Instructor!

March 4th, 2023| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

Several months ago, a flight instructor and his co-pilot were flying a four-person Piper PA-28. The latter had asked the former to accompany him for safety reasons during windy conditions.

Prior to takeoff, the pair chatted normally while the pilot taxied the craft out to the runway. He said that the instructor’s last words were:

Looks good, there is nothing behind you.”

Yup, last words!

The instructor died inflight after suffering a cardiac arrest and slumped on to the shoulder of his fellow pilot who thought he was fooling around. According to a newly published safety report on the incident, from UK’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), the pilot thought the instructor was pretending to be asleep as the pair flew a circuit above near Blackpool Airport in Lancashire, England.

Shortly after takeoff, the instructor’s head rolled back. As the two pilots knew each other well, the co-pilot thought his companion was “just pretending to take a nap” while he completed the circuit, the report said. When the plane turned around, the instructor slumped over so that his head rested on the co-pilot’s shoulder, but again the pilot still thought a joke was being played on him. That’s how the plane was landed.

After landing safely with the instructor still resting on his shoulder and not responding, the pilot realized something was wrong and alerted airport emergency services who were unable to revive the instructor.

The AAIB reported:

People who had spoken to him on the morning of the incident said he was his normal cheerful self and there were no indications that he was feeling unwell. The three people who had flown with him for the trial lesson just prior to the incident flight said he seemed well and nothing abnormal had occurred.”

The medical department of the UK Civil Aviation Authority reviewed the incident and the instructor’s medical history and concluded:

From the evidence provided, it is likely the individual suffered a cardiac arrest as the aircraft took off.”

Of course, the other pilot was not a student and was fully capable of flying the aircraft on his own, but still ….

I suggest we get ourselves an instructor who is eternal. There is One!

Your paths, Yahweh, make me know;
Your ways, teach me.
Guide me in the path of Your truth
and teach me, for You are the God of my deliverance;
on You I hope all the day.
Psalm 25:4–5

Only God!

Good and upright is Yahweh;
therefore He instructs sinners in the path.
He guides the path of the humble in ordinances,
and He teaches the humble His path.
All the ways of Yahweh are lovingkindness and truth
to those who preserve His covenant and His testimonies.
Psalm 25:8–10

Keeping the ways of Yahweh will result in the experience of divine lovingkindness and truth.

Who, then, is the one who fears Yahweh?
He instructs him in the path he should choose.
Psalm 25:12

Earlier we saw that God “instructs” sinners “in the path” (25:8); now it is the God-fearer whom God “instructs … in the path” (25:12). The sinner has become the God-fearer willing to follow divine demand.

His soul remains in goodness,
and his descendants possess the land.
The counsel of Yahweh is for those who fear Him,
and His covenant He makes them know.
Psalm 25:13–14

The result is “goodness” becomes the state of the one obeying God, with long-term stability guaranteed for generations (25:13). He had earlier beseeched Yahweh to “make me know” his paths (25:4); now in 25:14 he declares that God “makes them [God-fearers] know” his covenant.

And he will! The Perfect Instructor!

SOURCES: CNN