Word: munson
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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WHEN BRIAN McCUE QUIT as director of this show, consensus held it would sink. Enter Shipley Munson. Under the guidance of producer Mark Stone, he patched it up, and then steered it to satire, while avoiding hack. His predictable cynicism--"let's poke a little fun at it as we go along"--creeps in here, but on the whole the calisthenics amuse the youngsters without alienating their chaperones...
...which breaks into five pieces, two weighing more than 300 Ibs., over the Chicago suburb of Palatine. Another American 707 sheds the 11-in. by 13-ft. tip of a wing flap over San Francisco Bay. And federal investigators report that basic pilot errors committed by Yankee Catcher Thurman Munson caused his Cessna Citation I jet to crash at Akron-Canton airport on Aug. 2, killing Munson and injuring two passengers...
...Munson accident raised a different kind of question: Is the FAA system for testing private pilots stringent enough? While the report on the accident has not yet been released, federal investigators unofficially cited mistakes by Munson as the probable cause. Munson had let his $1.2 million jet settle below the proper glide path, failed to extend the wing flaps for better lift and control and then, in trying to correct his dangerously low approach, had applied engine power too slowly...
...Munson had received his private-pilot's license on June 11, 1978, and then in 13 months was certified by FAA examiners as qualified to pilot multiengine planes, fly under instrument conditions and handle jets. Insisted FAA Spokesman Fred Farrar: "The implication that somehow Munson got his license and ratings in an indecent hurry just isn't valid. This isn't too fast." As a ballplayer, Munson was able to spend much more time than most other private pilots in learning to fly. He had logged 516 hr. in the air, 303 of them as pilot...
Daniel Graham, the Wichita examiner who certified Munson to fly the Citation, insisted that the Yankee catcher was "fully qualified." Contended FAA's Farrar: "There's no system man can devise that can guarantee that somebody won't make a mistake...