Which Do You Prefer: Dinner or DEATH!!!?

But in all seriousness, this story made me very sad. I don't understand why the crew didn't decide to go around when the ground proximity warning system went off, and I wish the controller had let the crew know they didn't appear to be lined up with the runway. Obviously, "the boss" had a big role to play in this accident. If he was so concerned about getting to dinner, why was he late to the airport? When I read about him I thought about the "we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone" policy many businesses uphold. The pilot should have disregarded the passengers and focused on his job. The grumpiness of the passengers has nothing to do with his goal: to get to the destination safetly.  However, after making the decision to fly the passengers to Aspen, the pilot for some reason allowed one of the passengers to sit up front in the cockpit during the approach, when they knew the approach was a difficult one in good weather. Add this distraction to the deteriorating weather, the setting sun, and the fact that the three aircraft prior has executed a missed approach, and the disaster starts to make sense. The pilot really needed to focus on the job at hand but he failed to do so, despite the multiple warnings being shouted at him. In the end, the pilot really should have made the decision to divert to Rifle, even as late as reaching the MDA. I feel if I were in this situation, it would be important to distance myself from the grumpy passenger, perhaps refer him to the flight attendant or someone else who is not directly in control of the safety of the flight. There is a reason they don't let family members in the operating room with doctors and it feels just as important to keep passengers away from pilots.

Electrical Fires! Oh no!

So I know at least I have, on several occasions, smelled something funny in the cockpit and panicked over the possibility of an electrical fire. Upon reading the "Electrical Fires Safety Brief" I feel like  part of me is a little less concerned about electrical fires. Before reading the article I thought electrical fires happened all the time and we always had to be on our toes about them, now I realizes they are very rare. As far as I understand, and I may be wrong, electrical fires occur due to short circuits, or basically arcing of current where it should not be. The electrical current flows in a circular pattern, from the battery to the switch, through the wiring, and to the electrical components, then right back to the battery. A short circuit messes with this happy flow and will cause a fire.  However, circuit breakers are designed to keep this from happening and apparently they are pretty darned effective.  Still, it doesn't hurt to be prepared. The Piper Seminole emergency procedures instruct us to turn off battery master and alternator before everything else, but otherwise it compares pretty closely to the procedures dictated in the safety brief.  Of course, in all situations, no matter what, it is most important to fly the airplane first, and I do think it is appropriate to fly the airplane first as the safety briefing states, especially if you are within, say one thousand feet of the ground and spending time concentrating on checklists could interfere with your ability to not crash the airplane into the ground.  I think it's most important to be able to utilize any resources you have in this sort of situation, particularly any other people in the airplane who could run check lists while you fly the plane. But if I was on a solo flight and got caught up in an electrical flaming mess, I would shut off all the electrical components as quickly as I could and then concentrate on getting the airplane onto the ground.  I would only worry about checklists if it seemed like I had plenty of extra time to go through them.