Unseen Hand

A plane flies itself into the Atlantic Ocean

Accidents in private aircraft, which last year killed 1,215 people, occur in a variety of ways, but none more bizarre than the one that happened last week when Pilot Lou Benscotter picked up Robert ("Bo") Rein, the new football coach at Louisiana State University, and began to fly from Shreveport to Baton Rouge.

Heading into storms, Benscotter apparently put the twin-engine Cessna 441 into a climb to get over the weather. Later, radar detected the plane flying an erratic course, and the Air Force scrambled jets to investigate. Captain Daniel Zoerb spotted the Cessna off Norfolk, Va., now more than 1,000 miles from Shreveport. It was flying at 41,000 ft., 5,000 ft. above the maximum altitude for which it is certified, and presumably on automatic pilot. Zoerb tried to make contact with the Cessna by radio, but got no answer. He saw the plane go into a steep dive and crash into the Atlantic Ocean. Aviation officials theorize that Rein and Benscotter had passed out from lack of oxygen and that the Cessna had flown itself hundreds of miles before disappearing into the sea.

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