Man Escapes Death at Yellowstone By Turning Down a Chance of a Lifetime

An associate / colleague / friend of an alternative science channel on YouTube turned down a trip of a lifetime, a flight over Yellowstone park.  In turning down this chance of a lifetime the individual saved his own life. Tragically killed in the incident were the pilot and a female friend. However, there is more to be learned from this sad story.

When the sun emits coronal hole streams they can certainly affect small aircraft by blowing fuses that are not insulated or damage an uninsulated aircraft computer.  This means that flying during a coronal hole stream could potentially be fatal. The plane crash referenced in this story is still being investigated however, it may have been due to a coronal hole stream.

The reason this incident is being connected to the sun, in an important discussion, is because there does seem to be some evidence supporting a causation: First it is a well known fact that airports have trained their emergency personnel that the sun can blow simple fuses on smaller non-insulated aircrafts. In the last 5 years hundreds if not thousands of small plane incidences have occurred involving fuses that affected instruments and gauges. On the day in question in an “experimental” aircraft the deceased pilot may have lost his air-speed gauge at the most important moment of a takeoff. Newer planes use fewer wires and rely upon digital computer aided systems which can be very fragile to electromagnetic pulses.

So what we can learn from the tragic event, described in the link below, could save lives in the future by simply monitoring space weather and timing your flights accordingly. Most importantly of all, as mentioned in the video, insulating your sensitive electronics does not necessarily add too much weight and can be the difference between a landing gear failure (pin) or not. One thing we all can agree on losing an air-speed gauge on takeoff cannot be good.

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