AOPA Says Its Efforts Kept Young Pilots Flying, While Grounding "Stunt" Flights

It was ten years ago today -- April 11, 1996 -- that a Cessna 177 Cardinal took off and headed straight for a huge thunderstorm cell outside of Cheyenne, WY. The plane, already over its gross weight limit, was no match for the powerful storm... and the encounter ended, sadly but predictably, with the deaths of the three people onboard.

Accidents such as this occur far too frequently for any pilot's taste, but rarely do such mishaps attract as much media attention as this one did. The NTSB attributed the cause to the pilot in command's decision to take off into what was clearly deteriorating weather. Nothing we haven't heard before... but the NTSB also listed a new twist as a contributing cause -- "a desire to adhere to an overly ambitious itinerary, in part, because of media commitments. pressure to meet a schedule of media interviews."

Because of the general media, the "pilot" wasn't the 52-year-old flight instructor in the right seat; it was the seven-year-old little girl on the left, Jessica Dubroff -- who was sitting on a booster seat, reaching for rudder-pedal extensions, all in a much-hyped quest to set a record for the "youngest pilot" to fly across the United States.

Jessica was a media darling with her fresh face and spunky attitude, ready to take on the adventure of piloting an aircraft from "sea to shining sea" as her promotional material said. Her father, Lloyd Dubroff, was good at promotion. Even the major media like the Today Show and Good Morning America got caught up in the hype.

The media fallout from her tragic death nearly changed general aviation, according to AOPA President Phil Boyer.

"It was crazy," said Boyer. "Everyone was screaming about allowing children to fly airplanes, and Congress was hot to pass laws to prevent the tragedy from ever happening again. We had our work cut out for us to bring reason and sanity back to the situation."

"We tried to dissuade them," recalled Warren Morningstar, then AOPA's media relations director, about Jessica's flight. "I explained to every media outlet I talked to that Jessica couldn't set a record because she couldn't be the pilot in command. She was, at best, a passenger allowed to manipulate the controls."

It didn't matter. Even the FAA got caught up in the hype, according to AOPA. The FAA administrator asked Boyer what the agency should do to celebrate the flight. Boyer wisely responded, essentially -- "don't."

Dubroff's flight was, for all practical purposes, a publicity stunt -- one that was meant to look awe-inspiring on video, heartwarming in print. Media around the globe ran photos of the smiling little girl, at the controls of what the FAA defines as a high-performance aircraft.

Such "stunts" often have to meet a harsh schedule in order to look good in the public eye, however... which likely explains the ill-considered decision by Dubroff's flight instructor, Joe Reid, and her father to continue the flight.

In the wake of the resulting crash, the same media that had celebrated the flight suddenly (finally?) questioned the logic of such an endeavor. There was significant outcry over the notion -- celebrated just days before -- of letting a little girl fly an airplane.

The public at large -- never ones to doubt the 20/20 wisdom of hindsight -- attacked the media for hyping the flight. Many also harshly criticized Jessica's mother, Lisa Hathaway, for allowing her daughter to partake in such an endeavor.

Years after the accident, Hathaway published an online book, in which she insisted Jessica died while trying to fulfill her dream. That's probably true... but dreams often carry a price, especially when efforts are made to tailor-fit those dreams to a press junket schedule.

After the crash, Boyer and the AOPA media team did interview after interview, explaining the concept of pilot in command and the dual controls on a modern GA aircraft. AOPA says its efforts led to changes that would prohibit such stunt flights, yet preserved the ability to introduce young people to aviation -- calling the outcome "the best possible result from a very bad confluence of circumstances."

To that end, Boyer even took a video of dual controls onto Larry King Live. He later used that same video in front of congressional committees.

He needed it. Congress was ready to pass legislation preventing anyone under the age of 16 from even touching the controls of an aircraft -- putting such programs as Aviation Explorer Scouts, EAA's Young Eagles, and every other attempt — both organized and individual — to safely share the wonder of flight with the next generation, at significant risk.

Fortunately, those lobbying efforts were successful. The Child Pilot Safety Act was passed, which prohibits a pilot in command from allowing a nonpilot to work the controls of an aircraft if the nonpilot is attempting to set a record or engage in an aeronautical competition.

It also put an end to the competition of younger and younger "pilots" trying to set "records." Call it the difference between putting young "pilots" in the left seat... versus introducing young Pilots (with a capital "P") to the concept of flight, as well as to the inherent risks and responsibility.

One senses no one ever really, seriously, had that discussion with Jessica Dubroff... or if she would have been wise enough at seven to understand it. And we'll never know.

FMI: Read The NTSB Probable Cause Report On The Dubroff Accident