“Pilot in Command” a Title Not to be Taken Lightly

On May 11, 2005, one man’s weak piloting skills and irresponsibility led to an incident that probably affected every pilot in the country. Hayden Schaeffer was the pilot of a Cessna 150 that violated the Restricted Area around Washington D.C., causing mass evacuations in government buildings. Military aircraft, both helicopters and F-16s, intercepted him, and SAM batteries were within a minute of shooting him down. He’s a very lucky guy that they didn’t.

This isn’t the first time an errant private pilot has violated the DC airspace, but Schaeffer’s proximity to the Mall area, his initial lack of responsiveness to the escort aircraft, and his erratic flight path prior to being intercepted all led to the extreme response from law enforcement personnel.

He was, very simply, lost. But “lost” doesn’t cut it as an excuse when you’re navigating an airplane in and around the Washington DC area. It’s one of a few places in the world where you simply can’t ever lose your situational awareness. We as pilots should all know that by now, but apparently some people never internalized the idea. Now, General Aviation is once again under scrutiny from lawmakers, the media and the public.

It happened again on July 2nd. Another GA aircraft violated the DC airspace, and our politicians were sent running for cover. Folks, it’s a really bad idea to repeatedly make our lawmakers run for cover. They are apt to decide they’ve had enough of small airplanes, and ground us all. There’s enough innocent misunderstanding and sheer ignorance of aviation in the world already, without news reporters broadcasting sensational reports about another small plane causing problems.

Y’all be smart out there.