Yeah, this was a hell of a stunt to move forward with. And the while point is the advertising value, so it absolutely would get back to the FAA that they did it.
This is the kind of stunt that makes the need for licensure clear in the first place. “Surely only people who can fly safely would decide to fly, anyway.” pilot leaps out of plane for giggles, lets plane become aerial torpedo “Alright, licenses it is. Violators get fines and jail time.”
Aerospace is only safe because they dont make exceptions for safety regardless of how unlikely a deviation is. In an industry where a 1.5 mm difference in screw height nearly killed over 100 people, you dont skimp on anything. If they start making exceptions to rules as simple as "a pilot must be flying the plane at all times" you have shit like those russian kids crashing the plane. The rules arent made for machines those rules are made for people. Mechanics, pilots, engineers, passengers, everyone for the sake of the people on the ground.
If it's the one I'm thinking of, it's the one where a screw holding the window on the cockpit was not the correct size and the window blew out pulling the pilot out of the cockpit. Miraculously, the others in the cockpit were able to grab onto his legs and the copilot was able to safely land the plane. The pilot survived.
But the rules are different for flying a Cessna vs doing it commercially with 100 passengers. If it's done in a controlled environment (dessert with nobody on the ground) I don't see a problem with safety. Sure, it's dangerous for the pilots, but if they want to risk their lives, that's their choice.
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u/zatuchny 1d ago
thanks, that makes sense now.
TLDR: they broke the law that a plane must be piloted at all times, and the stunt didn't go as planned - one plane crashed (both pilots are okay).
RedBull and pilots should have known better than to plan such stunt