FAA investigating controversial crash video
Private pilot here.  A lot of people have remarked on the lack of a mayday call.  It&#x27;s not clear whether that plane had a radio.  Many aircraft of that type don&#x27;t.<p>That said, I see a lot of smoking guns:<p>1.  He doesn&#x27;t do <i>any</i> of the normal engine-out procedures.  In particular, he does not turn the plane.  He makes no attempt to try to find a safe landing site, which was pretty clearly available on the dry river bed.  The plane he was flying is specifically designed to land in places like that.  Even if he wasn&#x27;t able to land, turning around would have placed him closer to civilization before he bailed out, but he clearly didn&#x27;t even try.<p>2.  His reaction when the engine quits is very heavy on profanities and lamenting the direness of the situation, and completely devoid of troubleshooting or planning the best course of action.  Both of his hands can be seen on the yoke, so he&#x27;s not trimming for best glide, checking the mags, checking the fuel selector.  <i>At best</i> he is a completely incompetent pilot.<p>3.  He is an accomplished skydiver flying a controllable skydiving chute (not an emergency chute).  He could have put that chute down wherever he chose, but instead of landing on clear flat terrain (in the riverbed) he chose to land in the brush on the mountainside.  That was either the most incredibly stupid decision anyone has ever made in an emergency situation, or part of a deliberate plan.  I don&#x27;t see any other possibilities.<p>4.  The fact that he&#x27;s able to get a shot of the plane flying below him also looks mighty hinky.  He spent a lot of time in free-fall.  For the plane to end up underneath him like that would be an incredible coincidence.  Indeed, being able to hike to the crash site is mighty suspicious, even leaving aside the highly questionable decision-making required to even attempt it.<p>[UPDATE]<p>Also this video [1] where he spends a day at an airport trying to scam a free flight off someone by presenting himself as someone who has never had the opportunity to fly despite the fact that he is himself a pilot.  This indicates that it is very much in character for him to try to deceive people for the sake of YT views.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=YWoEv0t5xGc" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=YWoEv0t5xGc</a>