A Cessna Citation crash in March that killed all aboard appears to be the result of bad pilot decision making. Responding to the interest of numerous listeners, John Goglia and Todd Curtis dig into what happened.
The pilot was completing a cross-country flight in the early morning hours of March 22, 2025. He took off after 11 pm the previous night in Teterboro, NJ, and crashed hours later in San Diego.
John and Todd explore the questionable decision-making by the pilot. Near the end of the flight, the pilot decided to continue with his landing despite the weather information indicating conditions were below the minimums for his approach.
The series of events falls into the Swiss cheese model - many safety factors were ignored, adding up to a tragic result. Risky choices include planning take off late at night and planned arrival before dawn at an airport that had no local weather observations available. Plus, the forecast implied that the visibility at the destination would likely be below the minimums for the chosen approach.
This accident was not caused by technological failures or unexpected weather hazards. Pilot decisions led to this plane crash.
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