Pilot charged in Norman Wells death

[Doc]

I keep thinking of the buzz job in CATCH 22

[-=S=-]

.

[The Old Fogducker]

I keep thinking of the buzz job in CATCH 22

Yup ... that was quite a scene from the show wasn't it? On the raft one second .. a lower torso crumbling into the water the next ... pretty dramatic.

OFD

[square]

Really tragic stuff.. Hard to say if I or lots of friends of mine have crossed that line too. It'd be an awful shame that this young fellow has to go to jail for this, but at the same time how do you hit a guy with the wing of a 207? You can almost walk underneath it without ducking.. it's going way too far. But when people understand there are really awful consequences for mistakes, they might stop taking the chances.

[Donald]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/sto ... uilty.html

Pilot pleads guilty to dangerous flying in film-shoot death

A pilot pleaded guilty in a Regina courtroom Thursday in connection with the death of man who was struck by the wing of plane at the Fort Good Hope, N.W.T., airport in May 2010.

William Bleach, 26, a pilot for North-Wright Airways, was standing on the airport tarmac taking pictures when he was struck in the head by the wing of a low-flying Cessna 207. He was taken to the Fort Good Hope health centre and then medevaced to Edmonton, where he died three days later.

His fellow pilot Parker James Butterfield of Saskatchewan was charged with criminal negligence causing death and dangerous operation of an aircraft.

He pleaded guilty Thursday to the lesser charge of dangerous operation of an aircraft.The victim’s mother, Marilyn Bleach, said her family would like to see him spend some time in jail.

“It's very difficult for us because we don't like to see a young person sent to jail, but we also feel he needs to have time to think about what he's done, and think about his actions and the repercussions of his actions.”

Butterfield will be sentenced Dec. 14 in Regina. The maximum penalty he could face is 14 years in prison.

[ahramin]

The victim’s mother, Marilyn Bleach, said her family would like to see him spend some time in jail.

“It's very difficult for us because we don't like to see a young person sent to jail, but we also feel he needs to have time to think about what he's done, and think about his actions and the repercussions of his actions.”

So sad that people can't see past the end of their noses. Her son was a willing participant and could easily have been the one at the controls and facing jail time, and then she'd be crying for leniency.

[Canoehead]

(With respect to the Bleach family)...

I'm sure Mr. Butterfield will think about what he has done every day, for the rest of his life.
Jail time not required.

That space should be reserved for scum like this: http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/2011/ ... 10566.html
Unfortunately this p#$@k will get nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

[again]

Of course, my condolences to the family.

However, this man should not spend time in jail.
He made a grave mistake, and he will no doubt regret it for the rest of his life.
Let Mr. Bleach and the rest of the aviation community learn from this mistake, and move on.
(Anyone who claims not to have made some "stupid" moves like this in an airplane is a liar. The rest of us got away with it.)

He should pay, but not in jail.

[The Old Fogducker]

With due respect "again" .... what makes this any different than any other negligence causing death? Is it that the instrument of bludgening was an aircraft, and we are all "gentlemen of the air" like the old Knights of The Round Table?

Would things be any different than if he was driving a car and opened the driver's side door on the way by and hit him with that?

The fact that he will feel bad about it for a long time is just insufficient. If you had been sitting in the court room waiting for the outcome of the proceeding because your brother had been struck down through the act of another, you are there expecting to see some form of output from the justice system, and rightfully so.

Had the Judge merely said, "I find him guilty of the act, however, he'll feel badly about it for a long time, and that's good enough for me," you would be rightly incensed at that sanction, and no message of deterrence is sent to others who may contemplate doing something similar in the next few years.

Its entirely possible that Mr. Butterfield is truly "one of the good guys" that was just a foot too low a second too soon. However, to allow him to "walk" without ramification except ..... "he'll feel bad" is not enough punishment in my never to be humble opinion.

Don't forget one the roles of judicial action is to punish wrong-doing.

The Old Fogducker

[jpilot77]

I am on the fence about this one, the dead man was a willing participant. It wasn't like he was walking down a street and a plane came out of nowhere and hit him.

[mbav8r]

An error in judgement was made during a fairly common occurrence in the aviation industry.
I was a willing participant holding the camera and firmly believe if I had not dropped to the ground, I would have been struck also. I was not even mad at the guy, he pushed the envelope a little farther than planned and who can tell 7' from 5' at 120 mph. After my heart beat returned to normal we laughed about it.
If someone was driving a personal water craft and had their buddy filming him come up and turn away creating a big wave of water and he misjudged where to start the turn and hit him. Should he go to jail? There are alot of adrenelin sports that could cause death to other willing participants. This was a tragic accident cause by a lapse in judgement and error in handling.
Also I likely didn't get hit because I had the presence of mind to not be looking through the viewfinder, but actually looking at the piece of high speed metal charging towards me.

[g.wife]

It is amazing how many think they know the facts of this accident. There is no apparent indication that Bleach was looking through a viewfinder as he was hit from behind, on the apron of the airport. It is disputed whether he even was filming anything as he had just returned from a flight himself. More information should come out at sentencing. Lets just wait and find out, before saying Bleach was a willing participant.
This whole tragedy has changed many lives and for the Bleach family no amount of punishment for Butterfield is going to be justice, as it does not return to them a very loved, wonderful young man living his dreams, with a full future ahead of him.
The best the Bleach family can hope for is a punishment that is consistent with other reckless, dangerous, criminal acts that results in the death of a loved one. Anything more is excessive punishment for an other wise fine young man, and anything less is to undervalue the life of another fine young man

[KAG]

I'm usually pretty unsympothic about the taking of a human life and getting the book thrown at them. But, in this case it is different. The person killed was as mentioned above, was a willing participant. And as such knew of the potential consequences. Sadly this is something that many on here have done (something stupid) but fate frowned on them - they didn't get away with it. The fellow responsible will spend his entire life reliving this event, no jail time will teach him anything he doesnt already know.
Neither went out with intent to cause harm, sadly it happened and that truely is the tragedy. This was an accident. The best outcome is if this tragedy comes to mind and prevents future young pilots from repeating it.

Fly safe all

[Doc]

We live in a society where we are under the impression that punishment equals revenge. No amount of jail time will bring back the dead. We refer to our penal system as "The Department of Corrections". What a phuquen joke? "Corrections"? Give me a break. Incarceration solves nothing and should be reserved for persons deemed to be a danger/threat to society. This pilot is NO threat to society. He acted with mega-stupidity, no doubt about it, but is locking him in a cage anything but an act of revenge? I think not.

[trey kule]

To me, jail time is not about revenge. It is about passing on the message to others that if you are going to
break the law, there can be consequences other than feeling bad. If things had gone as planned it would have been beer and video macho flying -ace night watching it. Encouraging others to try the same stupid stunt.
The victim was a willing participant alright. And he paid for it with his life.
We really need the message to get out to these young macho invulnerable pilots, that if you do something illegal (it was that), and dangerous, there are consequences other than just feeling badly about it.

A bit of time in jail, a criminal record and its consequences, and then give him back his pilot's license.
I am confident you will see a very future safe pilot, who will spread the message for years to all he flys with.

[ilovelamp]

with all due respect to all involved.. It seems like the family wants him locked up only out of spite. Nothing good will come out of his incarceration.. he will come out a worse man, it will cost the tax payers a lot of money, it will not bring back the deceased and I personally will not feel safer if he serves time, Im sure most would agree to this.

His punishment would be better served in community service.

My 2 cents

[godsrcrazy]

I say let the law run its course. There in no doubt in my mind when Mr. Butterfield climbed in his aircraft that day he did so without any intention of hurting or killing someone else. The Fact is he did kill someone else.

There is no difference between this and some street racer that loses control and takes out a willing spectator. Or someone that gets behind the wheel after having a few to many and killing all the willing passengers in the vehicle. The list is long of people that have been put in Jail for the death of others that were killed without intent to do so. Why should this guy be treated any different?

[The Old Fogducker]

Well said godscrazy.

Folks who think "feeling bad for a long time" should be good enough haven't spent much time around the concepts of the legal system.

There may be mitigating factors which will be considered when determining a sanction such as lack of intent, conspicuous deep remorse, liklihood of reoffending, potential culpability of the victim, misadventure, contributory negligence, wanton disregard, recklessness, etc but the outcome is the same .... the actions of one person was the direct cause of another's death, therefore the concept of negligence causing death comes under review.

If certain factual gateway criteria are met as a result of an appropriately conducted investigation, the file is handed over to the Crown Prosecutor to determine further action. In this series of events, it was decided to proceed with prosecution. It was mutually agreed by the prosecutor and alleged offender trial before a Judge alone vs Judge and jury would be an appropriate method of fact resolution.

During that proceeding, the defendant decided to plead guilty based upon advice of his legal counsel. This is likely to result in a lesser sentence than if he had persisted in proclaiming himself to be not guilty, and later having the weight and quality of the evidence convince the adjudicator of his guilt beyond reasonable doubt. Note the criteria is not "beyond all doubt."

Therefore, the precedents from the hundreds or thosands of smilar cases come into play and are respected by the Judge. Doing so does not mean "having the book thrown at him" or being unduly harshly persecuted by an overzealous prosecutor.

As much as I may wish some of the posters were on the jury should I ever be charged with a serious crime .... that way I could do lots of crying during the proceeding and touch your heart resulting in a potential "not guilty" finding.

The sanction is yet to be issued in this matter. That takes place December 14, and as my learned colleagues used to say .... "I will watch this matter with considerable interest."

The Old Fogducker

[KAG]

Well fod committing a serious crime and haveing an accident are two very different things. You most likely wouldnt want me on a jury as I'm for the death penality is certain cases.
I guess myself and others on here can relate to what happened as many of our peers have done stupid illegal shit with planes and got away with it. Doesn't make it right, but there wasn't intent to do harm. And I fail to see how locking a good functioning member of society up is going to do any good.
Now get buddy to go to schools and retell his story to high schoolers about messing around in vehicles and the potential consequences. That may have a better impact (positive) then jail time.

[ilovelamp]

old fog ducker, I am not willing to use my tax payer money to incarcerate this individual (as I believe it is unnecesary).. if he is in fact given jail time will you please volunteer a significant portion of the money it will cost to keep him in there?

[Sulako]

That space should be reserved for scum like this: http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/2011/ ... 10566.html
Unfortunately this p#$@k will get nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

As far as the scumbag, it looks like the crown is going for dangerous offender status, meaning he will remain in jail forever. Good thing - reading that makes my blood boil.

Now back to the thread...

[trey kule]

Well fod committing a serious crime and haveing an accident are two very different things

.

Yep, they are. And this fellow was committing a criminal act...The accident part occured as a result of his committing that criminal act.
Pilots...all pilots, need to understand that when you are doing a buzz job you are committing a criminal act...

I really have a hard time thinking that feeling bad is suitable punishment to get the message across to other pilots not to commit such acts.....just read the posts here and you get the impression this type of behavior is a OK....even if someone gets killed.

[Doc]

This certainly was NO accident. It wasn't exactly "on purpose" either. Somewhere in the middle? CFIP? Controlled flight into person?

[cdnpilot77]

Talking about it or listening to someone talk about their feelings brought from killing someone is not a deterrent because unless you have killed someone yourself, you can't relate. Watching and witnessing someones life get f'ed up, spending time in jail, losing their license, unemployability etc etc, because they consciously did something wreckless and stupid now thats what people will think about and deter them from doing it. Of course there are always going to be some bad apples that think they are immune to the rules that apply to the rest of us and they will get theirs in due time. I just hope its not me, my family, any of my friends, or any other innocent people that they harm in doing so.

People say mr. Bleach was a willing participant? I dont think he was willing to give his life for a good photo. I attended Williams funeral in Guelph and I hope I never have to be at another one for such an unreasonable event.

[dash2/3]

When applying a sentence to a criminal act, the judge/jury has to decide:

a) is the sentence going to protect society from the offender?

OR

b) is the sentence going to deter society from comitting the same/similiar crime?

This was told to me be a crown attorney just the other day when i was informed the person who committed a crime against me, had decided to plead guilty, and i wanted to know what his possible sentence would be.

I believe choice (b) will be the obvious one, and case law will determine the type/length of sentencing.