The Buttonville Flying Club COPA Flight 44

I get asked about this all the time...
Any time my “civilian” friends discover that I am a pilot, it is almost a certainty that the conversation will come around to the JFK Jr. accident in July 1999. I finally decided to arm myself with the facts, and found the NTSB report here: 
http://ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief2.asp?ev_id=20001212X19354&ntsbno=NYC99MA178&akey=1
 
This deals with all the facts related to the event, but doesn’t draw specific conclusions, however the summary goes into great detail regarding the nature of spatial disorientation.
One of the items that surprised me was that there was no record of Kennedy calling flight service for a weather briefing on the day of the accident, and he also had not filed a flight plan. Another surprise was that Kennedy was actually about half way through training for an IFR ticket, and that he had already written the IFR exam and scored 76%.
 
This is a really good read and an eye opener for those with fresh night or IFR ratings.