Look at the pitch angle the pilot was holding and try to imagine yourself in the cockpit and what the sight picture would look like...This really helped me visualize the whole event. Assuming the pilot was focused on a point further down the runway as he should have been, and not on the threshold, it is easy to see how the pilot could not see the SUV.
Now take into consideration a student pilot returning from a solo-XC (a big deal for a new pilot, knowing he is about to complete a huge part of his training), and knowing his landing is being filmed. You can imagine he was thinking about a bunch of different things at the time, maybe some he shouldn't have been so focused on. The brain can only process so much information before it starts to "ignore" things.
Had the pilot flown a proper approach to land at the proper point on the runway, an 18-wheeler could have been sitting there and he would not have hit it.
re-watching the clip, something doesn't look right about his pitch at that point. it almost looks like he's flaring too high and over that fence, although i could be wrong. with his nose up like that, i can see how he didn't see the suv now. when i watched it at work, i didn't use full screen.
i may be being overly harsh, but i remember my first solo, as i mentioned previously. the only thing on my mind was flying my airplane, and doing it well. i had the same thoughts when i did my first cross country solo. i wanted to do everything right, and was concentrating on flying. not impressing someone, or being filmed, or anything other than not bending that airplane.
You just defined what an accident is quite well.
An accident occurred. There's a chain of events leading up to it and you're discussing that chain. The accident chain...
It sure wasn't a "purpose"
believe it or not, from reading ntsb reports, and following those "accident" chains, is part of what's convinced me that they're not accidents. the pilot was too low. for whatever reason, he was. whatever that reason is/was, is part of the cause, even if it was simply inattention.
the lady in the suv didn't stop. carelessness on her part(if she was familiar with that road). this is part of the cause.
if it were a true accident, something unforeseeable, like a wing falling off of the plane, or a sudden, unforseen brake failure on the part of the suv......those would make it an accident.
but i understand why they call them accidents though.
