Jessica Dubroff

Jessica Dubroff
Dubroff, age 7, leaving on her cross-country flight on April 10, 1996
Born	(1988-05-05)May 5, 1988 Falmouth, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	Cheyenne, Wyoming, U.S.
Cause of death	Plane crash
Resting place	Mount Hope Cemetery Pescadero, California, U.S.
Parent(s)	Lloyd Dubroff Lisa Blair Hathaway
Relatives	Joshua Dubroff (brother) Jasmine (sister) Kendall (half-sister)

Jessica Whitney Dubroff (May 5, 1988 – April 11, 1996) was a seven-year-old pilot trainee who died attempting to become the youngest person to fly a light utility aircraft across the United States. Twenty-four hours into her quest, her Cessna 177B Cardinal single engine propeller aircraft, flown by her flight instructor, crashed during a nasty rainstorm immediately after takeoff from Cheyenne Regional Airport in Cheyenne, Wyoming, killing Dubroff, her father, and her flight instructor.

Although billed by the media as a "pilot", Dubroff did not possess a medical certificate or a student pilot certificate, since they require a minimum age of 16, or a pilot certificate which requires a minimum age of 17, according to U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations. There was also no record-keeping body at the time of her trip recognizing any feats by under-age pilots. Nevertheless, local, national, and international news media picked up and publicized her story, and closely followed her "record attempt" until its abrupt ending.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigated the crash and concluded it was caused by the flight instructor's improper decision to take off in poor weather conditions, his overloading the aircraft, and his failure to maintain airspeed, which resulted in a stall. The NTSB also determined that "contributing to the [instructor's] decision to take off was a desire to adhere to an overly ambitious itinerary, in part, because of media commitments."

"Sea to Shining Sea" flight

File:Jessica Dubroff'spre-flight preparations.ogv

This short video shows the 7-year old pilot participating in pre-flight preparations for a single-engine Cessna 177B. The video also shows rain and cloud-cover, the take-off, and the post-crash wreckage in a residential neighborhood.

File:Cessna177BCardinal05.jpg

Cessna 177B Cardinal similar to the accident aircraft.

Dubroff was born in Falmouth, Massachusetts to Lisa Blair Hathaway and Lloyd Dubroff and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in California when she was four. She began taking flight lessons from flight instructor Joe Reid on her sixth birthday, and became enthusiastic about flying. Her father, who was separated from her mother by this time, suggested the idea of a coast-to-coast flight, which Jessica readily accepted, and Reid agreed to provide flight instruction and his aircraft for the endeavor. They decided to name their flight "Sea to Shining Sea"; Lloyd ordered custom-made caps and T-shirts with that logo to distribute as souvenirs during their stops.

Although she had received over 33 hours of flight training, seven-year-old Jessica did not hold an FAA medical certificate, nor any pilot or student certificate. In the U.S., a person must be at least 16 years of age to be eligible for a student pilot certificate, and 17 for a pilot certificate. Since Dubroff was not certified to fly the plane, a rated pilot (normally her flight instructor Reid) had to be at the controls during all flight operations. While the coast-to-coast flight was promoted as a "record" attempt because of Dubroff's young age, there was no known body recognizing record flights by under-age "pilots" at the time of her flight (the Guinness Book of Records had officially discontinued its "youngest pilot" categories seven years earlier, because of the risk of accidents).

File:C152panel.jpg

Dual yoke flight control arrangement, similar to the accident aircraft, in a single engine Cessna.

The flight would be made in Reid's Cessna 177B Cardinal, a four-seat single-engine propeller aircraft manufactured in 1975, registered N35207, which like most aircraft had dual flight controls in the front. Jessica would sit in the front left seat, Reid in the front right, and Lloyd in the back. It was agreed that Reid would be paid for his services at normal flight instruction rates, plus compensation for the layover time. Reid reportedly told his wife that he considered the flight a "non-event for aviation," simply "flying cross country with a 7-year-old sitting next to you and the parents paying for it."

Nevertheless, Jessica became an instant media celebrity. ABC News gave Lloyd a video camera and blank cassettes to tape the flight; once the journey began, it was vigorously followed by supporters, media outlets, and others who monitored its progress, reporting each time Dubroff landed or took off.

Dubroff slept during one of the flight segments en route to Cheyenne, and was assisted by Reid in one of the landings due to high winds.

Final flight segment

Dubroff, her father, and her flight instructor arrived in Cheyenne the evening before the accident, after a long day of flying from their Half Moon Bay, California departure point. They were welcomed in Cheyenne by Mayor Leo Pando. After some media interviews they got a ride to their hotel in the car of a local radio station program director, who recalled them discussing the forecast weather conditions for the next day.

Composite radar image showing precipitation intensity around Cheyenne airport at time of accident; red is most intense.

The weather in the morning of the accident flight, as forecast, consisted of an area of heavy precipitation over and to the north and west of Cheyenne, with better conditions to the east, where the flight was headed. As the group were about to board their aircraft, the program director who had taken them to their hotel the previous evening interviewed Dubroff by telephone. Since it began to rain at the airport and the weather seemed to be deteriorating, the director invited her to stay in Cheyenne, but Dubroff's father declined, explaining that they wanted to "beat the storm" which was approaching.

After a telephone discussion with a Casper weather briefer, Reid decided to take off despite the worsening conditions at the airport, and to try to escape the poor weather by turning immediately eastward. Although he was instrument rated, Reid was not instrument current and could not legally operate under instrument flight rules. He decided to file a visual flight rules (VFR) flight plan, and depart under VFR, to be better able to cope with the heavy weather in his immediate takeoff path and the vicinity of the airport.

As the aircraft began taxiing to the departure runway, it was raining and visibility at the airport fell below the three mile minimum required for VFR flight. Cheyenne's control tower advised the Cessna about the reduced visibility and that the "field is IFR." Reid then requested and received from the control tower a special VFR clearance to allow him to exit the airport's control zone visually, despite the reduced visibility.

Crash

1996 Cessna 177B crash

Dubroff's final flight's path (red) from takeoff to crash (blue circle).
Accident summary
Date	Thursday, April 11, 1996 8:24 a.m. MST
Summary	Deliberate take off because of media commitments Foul weather Pilot error
Site	Cheyenne, Wyoming
Passengers	1
Crew	2
Fatalities	3
Aircraft type	Cessna 177B
Aircraft name	Cardinal
Operator	Joe Reid
Registration	N35207 C/n msn:17702266
Flight origin	Half Moon Bay Airport Half Moon Bay, California
1st stopover	Elko Regional Airport Elko, Nevada
2nd stopover	Rock Springs – Sweetwater County Airport Rock Springs, Wyoming
Last stopover	Cheyenne Regional Airport Cheyenne, Wyoming
Destination	Lincoln Airport Lincoln, Nebraska

At 8:24 a.m. MST, Reid's aircraft began its takeoff from Cheyenne's runway 30 to the northwest, in rain, strong gusty crosswinds and turbulence. According to witnesses, the plane lifted off and climbed slowly, with its nose high and its wings wobbling. It began a gradual right turn, and after reaching an altitude of a few hundred feet, the plane rolled out of its turn, then descended rapidly, crashing at a near-vertical angle into Kornegay Court, a street in a residential neighborhood. Dubroff, her father, and Reid were all killed by blunt force trauma sustained from impact forces. Reid, who was legally the pilot in command for all of Dubroff's flights, was apparently manipulating the controls during this particular flight segment.

Investigation

Planned "Sea to Shining Sea" route map; red shows legs flown; blue circle marks accident site

The National Transportation Safety Board investigated the accident, and published a detailed final report on March 11, 1997. From the official point of view, the pilot in command was flight instructor Reid, who was the only one on board rated to fly the aircraft. The investigation focused on his decision making prior to takeoff and his actions once airborne.

Several experienced pilots who were at the airport at the time of the accident testified that they considered the weather at that time unsuitable for flight, as a thunderstorm seemed to be forming or moving over the field. In addition, investigators determined that the weight of the aircraft during its takeoff roll exceeded its maximum allowable takeoff weight by 96 lbs, which would have increased the stall speed by about two percent. Since the aircraft was flying in moderate to heavy rain, the NTSB calculated that the water flowing on the wings would have further increased the stall speed by about 1.5 percent.

Like most flight instructors giving dual instruction, Reid was seated on the right side, while the aircraft's primary flight instruments were mounted on the left, in front of Dubroff in this case. Investigators speculated that because of the heavy rain in his immediate climb path, Reid's forward visibility became greatly restricted. So to maintain control through the climbing right turn, he would have had to turn his head to the left to see the flight instruments (most critically the attitude and airspeed indicators) and to the right to see the ground through the side window. Such side-to-side head motion, combined with the worsening flight visibility during the climb and the reduced stall margin, could have led to spatial disorientation and loss of control.

Probable cause

The NTSB concluded that the probable cause of the accident was Reid's "improper decision to take off into deteriorating weather conditions (including turbulence, gusty winds, and an advancing thunderstorm and associated precipitation) when the airplane was overweight and when the density altitude was higher than he was accustomed to, resulting in a stall caused by failure to maintain airspeed." The NTSB further determined that "contributing to the pilot in command’s decision to take off was a desire to adhere to an overly ambitious itinerary, in part, because of media commitments."

Aftermath

Child Pilot Safety Act

The accident and its associated publicity led to federal legislation to prevent similar "record" attempts by under-age pilots from taking place in the future. The legislation passed the House on September 11, 1996, and the Senate on September 18, 1996. On September 27, 1996, differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill were resolved. On October 9, 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Federal Aviation Reauthorization Act of 1996, including the Child Pilot Safety Act, into law. The statute prohibits anyone who does not hold at least a private pilot certificate and a current medical certificate from manipulating the controls of an aircraft, if that individual "is attempting to set a record or engage in an aeronautical competition or aeronautical feat."

Since a medical certificate and a private pilot's license have a minimum age requirement of 16 and 17 respectively, the new rule prohibits "child pilots" such as Jessica Dubroff and Vicki Van Meter from manipulating the flight controls if they are pursuing a record, and the pilot in command's pilot certificate may be revoked for allowing such activity.

Media responsibility

Ted Koppel said the media's "ravenous attention" contributed to the tragedy.

After the crash, there were claims that the media frenzy around the "bogus" record attempt contributed to the accident by helping promote the flight and pressuring its schedule. This was supported by the NTSB, which determined that the pressure induced by the intense media attention was a "contributing factor" in the accident. ABC's Ted Koppel reflected on the media's role in the tragedy on Nightline: "We need to begin by acknowledging our own contribution...We feed one another: those of you looking for publicity and those of us looking for stories." Koppel ended by asking "whether we in the media...by our ravenous attention contribute to this phenomenon," and answered: "We did."

Time featured Jessica's portrait on its front cover, in which she is seen wearing a gray cap with the inscription, Women Fly. The headline reads, "Who Killed Jessica?" The child pilot was also featured on the cover of People.

Civil litigation

Lloyd Dubroff, Jessica's father, was Lisa Blair Hathaway's common-law husband when Jessica and her brother were born. In 1990 he separated from Hathaway, and in 1991 he married Melinda Anne Hurst, with whom he had a child in 1992. In December 1992, Hathaway gave birth to Jessica's full sister.

Before his death in the crash, Lloyd Dubroff bought four separate life insurance policies, each for US$750,000. Two of the policies named Hathaway as beneficiary and two named Melinda Dubroff, so that each was to receive $1.5 million in the event of his death. After the crash, Melinda Dubroff sued Hathaway for Hathaway's $1.5 million: Melinda Dubroff's attorney Roy Litherland said in a San Mateo County court that the $1.5 million Hathaway was designated was "in excess of any reasonable level of child support." In December 1996, Lisa Hathaway filed a counter-suit against Melinda Dubroff and Lloyd Dubroff's estate for $1.5 million, the exact amount of money Lloyd Dubroff intended, saying Lloyd Dubroff "gave his word he would care for and support [her] for the rest and remainder of her natural life."

On December 18, 1997, San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Judith Kozloski ruled that the insurance benefits should be split equally between the two women, $1.5 million each, and dismissed the other claims.

Burial

Dubroff was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Pescadero, San Mateo County, California, USA.

See also

• Barrington Irving
• Vicki Van Meter
• List of fatalities from aviation accidents

External links

• Who Killed Jessica? Time Magazine cover
• Jessica's Joy – And Tragedy People Magazine cover
• Jessica Dubroff on Find A Grave
• Mama, do you hear the rain? song by Pam O'Daniel and Jeff Stewart
• Jessica Dubroff website by Dubroff's mother Lisa Blair Hathaway; includes "Hey Jess" song by Ed Truthan
• Jessica's Final Flight Newsweek, April 22, 1996.