Everett M. Greene wrote:
The ongoing "discussion" of the LEX accident reminds me
of an incident I experienced many years ago of potential
pilot error. I was a passenger on commercial flight on
a smaller airplane (make and model not recalled but it
was twin-engine turboprop). As we were making the
approach to land, I could see out the windshield and
noticed that we were overshooting the field on final.
Other observations indicated that whoever was doing the
piloting wasn't very good at it in the sense of at least
being lightly experienced. A question I pondered at
the time and since is whether I should have hollered
at the flight crew to correct the descent path or go
around. One doesn't want to panic the other passengers
needlessly but one also doesn't want to quietly be one
the first to arrive at the crash scene either.

Having flown in the back of plenty small Part 121 commuter turboprops
without cabin doors, I must say that it is still very difficult to see
much of anything from the back, let alone how well the aircraft was
lined up on centerline or whether the aircraft was goinjg to land on
the first third of the runway. How did you evaluate the experience
level of the flying pilot? Which pilot was the flying pilot? Are you
qualified to evauate the skill level and adherance to company regs of
other airmen? Are you familiar with the performance of the aircraft in
question? How many hours have you logged in it? Did you have a good
view of the instruments including airspeed vertical speed and angle of
attack? Where you monitoring radio communications to rule out any
unusual instructions from ATC such as speed or side step instructions?


Basically, if you were PIC of an aircraft with a two person crew, what
would you think of some guy shouting unintelligible commands from the
back? Helpful passenger or deranged terrorist? Would you even hear
him over your headsets and noise?

Like others have said, there's a time to be PIC, and a time to be a
pax. As a paying passenger, you place faith in the crew. If you have
concerns, raise them after the flight. Do not distract the crew during
the flight.

Your example was clearly a time to be a pax.

Relating this to the Lexington incident, even if you could tell which
runway they were lining up for, and knew the performance limitations of
the plane in relation to the runway in question, I don't think there
would be any reasonable way to convey this information to the flight
crew in time to be meaningful.

Brad