My Worst Nightmare

This is pretty much my worst nightmare as a pilot - a crash that takes out the entire family. 

Short version: A plane has crashed in the mountains on the east side of the Phoenix metro area.  Reports are it carried 6 people, including three children.  According to news reports it flew in to pick up the children to take them to a Thanksgiving celebration with dad.

There are far too little facts known at this point to understand what happened to cause the crash.  Local news offers plenty of speculation, I don't feel the need to contribute to the noise.

As the title states, this is my worst nightmare.  Instead of hiding under the covers, we do everything to stack the deck in our favor.  Though I am signed off to fly at night, we plan our trip for daylight hours.  The engine doesn't know it's dark out, but the consequences of an engine failure are much higher at night.  Also terrain is harder to see at night.  Also while I am certified to fly in the clouds and maintain legal IFR currency, we plan our flight for good weather.  "Legal currency" != Proficiency.

Flying for ourselves allows us the flexibility to say "I don't need to fly today.  Weather's bad?  We'll go tomorrow.  Weather's fixin' to turn south, gotta go today!"


Godspeed to the deceased and surviving family members.  You have just realized my worst nightmare.  I cannot fathom your pain of losing the loved ones and now forever associating Thanksgiving with losing your family.

Update:  The family has a site up for the wee ones.  Wish there was more I could do.