Loco...to fly safely, anything....ya gotta have a brain...to fly a helicopter, or ride on one....yer balls gotta exceed yer brains...to do, what that pilot did? Was exceptional. to put this face on it ( )...is not.
Been there, the doctors removed my shirt with scissors, 24 hours after the crash, now I have 6 teeth capped, a bridge, a metal plate on my skull, a repaired lower back, two torn ACL's, two dislocated ankles and scars all over the place.
The Andes are a harsh place to lose an engine when you are flying a single engine..
I can still work the plane perfectly, when I got to the US I got to convalidate only the Private pilot, so I had to get the commercial pilot license, Multi engine, instruments, etc again, also got my CFI. Now the big issue is that renting planes has gone from 40 buck an hour to more than 140 since 9/11, and I make the towel heads directly responsible for damaging my favorite sport.