Originally Posted by
runway30
I feel desperately sorry for the family of Dave Ibbotson who must have had no idea that he was putting himself into such danger. Because everybody is trying to pass the blame to someone else, we are probably seeing things that we shouldn’t. We know from the emails released that it was always planned to be a night flight so somebody has got Dave Ibbotson there by telling him or letting him believe that it was a daytime flight, knowing all along that it would be a nightime flight that he did not have the skills to undertake. It was so dangerous and so reckless. Yes, Dave Ibbotson should have said no but he probably spent the day wondering how to get out of it and I wonder if the reported RTOs were Dave Ibbotson knowing that he really wasn’t equipped to do it. If he had have survived as far as Cardiff, what were his chances if it was his first time ILS at night? In that weather?
Likewise I very feel sorry him and his family, I also believe there must have been many other external pressures put on David for him to knowingly set off on a flight he was clearly not qualified in so many ways to undertake.
Those pressures most likely came from the football club brokers who organised the flight, his so called friend who asked him to do the flight, financial pressure from various sources, the whole thing sinks to high heaven and I do hope the people involved with arranging this flight are found guilty and jailed along with their assets taken off them and sold.
Although sadly the buck does stop with the pilot in command to say no I cannot do it today.