A teen pilot killed along with two friends in an Alabama plane crash had his own key to the aircraft and had flown it many times, his mother said Wednesday, denying authorities' assertion that the plane had been taken without permission.
God love the mother, but I very much doubt the owner gave a student pilot permission to fly his aeroplane in night IMC with two passengers on board.
Even so, the generous owner might have some questions of his own to answer. Does the FAA even issue SPLs for twin-engined aircraft? My understanding is that the U.S. aeroplane SPL is exclusively for single-engined aircraft under 12,500 lb. Once the PPL has been gained, one can then add the twin rating, if one likes. If this is so, why were the keys to the aircraft given to the teenager, if not to enable him to fly the Comanche solo at a time when he was not licenced to do so under any circumstances?
A sad story all round. One doesn't expect a lot of maturity of a seventeen-year-old, but if he was as close to the PPL as is claimed, how could he not have known that the chances of his own and his friends' survival were almost zero?