this engaged in an autopilot configuration you clearly do not understand until you hit the water is mind boggling. With all these problems he should have gone hand flying VFR immediately. Communicating with ATC that he had problems with autopilot and landed.