Jessica Dubroff Killed in Crash

Re “7-Year-Old Flier, Father, Instructor Die in Crash,” April 12:

She wanted her daughter to have “freedom and choice.” Yes, Jessica Dubroff might have had freedom, but did she understand the choice presented to her? It seems that the parents did not either. For what they failed to comprehend is that there are high-risk and low-risk choices. In extolling the glories of breaking a world record to their 7-year-old daughter, her parents failed to see that this was a high-risk decision. Now the family is dealing with tragic consequences.

The true tragedy of this story is that a girl with her pluck and tenacity could have distinguished herself in many ways that carried a far lesser risk. She could have excelled in sports, academics or community service. But now she will be forever placed in our minds as that little girl who was led astray by her parents and died.

S. KANANI FONG

La Habra Heights

* Your April 15 editorial stated, “Her (Jessica Dubroff’s) flight experience amounted to just 35 hours. Yet no rules were broken when she took off on a proposed journey from Half Moon Bay, Calif., to Falmouth, Mass. There should have been.”

As a matter of fact, there were rules broken, but they were broken by the flight instructor, not the student and not the parents.

The flying environment is nothing like driving, and, in an airplane with fully functioning dual controls, it is safe for a competent instructor to teach any sane person or child or even a newspaper editor to fly an airplane. Even if a person may never obtain a license and fly as sole pilot in command, there is no reason to restrict them from safely enjoying the great pleasure of controlling an airplane in flight with a flight instructor.

Obtaining a flight instructor’s certificate is quite demanding, though it obviously does not make one immune to error or accident. The fact is that flight instruction is statistically one of the safest activities in flying. Trying to make a rule to restrict who can fly an airplane under the proper supervision of a flight instructor makes about as much sense as trying to make a rule to restrict newspaper editors to comments about subjects they know something about. Laws and regulations are not the answer to all problems, and they can never be substituted for good judgment.

RICHARD MILLER

Pilot and Flight Instructor

Laguna Hills

* When I was 7, my grandfather took me to the oil fields, placed me on his lap and let me steer his old car around. A few years later, my father gave me a sip of his beer while deep in the mountains in Yosemite. Although my young life was full of memorable events, these are the ones I remember most clearly.

Jessica Dubroff’s ill-fated flight could have left her with one of these very special memories. This was a tragic event and it’s disgusting to see that politicians are trying to capitalize on it by being the first to promote a new bill to ban any further flying by young people.

BRETT BASSETT

Westwood

* Although children reach the age of reason at the age of 7, that doesn’t mean they are competent to do adult tasks. When parents put a 7-year-old in a position of control of something as demanding and dangerous as flying an airplane, even if there are adults as backups, those parents are abdicating their responsibility to the child and to society.

If children want to fly, let them fly in their imaginations. Give them the gift of vision, not sensationalism, so that they can live long enough to have a future and become competent adults.

ANDREA D. HICKS

Granada Hills

* My heart certainly goes out to little Jessica Dubroff and her close friends and family. However, upon reading some comments from her mother I have developed some questions. Lisa Blair Hathaway said, “I did everything so this child could have freedom of choice” when speaking about the decision to let a 7-year-old fly an airplane (April 12). This is from the same mother who schooled her children at home so they would not have to choose different ideas from teachers and friends. From someone who did not let her children watch television so they wouldn’t choose different ideas from media. And someone who insisted her children become vegetarians and not choose what they want to eat.

This does not sound like someone whose first priority is about her child’s right to choose. Personally, as the father of a 7-year-old, I would prefer to take my chances with school and cheeseburgers rather than cross-country flights of fancy.

THOMAS INGHAM