Looking at the club website, it seems likely that the aircraft was a Super-cub (either that or a PA-28 as the articles state that it was a Piper, and the student would have found it hard to jump out of the left seat of a PA-28). I believe the Super-Cub is soloed from the front, so assuming the instructor was in the back I wonder whether the handling would have become interesting?
Anyway, one’s sympathies to all concerned.
WingsWaterAndWheels wrote:
There is a new article on this:
Interestingly, the article mentions ‘recordings of the conversation between the instructor and student’. Wonder if this airplane had some sort of intercom recording device – is that something that’s done during instruction in France ?
I hope nobody tries jumping out of a Socata TB. Fair chance of the door coming off and, allegedly, taking out the vertical stabiliser.
Some more reliable news in this page: https://www.dataero.fr/suicide-passager-avion-a-biscarrosse-la-presse-en-plein-delire/
The person who jumped was just a passenger, not a student pilot. The pilot, also owner of the piper cub PA18 also happens to be an instructor but was not instructing during that flight.
As for recording, the rumor is that the pilot kept the radio opened so that the ATC could record everything happening, but that’s only a rumor.
That makes more sense. Someone doing a PPL is much less likely to want to kill themselves. The two personality profiles don’t correlate. 9/11 was a rare exception.
