It is easy to see how the media get things wrong. Just looking at this thread, we have the suggestion that the flight was funded by the tax payer (where does that come from?) and that the pilot "didn't seem to know that much about his passenger" (??); the reference to a "flight plan to Dover", whereas the news report says that the pilot "planned to fly to Dover". Admittedly the report also says that it was booked as a one hour flight with "air traffic control" - Rochester has a FISO and nothing more!
Will Hung, by the way, is the new official arbiter of whether you have a claim for injury or death which is morally worthy of being allowed to go ahead, or whether you should just keep quiet and suffer.