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Celebrities And Small Planes: A Tragic Love Affair

October 7, 2009 at 1:48 PM | by egw | 4 Comments

Hey, did you hear Brooke Shields was in a plane crash? Don't worry, no one was hurt, unless you count the SUV the plane rolled into when it landed in southern California last weekend.

Shields was flying to a "private function" in a Cessna 421B with a few others, including Jim Belushi. The private function was at Hearst Castle in San Simeon. Safely landed, the pilot forgot to set the parking brake and the plane rolled into a rental car that was parked a few feet away. (So, maybe not such a great parking spot to pick either.)

We can laugh about this failure of the last mile since no one got hurt. Proponents of non-commercial aviation argue that it's still safer overall than traveling by car and that most small-plane accidents, like Shields', don't end in death. But reading accounts of small-plane accidents is enough to make the most secure flier think about picking up the in-flight safety card. Just in the past week, a Mississippi man was killed when he lost control of his single-engine Ultralight while coming in for a landing, and two Minnesotans were injured when their Piper J-3 lost power after takeoff. Don't forget August's deadly Hudson River crash, for which the widow of the Piper PA-32 pilot is suing the owners of the helicopter that ran into it.

Will the torrid romance between celebrity and small plane ever end? Does there have to be another "Day The Music Died" to ground these carbon-depleting runway-clogging buzzards for good?

Related Stories:
· Brooke Shields and Jim Belushi Unharmed in Airplane Mishap [People]
· Travis Barker Sues Over Small Plane Crash [Jaunted]
· The Search For Fossett: NTSB Investigating Newly Discovered Plane Wreckage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Chris Happel]

4 Comments

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Return to » Celebrities And Small Planes: A Tragic Love Affair

  1. Shane Terpstra

    Jaunted Reader

    Pilot Error

    It's obvious you're not a proponent of General Aviation (GA). Your article hints at the "Love Affair" of the rich and famous yet most (90% or more) of the accidents involving celebrities are pilot error. GA serves a great purpose, even in Hollywood. Let's not dismiss the good GA ACTUALLY does. - Angel flight: Flies the sick, injured and critical to hospitals and care centers around the country - Harrison Ford: One of the biggest and best known proponents of GA AND a major contributor to it. Look what he does for special Olympics, not to mention EAA. - Search & Rescue: I have personal experience here. Next time we have a missing person in the mountains, I'll let the families know that we shouldn't be flying the carbon-depleting runway-clogging buzzards so they'll just have to die. Get your facts straight, do some research on accident causes and read NTSB reports before jumping to conclusions about the REAL dangers to the environment.
    October 8, 2009 at 12:28 PM
    #Permalink

  1. Chuckl

    Jaunted Member

    General Aviation

    It's also pretty obvious that you aren't very observant, either. The nearest airport to San Simeon with airline service is Monterey. That's about 100 miles or two hours of driving. Now, since so many celebrities are drunk, stoned or simply incapable of driving on their own, what other method of transportation would you recommend? The previous writer is correct about all the "other" important stuff general aviation does. Regarding the "carbon-depleting runway-clogging buzzards" statement, you haven't even bothered to read that even some of the greenest world governments don't even consider light aircraft a significant factor of carbon pollution. You find a greater source or carbon is cattle farming and reporters with their heads stuck up their butts! (Maybe celebrities travel in private aircraft so they don't have to be questioned by banal reporters.)
    October 9, 2009 at 5:06 AM
    #Permalink

  1. Chuckl

    Jaunted Member

    Addendum

    Not only are your fact checking skills lacking, so are your photo skills. While it's a nice picture, you have a Cessna 421C at the top of the article. (The "B" model has tip-tanks.)
    October 9, 2009 at 5:11 AM
    #Permalink

  1. Chuckl

    Jaunted Member

    "The Accident"

    Technically, under section 830 of the NTSB rules, this incident is not even considered an accident. Under federal law, an aircraft like the Cessna 421 must have caused more than "damage estimated to cost greater than $25,000.00 to repair." So, no accident!
    October 10, 2009 at 2:41 AM
    #Permalink

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