Aspen' Nearly 3 Weeks Picken' Up That Plane Ya'll

Spoilers, really?

So reading this delightful tale of a Band of Bumbrains, many a thought came to my mind.

1. Slap "the boss" in his face.

Actually that's really all that came to my mind initially but really, what a b-word.

Let us list some of the mistakes.

1. The Notam never made it to the tower controllers, kinda important right?
2. The Pilots' decision to even try the approach was illegal.
3. Who lets a passenger sit in the cockpit when you can't find the runway on a sunny day?
4. Excessive sink rate is bad, so is a 49 degree bank with flaps, gear, and spoilers.

You can really go on and on about the mistakes that were made and contributing factors. Obviously the weather contributed as well as the looming darkness. Although the pilots had been there two times previous, this was their first attempt to land at night.

The first thing I would have done was this. I would have walked right up to "the boss" and said, "Sir, I want you to know that because of the time of departure we are now forced to have I cannot garauntee we will get into Aspen. If we don't get there by X time, due to the current weather reports, we will be going on to rifle no questions asked. So if you want to do that we will, or we will just stay here." Some people say the customer is always right, but when it comes to aviation and safety, the customer can stuff it.