It is fairly sad, but you could easily tell where this incident was going from the comments the pilot's family made the day after the crash. And the aircraft owner is a local businessman with, "by definition", deep pockets and very sue-able.

The actual circumstances behind this crash are clear and understandable, but this drama is going to end up being played out in the courtroom.

--Bill

And as usual it'll be the lawyers who make a massive profit out of other's misdeeds.

What I wonder is, how could the boy not understand how incredibly stupid his actions were. Isn't it typical to do some hood work in the pre-solo training?

Having done the usual hood work for my PPSEL, and having subsequently commuted to work for a dozen years with an instrument-qualified friend in his Cessna 206, I know exactly what it is like to climb straight into clouds in the dark. One moment there is the familiar lights of the airport environment, and the next there is nothing but the glow of the nav lights and the dim cone of the landing lights.

And soon after there is the feel of the inner ear tumbling. With practice, you take it in stride. The instruments are right, the inner ear is wrong. But the first few times, it is almost debilitating. Did this boy never before experience the feel of looking at the instruments and not comprehending how they came to disagree so alarmingly with his sense of balance?

Or maybe did he not understand that he was taking off into IMC? Was he so taken up by the lark of getting both engines started and navigating to the runway that he never looked up at what he was to climb into? Did he think it would be a clear night flight with the twinkle of lights on the ground below to navigate by?

Did the presence of his two friends add that measure of peer pressure that made it impossible to back down once the adventure had been proposed and set in motion? Was there some point where all the knowledge of his meager training, and all his sense of self-preservation was screaming for him to stop, but unthinking and unyielding teenage bravado extended his right hand to advance the throttles?

One possibility is that as the boy spent considerable time at the airport, he may have been invited to sit alongside while a runup was being done for maintenance purposes.

That would give him the knowledge of how to get inside and start the engines.

One day I took one of my sons, then in his early twenties to a glider field. He asked for the keys to the car to get something. Sometime later I went back to the car to see what was happening. He had been trying to start the car, but the key I gave him did not have the fob required by antitheft system:E

His dad was once a teenager;)

My take (and I'm not a full-scale pilot)? The most dangerous time in a career is just after your first solo. Confidence is high from the accomplishment and you think you know more that you actually do. But you can be wrong. Dead wrong. The air is a harsh mistress.

--Bill

Update: NTSB releases probable cause
 

Update: The NTSB recently posted the Probable Cause for this accident on their accident synopsis page:

It appears that the mom's assertion that her son had been given a key to the airplane and permission to use it was, if not false, at least not supported by the preponderance of evidence. From what I can tell, it does not appear that there was ever any civil action against the airplane owner. I was worried that there might have been grounds for an "attractive nuisance" case that would have set an uncomfortable precedent.

The whole thing was a very sad episode, and I hope this report puts it to rest.

Thanks, Bob K.