I wouldn't trust McCain's hand on the tiller - hasn't been steady or cool in the past

[Rosa Luxemburg]

McCain has the audacity to say that the nation needs a steady hand on the tiller in the debate last night. Meaning his. Judging from the past he hasn't exactly been steady. His plane crash that he reports was due to pilot error. That seems to have happened more than once.

"I crashed a plane in Corpus Christi Bay one Saturday morning. The engine quit while I was practicing landings...I took a few painkillers and hit the sack to rest my aching back for a few hours....I was out carousing, injured back and all, later that evening.
--John McCain, "Faith of My Fathers."

The official Navy report into the Corpus Christi accident on March 12, 1960, concludes that the AD-6 Skyraider trainer crashed because McCain failed to "maintain an airspeed above the stall speed." It attributed the accident to "the preoccupation of the pilot coupled with a power setting too low to maintain level flight." The single-engine prop plane sank to the bottom of Corpus Christi Bay. McCain was rescued by a helicopter after swimming to the surface.

The Pinocchio Test

McCain's claim that he crashed into Corpus Christi Bay in December 1960 after his "engine quit" is a considerable stretch. U.S. Navy Safety records make clear that the plane crashed because his power setting was too low and he was failing to pay sufficient attention to his landing pattern.


http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/10/m...