Misunderstanding: What We Have Is a Failure to Communicate

Flying

Factuality

Ownership

Misunderstanding: What We Have Is a Failure to Communicate

On a Saturday early in 2023, a Cherokee 140 carrying two friends to a nearby airport for lunch crashed in an open field, killing both men. A witness saw it in a turning dive, trailing smoke. There had been no distress call from the airplane, no indication that anything was wrong. That the engine, retrieved from 3 feet of mud, had been turning at impact was indicated by the chordwise scratches on the propeller blades. Inspection of the engine rev…