If you area a pilot and can't handle GPS dropping out, or the failure of any other single navigation aid, you should not be flying.

Checking NOTAMs is important.

Systems fail for all kinds of reasons, if you're dependent on one SPOF without any backup, bad things will happen eventually. In aviation we're taught to think this way from the very beginning. Always have a spot picked out where you will attempt to land the airplane when (not if!) you lose your engine.

Even in the absence of GPS jamming, you can effectively lose GPS for all kinds of reasons in a plane--a connector failing somewhere on the back of your panel, a wire chafing through, etc. GPS is nice, but it's probably a lot less reliable in most light aircraft than the other options.

It's been 20yr since I've flown a plane, so maybe attitudes have changed, but my instructors always stressed the importance of always being able to fall back quickly and seamlessly to a paper chart, your watch, flight computer, and basic instruments. Because you will lose everything else at some point.

HN threads on aviation are always a bit goofy to anyone who's actually flown a plane, yeah.

It's pretty clear they're laying out that this is pilot error, unlike the article's intent to blame parties other than the pilot. The poster is trying to correct that, from an obvious place of knowledge and experience most of us do not have, and isn't being rude about it either.

It's important to understand why things happen in order to prevent them, and to counter the narrative of the opinionated article. And if we should wait for the NTSB report, then so should the article.

> Wait for the NTSB report before replying, essentially "get gud"

The preliminary NTSB report points toward “get gud”. If you request a visual approach and then fly into a mountain getting “gud” will be at top of the list.

Your post is overly critical, dismissive and rude.

Pilots complaining about automation: several

Pilots unable to fly with all the bells and whistles and getting their ass handed to them when anything falls out of the ordinary: too many

What do you expect might change between the preliminary and the final report?

I agree with your perspective re: the tone of the OP. But they hold a perspective that we should also give credence towards.

Your main point is the most valid - wait for the final report. But you should be saying the same to the article as written.

Prelim report: https://data.ntsb.gov/carol-repgen/api/Aviation/ReportMain/G...

Out of my scope to infer.

Maybe you are just aren't aware that military GPS jamming is extremely routine around the US. It affects airplanes more than cars because the curvature of the earth can not help you and at typical flight altitudes you have easy line of sight to the jammer.

The pilot is literally the one who holds most of the blame here.

This is a pilot-error accident. They flew a perfectly functioning airplane into rising terrain on a visual approach.

The pilot requested, and was cleared for, a visual approach. Among other things that that imposes upon on the pilot is an obligation to maintain visual contact with the airport (or the preceding aircraft to follow, not applicable here) and to maintain terrain and obstacle clearance.

The primary probable cause will be found to be something like "The pilot’s failure to maintain clearance from terrain while on visual approach." with additional notes of "Contributing to the accident were the dark moonless night, the NOTAM'd unreliability of GPS signal in the area which required the crew to revert to other navigation methods, and the pilot's decision to fly an unaided visual approach rather than flying the ILS instrument approach track."

The passengers were blameless, but the flight crew was not.

You're not sure? It's pretty clear they're laying out that this is pilot error, unlike the article's intent to blame parties other than the pilot. The poster is trying to correct that, from an obvious place of knowledge and experience most of us do not have, and isn't being rude about it either.

It's important to understand why things happen in order to prevent them.

The Darwin Awards site[0] is full of "victims" that were 100% responsible for their own deaths.

> If any of yer ancestor's last words were "Hey, ya'll! Look at this!", then you jest might be a redneck.

- Jeff Foxworthy

[0] https://darwinawards.com

Is it not possible for a victim of something to carry some blame for the situation they're in?

Is it inappropriate to discuss why Mussolini got lynched?

Flying with GPS out is something a pilot should know how to do. Jamming isn't the only failure mode; much more mundane mechanical/electrical issues occur all the time.