Originally Posted by
FH1100 Pilot
It will come out in the NTSB report, of course, but I'd bet that the "safety pilot" in the EC130 was a freshly-rated pilot (perhaps not even IFR-rated) who was going along for the experience. Following roads is not always a guarantee of a safe arrival. Quick story: Once, back in the 1980's, very early in my career as a 135 pilot, I had to take a late-night trip from NYC to Atlantic City, New Jersey. Believe it or not, there is a lot of *nothing* in the middle of New Jersey. The weather was not great. My plan was to follow the Garden State Parkway, not the New Jersey Turnpike which would have made the trip longer. Long story short, there were big stretches of the "GSP" where there were *NO* cars. We're talking black, BLACK flying. I realized too late that I'd made the wrong choice and was in trouble. Holy crap, it was scary. And it became basically a low-level IFR flight until the lights of Atlantic City finally came into view. Still gives me shivers just thinking back on it. So I understand what those two boys in the EC130 were going through. Sadly, their flight ended more tragically than mine - mostly because I got lucky and they didn't, I suppose. Sometimes we pilots rely too much on luck.
Yeah, I got close to that one night over the desert just following I-10. Scary and disorientating pretty quick!
If there's one shortcoming to our training, its not teaching us to distinguish between VFR night and IFR night, or to simply look at the route on our charts and realize, "Gee, this area hear could easily turn into a black hole, I probably shouldn't do this flight, unless I can just do it all IFR".