Collin Pearce

All You Have To Do Is Put 2 & 2 Together: This Is Just The Start The Holes Are Everywhere 1,300 hours in a Learjet 60? That's a light-to-midsize business jet requiring a type rating. Student pilots don't rack up 1,300 hours in Learjets. That's not how civilian flight training works. You build hours in single-engine pistons (Cessna 172, Cirrus SR20), then maybe twins, then you get a type rating for jets. which gives you maybe 10-50 hours in type. Not 1,300. Many Of You Know What I Am Getting At Unless she came from serious money. Learjet 60 operating costs run $2,800-$3,500 per hour. That's $3.6-$4.5 million in jet time alone for a 20-year-old. That's oligarch money. And guess what? Her parents were/are not rich! Her private pilot's license in high school was reportedly funded through a specialized program the School District of Palm Beach County's Aviation Academy rather than private family wealth. A PP-ASEL (Private Pilot, Airplane Single Engine Land) requires a minimum of 40 hours; the national average is ~60–75 hours. At $180/hour, that's $10,800–$13,500, plus $1,500 for instruction, plus $800 for checkrides, medicals, and materials. The academy does not fund type ratings. It does not fund multi-engine ratings. It does not fund Learjet 60 time there is no high school program on earth that puts a teenager in the right seat of a Part 25 business jet. So What Do You Conclude From This? So the moment the story shifts from "she got her private license through a school program" to "she had 1,300 hours in a Learjet 60," the funding narrative has already broken. The academy explains perhaps $15,000 of a figure that, at Learjet rates, would be $3.6–4.5 million. The justification resolves the plausible expense and silently ignores the impossible one. The question to ask is this. "Which specific line item in the Aviation Academy budget pays for multi-engine turbine transition training, and what is the FAA-approved curriculum document that authorizes a minor to receive it?" A student who goes from zero to "co-pilot in a Learjet 60" is looking at $80,000–$120,000 minimum in training, before a single hour of jet operating cost. An Aviation Academy can plausibly cover the first $15–18K. It cannot cover the remaining $65–100K. That gap is either family money, a loan (unlikely for a 21-year-old with no credit history), a cadet program (none place 21-year-olds in Learjet 60 right seats), or fabrication. Another question to ask. "Who paid for the instrument rating, commercial certificate, multi-engine add-on, and SIC type rating and can you produce the 1098-T or loan documents?" The story claims she skipped the entire grind no CFI years, no regional airline, no piston time-building and went straight to 1,300 hours in type by 21. That's not "unusual." That's structurally impossible within the FAA's certification framework, because you cannot log SIC time in a Learjet 60 without an SIC type rating, and you cannot get an SIC type rating without a Commercial certificate and instrument rating, and getting those takes 2–4 years of full-time training after high school. They Have To Justify The "Crash" With Inexperience Why did the family speak before the medical examiner did? I presume the normal sequence is based off standard practice. Medical examiner or coroner confirms identity, notifies next of kin, then public release. Here, statements attributed to family circulated before any NTSB or FAA victim confirmation. Ask when the family was officially notified, by whom, and in what form in person, by phone, by text? A family that speaks to press before official notification either got an unofficial heads-up or was briefed as part of a coordinated release. Both are worth asking about. We Seen These Inconsistencies Before EgyptAir 990 (October 31, 1999) Gameel Al-Batouti The fast-name problem: Within days of the crash, NTSB investigators leaked that the relief first officer had been heard saying a prayer and repeating "I rely on God" before the dive. His name, his religion, and his "motive" were public before the investigation report existed. MH370 (March 8, 2014) Captain Zaharie Shah The fast-name problem. Within two weeks, the captain's name and his home flight simulator were headline news. The Malaysian government officially declared the flight ended in the southern Indian Ocean before a single piece of wreckage was recovered an unprecedented conclusion based on satellite handshake analysis alone. We Will Get Back To This At Another Time