The news of John F. Kennedy, Jr.’s tragic airplane crash and death brought not only grief to his family but a sense of shock to the entire nation. The very idea of his Piper Saratoga plunging at a rate of 4,700 feet per minute, and 1,100 feet in just 14 seconds, is staggering and horrifying. How could it have happened?
According to the Associated Press, the most likely explanation is pilot error caused by two things: disorientation in the night sky and a lack of experience in a swift new plane. “This wouldn’t be the first time a pilot has lost control of a plane because of spatial disorientation or vertigo,” said Larry Gross, an aviation professor at Purdue University.
Pilots can become disoriented because their inner ear tricks them into thinking they are level when in fact they are turning. At night or in cloudy skies, there are few visual landmarks to reorient the brain. If a pilot is not trained to use flight instruments, as Kennedy wasn’t, he can begin a dive — even a steep one — without realizing it. “Literally, you lose control of the plane and you can’t determine if you’re climbing or descending, turning or flying level,” Gross said. Experts view the inky skies, the dark ocean, the mid-summer haze, and the lack of landmarks as a deadly combination that may have sent Kennedy unknowingly into a descent from which he could not recover.
TO FLY SAFELY, A PILOT MUST TRUST THE PLANE’S INSTRUMENTS, EVEN WHEN THEY TOTALLY CONTRADICT HIS NATURAL INSTINCTS.
If his inner ear says, “You’re level,” but his altimeter says, “You’re going down,” it is the instrument which is right. The same is true in our spiritual life. One is not in a saved relationship with God just because he or she feels a certain way. Subjective emotions can be terribly misleading when they become the basis for faith or action… and the result can be fatal. Joy and confidence are the fruit, not the foundation, of our walk with the Lord. We must not confuse the two.
Our guilding instrument is the Spirit-breathed, living Word of God in Scripture. As the psalmist said, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105; see Jer. 10:23; Prov. 14:12; Isa. 55:8-9).
Check it often. Fly accordingly. Arrive home safely.
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Bellevue church of Christ bulletin, Nashville, TN