That's why it took the FAA several days to pin down the flight path of JFK Jr.'s plane toward Martha's Vineyard and its final, horrible dive toward disaster. The group conducts more than 200 safety seminars each year and publishes a magazine, AOPA Pilot, with useful safety tips. The July cover story, ironically, was about the Piper Saratoga plane that JFK Jr. was piloting. For several decades, aviation experts have worried that the political clout of private pilots might impede efforts to bring more order and safety to our crowded airways. Those fears were heightened by a 1986 crash of a private plane and a Mexican airliner over Los Angeles.
Experts say the situation is better today.
Fewer private planes use the big airports, and the ones that do now have equipment that allows controllers to follow them, creating less congestion and less risk of fatal mishaps. The thorniest issue, over the years, has been who should pay the cost of maintaining the airways. Critics complain that the private pilots, although wealthy enough to buy their airplanes, are getting what amounts to a nearly free ride. Private pilots like to evoke the romance and adventure of flying. But it's worth remembering that some private planes are corporate jets, with a standard of luxury well beyond first class.