2023-11-16 22:40:27
In poor visibility in the Florida sky, a pilot 21-year-old American had to ask for help from air traffic control to navigate, just moments before crashing and dying.
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The young man even begged air traffic controllers to tell his parents that he loved them.
“I don’t think I can maintain my altitude without going down,” he said on the radio, at the controls of a single-engine Cherokee Piper 180, which he had purchased two weeks earlier.
“How many miles am I from Gainesville?” he pleaded before crashing into the state park.
“I’m losing altitude,” he can be heard saying on the local radio station’s audio recording.
AFP
Then he asked air traffic controllers to deliver a heartbreaking message of love.
He died after crashing in Paynes Prairie Preserve Tuesday afternoon.
AFP
To date, the young pilot killed has not been formally identified.
However, the defunct plane had been purchased two weeks earlier by Adrien James Valentine, 21, from the town of Melrose, Florida, according to the New York Post.
The director of Kissimmee Airport in Florida, Ramon Senorans, assured the media that the plane took off properly, staying clear of clouds and remaining at 1,000 feet in the air.
However, flying by visual references is not safe and should be done using navigation instruments, depending on one’s destination airport.
AFP
Before takeoff, a controller encouraged him to wait because the weather conditions were going to improve. Three minutes later, the pilot started the plane for departure.
The poor visibility came later. It crashed at a speed of approximately 482 kilometers per hour. Rescuers found the wreckage just before sunset Tuesday evening.
The circumstances of the incident remain unknown, and authorities are continuing their investigation.
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