Originally Posted by
Toryu
Ok, I'll spell it out for you one more time - in color:
Suicidal people don't think or act rationally, so stop putting the blame-game onto him like he was a rationally thinking person.
Merely being suicidal and acting irrationally doesn't absolve someone from responsibility as if it equates to being insane or having a severe, low-functioning IQ level that prevents them from knowing right from wrong or understanding the consequences of their actions. People who commit crimes while acting irrationally are blamed and held accountable for their irrational acts in courts and other walks of life every day, including those motivated by suicide. In a botched attempt to kill oneself that harms others through recklessness or creating a hazard, the person attempting/creating isn't given a free pass. They'll be blamed/charged/held accountable even in cases of diminished capacity where impulses got the better of them if they knew what they were doing was wrong or knew it posed a hazard to others.
While you may not agree, and erroneously believe that awareness-of and ability to make alternative of choices automatically ceases to exist in all suicidal people and are therefore blameless, that's the way it is. There's no free pass for all decisions one makes or their consequences just because they expressed the intent to not hurt anyone else.
From his communication with ATC there's no question he was aware what he had done/was doing was wrong (says guys like him should go to prison), that it was dangerous with the potential to harm others (said he didn't want to, showing recognition that it could), and that there would be consequences for his actions (again prison, potentially hurting someone, get shot down, get roughed up, negatively affecting loved ones, etc etc). He was obviously high-functioning enough to hold a job, get married, go to college, travel the world, and narrate videos that show no sign of a severely low IQ level.
He may have been troubled, unstable, depressed, pissed-off at life, or whatever it was that caused him to be suicidal, but as to the question of him knowing he had other choices with regards to method those reasons are irrelevant. There many, many methods that don’t involve committing a series of federal crimes, creating enormous hazards to others, and destroying millions of dollars worth or property. He was aware of those other choices, and the act itself and all his communication points to him having consciously made the reckless and criminal choices he did instead. He wanted to joyride awhile in an airplane and then try his hand at some aerobatics I supposed to see if real life was like his games over 70 minutes while refusing continuous offers for help along the way, then go out with a bang.
If he had somehow survived he’d be facing a long stretch in Federal prison once it was established he knew what he was doing was wrong and made those choices anyway, no matter how bad or irrational it was to do so. Being suicidal doesn't give one the right to commit crimes, recklessly endanger others, or destroy millions of dollars worth of property. Successfully killing oneself while doing all the aforementioned doesn't magically earn them a pardon.